GIVEAWAY - 'cause my collection is complete- WINNER!!!

[High Fidelity 2000]

Thanks for the chance to enter! Have a blast in Vegas!

I don't know if I have any great stories obtaining a PJ something or other... but my initials are also EV so when the merch with EV on it first started popping up, I thought it was totally cool! I have a friend who went to a show in 2009 and picked up a water bottle and wallet for me in 2009, and I use that wallet every day of my life.

[Damiens]

So I just told a security guard that most likely cage fights in his spare time that he's going to have to fight me if he wants the bottle. This is the story of my wife's big moment, my greatest piece of my PJ collection and how Liz Burns most likely kept me from getting the crap kicked out of me by a Texas security guard.

It was 10/18/2000 in Lubbock, TX and the 10C seating gods had smiled on us and my wife and I found ourselves front row seeing PJ. This was my wife's first show (she always had been more of a Cyndi Lauper /Journey girl over anything from the 90's). The show was fantastic, PJ played an epic set including a nod to Lubbock's own Buddy Holly by playing a cover of his song Everyday.

Ed and Mike closed the show with Ledbetter and that's when everything went insane. Ed says "I need someone to dance with" and next thing I know these two hulking security guards are pulling my wife all Courtney Cox (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129kuDCQtHs) style onto the stage. Jayme flipped. She's already a fairly shy person, dancing on stage with Eddie Vedder in front of 15K pretty much defined insanity. I literally screamed myself hoarse.

So as Mike wails out the solo Ed sits on the speaker with my wife. Gives her a bottle of wine and takes a couple of polaroids with her, giving her one http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/pictures_lubbock.shtml

Jayme takes bows with the band and Ed tells Lubbock to "take care of Jayme!" and everything is great. Until meathead security guard enters the scene. We're freaking out with all our friends when the Schrekesque dude comes up and explains that we can't leave the venue with an open container of alcohol namely the wine Ed gave my wife. We offer to pour it out and dude says he has to confiscate it. I knew the only way he was getting this wine, the crown jewel of my PJ collection, would be out of my cold dead hand, so I hear myself telling this literal human side of beef that he's going to have to fight me if he wants it. Now to be clear I am not a macho guy or a kung fu master, I did theater and glee club in high school for pete's sake. So as I prep myself for what I am sure is going to be a total beat down Liz Burns comes over and diffuses the situation. She offers to mail it to us and then upon learning that we're going to the Albaquerque show two nights later she offers to take it and give it to us there.

The follow through was amazing. Liz had us on the post-show backstage list, she met us backstage and gave us the wine wrapped in an orange shirt with the word "Jamily" on it under the PJ beetle emblem. The amount of follow through for a fan cemented Pearl Jam has the greatest band in the world for me forever.

The bottle now sits on our mantle next to pictures of our two kids, it's a mantle decorated with things worth fighting for.

Thanks for such a cool give away! I too am headed to the Vegas show on the 11th, can't wait!

[Rocky Mountain Oysters]

If this is a random drawing I might have a chance...otherwise I think Damien's has it! Awesome story!

Mine is pretty simple. I was in Italy with some college buddies in 2002 and ran into a guy at the University of Rome that loved Pearl Jam. Long story short, I pulled out my acoustic guitar that I was traveling with and we had a Pearl Jam 'jam' session right in the middle of what was probably the quad. He told me all about the Milan show in 2000 so I went and bought the boot. And he was right...awesome show! Finishing off with Rockin in the Free World is quite a way to end a night.

[starmap3333]

It's pretty simple... I ws gonna buy RVM vinyl from someone and dimi fucked me out of it!! But then, he somehow landed one in my mailbox... for free. Totally awesome gift.

[High Fidelity 2000]

If this is a random drawing I might have a chance...otherwise I think Damien's has it! Awesome story!

No kidding! Might as well just take the rest of us out of the running.

That is a GREAT story, Damien! I was at that concert, but way back up top. I thought that was such a cool moment, wrapped up the night perfectly. I remember the 5H picture too, but don't think I ever heard the story of the wine bottle.
That was back when 10C tix were just one pair per tour, and since that was not a huge "popular" show, I think almost everyone there had either 1st or 2nd row, at least based on the 3 people I knew who were at that show with Ten Club tickets. Did you happen to meet a redheaded girl named Kameron at that concert? I always wonder what happened to her.
Cool you went to ABQ too! That was MY front row show.

[BrainOfMA]

Not really the greatest but today i went to my local record shop and found a still sealed State College 03 boot. thought it was pretty cool since i've never seen any boots in my record shop! Thanks for the chance!

[porchjeremy]

I always thought the the WMA shirt was badass, tried to get one for a long time. Finally got one, and will NEVER tell my wife how much it cost me

Thanks for the chance! Have fun in Vegas!

[juddboz80]

great giveaway....and congrats on your collection!
recently i got an offer for a whole lot of vinyl, i had just started collecting vinyl.....i told my woman i wanted to buy this...she told me theres no way i could buy this.....so i got into the copper stash id been saving for awile... started stripping all this at 5 pm on a thurs nite, finished at midnight, i woke up the next day and my hands were so sore and cut up, i took my copper in got the $900 that i needed, sent payment and a week later i recieved some awesome albums!!!! my woman is still mad at me for it and every time i wanna buy another album she throws this in my face that i spent so much!!! but it was totally worth every bit of it and id do it again in a heart beat....only thing left for studio albums i have left is rvm and a benny and all box sets (which is coming)....except all singles! but congrats on your collection, youll enjoy it forever!!!!!!!!!!

[The Nothingman]

Stone is the quiet one, he looks like a bassist actually, dark and quiet... always so serious and introspective. But he always captivated me; I think he's that type of person that wants everything perfect, with no mistakes... and that's why he just stand on his side of the stage and play the songs that we all love. My story is simple and yet amazing; it was in 2005, the first time Pearl Jam came to South America... what an amazing tour... It was my first PJ concert and Mike was starting to play the always amazing Yellow Ledbetter to close a perfect show, and I was astonished, frozen, with a few tears in my face... But the most incredible thing was about to happen:

At the end of Yeloow Ledbetter, Stone looks at me and points his finger in my direction, he aims his guitar pick and throws it; the distance between me and him was about 6, 7 meters.. It was dark and I could not visualize the pick, so I just raise my hands in the air and clap them, without any hope of getting anything but air. When I looked at my left hand I saw it: a beautiful orange pick with the name "Stone" written... a fresh pick recently played by my favorite guitarist, from my favorite rock band.

That's my story, the aquisition from Pearl jam that I will always remember, no benny or a rare poster can be compared to what I have, especially under the circunstances that everything happened...

[topaz]

2009 was a pretty tough year for me, long story short, I was pregnant and single and scared, so it was a huge thing for me that PJ were coming back to NZ after 11 years. Yes, you read that correct, it was 11 years between concerts for us! Even though I was broke, I decided to save as much as I could and go to both concerts (Auckland and Christchurch) as a reward for myself to look back on in the though times I knew were ahead...

So I saved saved saved every penny I had, scraped the barrel, bought my two tickets and air fares to ch ch. When that AMAZING weekend rolled around I was 6 months pregnant - just enough to have a nice circle of space around me in the front of the crowd! Thank you people! On the barrier Mike's side yea-ya!!

I literally had $15 for each day of my trip to ch ch so I knew well enough that I had to steer VERY clear of the merch stand. I saw a few amazing tee's etc but that was about it, I didn't care, I was at my 2nd PJ concert of the weekend with one of my best friends who was 8 months pregnant, what a sight we were....

It wasn't until weeks later I saw the concert poster for the christchurch concert (see my avatar) by Brad Klausen. When I saw it I lost my breath. It sounds so corny, but it seemed to be the merger of myself - my love of PJ, the sacrifices I made to get down to ch ch, my Maori ancestry, my respect for PJ, NZ and my culture. Of course I had no money to get my hands on the poster. But more importantly to me I wanted, kinda needed, to communicate to the artist of this poster how I felt about it. So randomly I googled BK, and ended up on a poster site where you could send PM's, so I sent a (yes, corny!!) fanletter explaining what I had explained to you all, not expecting any reply but just feeling better for getting it out.

Next day he replied.

Yes he did. He said it was really wierd that he hardly ever checked that site, but he had that morning. He was so kind and grateful for my feedback. Then he asked for my address. I'm sure you have guessed where this is going by now! There was such a wairua (spirit) to that poster and me, I tell ya.

And sure enough a few weeks later a signed, numbered AP of the poster arrived. Needless to say I treasure it very dearly. What an amazing thing for someone accross the world to do, for free, out of the kindness of their heart and respect for the mana (power) that their art has....for someone that they don't even know...it humbles me every time I think about it.

And now my little boy is 2 years old and we are doing great! Hope you made it to the end of my long story!! Thanks for the opportunity to share. Some great tales on this thread, love it. Hoping there will not be another 11 year gap between concerts.....

[KayentaCoffee]

So bummed out to hear the news about Ed and the show, but I've really loved reading all the stories, and will still do the giveaway on the 10th.

For those of you who have read this far, it's your turn....

[PKTrekGirl]

My story is one that occurred fairly recently.

I was one of the ones that, being broke, was still 'saving up' to get the fan club DVD set of PJ20 (with the bonus disks) when they went out of stock...and skyrocketed in price from the flippers. I was only barely able to afford the set at the original club price - no way I would be able to afford a set on ebay. I was pretty disappointed.

At this point, one of the members on this board offered to make a deal with me - we made a trade for what turned out to be a bunch of stuff, and both of us were extremely pleased with the outcome. But the cool part is that because of this trade and all the fun we had making it, we became friends.

This guy lives 4 time zones away from me, but we keep in touch regularly and have had some awesome conversations. In truth, I think I value the friendship WAY more than the 'stuff' I acquired in the trades (we have now made 2).

PJ fans are the best! And as much as I'd like to own a few more things, the most valuable thing to me are the friendships.

[eldarion75]

Running into the venue in Glasgow in 2000, getting dead centre on the rail, later, during Given to fly, ed forgets the words and looks at me shrugging and i give him the missing words, during the next song he hands me down a pic. that was pretty cool:)

[weekapaug19]

it was philly, night 3.

3 of us drove down from western mass. to philly for the show. I scored 10c tickets for me and my show buddy, and my friend from work wanted to come too so I found an extra 10c ticket on the board here. We met up before the show and he gets his ticket, turns out the other person hit the lottery, 2nd row mike side. I was happy for him, but alittle bummed since he isn't the PJ fan we are. I go get my tickets, lose my mind seeing how I also hit 2nd row mike side, and it happened to be the seat EXACTLY next to him. what are the odds of that happening? Finding a stranger to sell an extra 2nd row ticket for face to my friend, then pulling the seat right next to him for the best show I've ever seen. This happening is better than obtaining a piece of memorabilia, although I'm still looking for my holy grail

[White Discussion]

Damn Greg I know you are disappointed like me but hope you aren't out to much cash since it was so close to the Vegas shows. Talk to you soon. I'm just glad they were rescheduled and not cancelled.