Viva la Vinyl
In honor of the announcement of the summer Eddie Vedder tour, I thought I would resurface my Eddie Vedder story from last summer’s solo tour.
This would not have happened without the following:
1) Shorty.
2) Josh.
3) Some guy named Vu.
4) Dead cell phone.
5) Live band karaoke.
7:00PM on Sunday, August 24th 2008. I was at my friend Gas Bag’s place for our yearly Fantasy Football draft. We wrapped up the draft just a little past 10:00PM. Afterwards, my buddy Shorty and I walked back to my place. Once we got there we parted ways. Me going straight to my couch and Shorty going straight to a bar for drinks. As I was sitting on my couch cleaning up my DVR, I received a text from Shorty. He texted me the following message; Just heard that Eddie Vedder was at Stanley’s (bar in Old Town). I instantly called him and he confirmed that his text wasn’t a sick joke. The next 2 minutes of our phone call was filled with silence. During that time of silence, I contemplated if I should take the chance (by chance, I mean get off my couch on a Sunday evening at 10:45PM) and go to Stanley’s. I thought about it and got back on the line and said to Shorty, “I’ll pick you up. We’re going to Stanley’s.”. I grab my car keys and the closest PJ vinyl to the couch and leave.
Fast forward, I’m at Stanley’s with Shorty and there’s a long line to get in. A suspiciously long line for a Sunday night at 11:00PM at Stanley’s. Yes, Sunday’s is industry night at Stanley’s and yes, they have live band karaoke. Still, no reason for 30 people to be waiting in line to get inside and hear a drunk guy’s version of Sweet Caroline. So we pretty much took that as a confirmation that Eddie Vedder was inside. I called Josh another buddy of mine that is a PJ fan, to give him a heads up that Ed Ved was at Stanley’s. In the middle of my conversation with Josh my phone dies. I now have no more cell phone access for the rest of the evening.
Shorty and I are still waiting in a line that wasn’t moving. I decided to go up to the doorman and pull my “industry” line and give him my Mad River business card (at the time I still had ownership in the bar).
The door guy apologized and said, “I can’t tonight.”
I asked back, “Why?”.
The door guys said, “I can’t say.”.
I get back in line defeated and realize that this probably wasn’t going to happen. Out of the blue, Shorty recognizes this guy that just came out from Stanley’s to smoke. Shorty goes over and talks to him. Shorty comes over and introduces me to this guy who’s name is Vu.
After talking for a little, Vu says he’ll get us in through the kitchen. We follow him to the kitchen door and as we start walking inside, the door guy comes running at us.
He yelled, “Vu what the f*ck are you doing?! You can’t just pull people in w/out asking!”.
Vu apologized to door guy and asked, “Can I get my friends in?”.
Door guy responds, “No.”
Now I’m even more devastated because not only were we not going in through the kitchen door, we also lost our spot in line.
5 minutes later, Vu comes back and says, “Come on, we’re good to go now.” We go in through the kitchen and straight to the bar. Vu gets us some beers as I was scoping out the scene. Shorty then spotted Ed Ved at a table. I instantly book it through the crowd of people, bobbing and weaving, holding my PJ vinyl. By the time I got to the table, he was gone. I didn’t see him leave and I had no clue where he went. So I decide to wait, thinking he went to the bathroom. 15 minutes go by and still no Eddie and at this point I had lost Shorty. My cell phone was dead. I didn’t know if Josh made it. 15-20 more minutes pass and I’m about to accept the fact that he left for good.
Then out of the blue, I heard Shorty call my name from the front of the bar. I go over to him and he said, “Josh just texted me. Eddie is outside on corner of Sedgwick.” I thanked Shorty, gave him my beer and ran like Usain Bolt, straight out the door.
I went outside. Turned at the corner. I see Josh and then I see Eddie Vedder. My heart is racing at this point. I’ve been a PJ fan for my entire life (well since Ten came out). I’ve been rehearsing what I would say in this moment that was about to occur, a thousand times over in my head throughout the past 15 years. So, I approached Eddie. He saw me coming and stuck his hand out to shake mine. I shook it. Everything I had rehearsed was pretty much out the window at this point and my heart was in my throat. First thing I said was….
TC: “The first time I saw you guys was in 1995 at Soldier Field.”
EV: “Wow, that was a long time ago!”
TC: “I’ve been to almost 40 shows since then, and my favorite concert so far was the fan club show at the Vic last year, prior to Lolla.”
EV: (Smiling and nodding his head.)…
TC: “It would mean the world to me if you could sign my record for me.”
EV: “Absolutely, I would love to.”
TC: (as Eddie is signing) “I just got married in June and my wife and I’s first dance was to Come Back!”
EV: “(still signing) “Really?! What an honor.”
TC: “You know, being completely honest, my #1 idol is Michael Jordan but you are a close 2nd to me. Jordan brought us 6 championships but you brought me a lifetime of great music.”
EV: (proceeds to draw a picture of a wave on the album) “What was your name again?”
TC: “Tom.”
EV: (he signed “For Tom.” after the picture of the wave he drew. See above for picture of signed album)
TC: “I was at your Thursday night show. It was awesome, Hurt was a great cover too!”…
EV: “Yeah, Thursday night was the better show.”
EV: (hands me back my album) “Well, thanks Tom.”
He then took a picture with me, said bye and got in his car and waved.
Ed's on the right.