Being a Northern Ontario lad, one of the drawbacks about where I grew up and worked for nearly my entire life was the fact that I had to do some travelling if I wanted to see my favourite musicians perform.
Now don’t get me wrong, there have been a lot of awesome bands that have come to my hometown of Sault Ste. Marie over the years, and the campus bar at Canadore College in North Bay brought in a good selection of acts when I went to school there.
But for the most part, I have taken a bit of a road trip to see most of my favourite acts over the years, which has included a seven-hour bus ride, five-hour car ride, and a plane flight.
So when I moved to Airdrie in August, I was excited to be closer to a big market like Calgary, as I could see more of my favourite artists than before.
In November, I had the chance to see my all-time favourite musician Matthew Good for the fourth time live, and I basically turned my seating area in the Jack Singer Concert Hall into a one-man mosh pit.
After that concert, I was counting down the minutes until Dec. 2, when I would finally see Pearl Jam in concert at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Even though I had been listening to their music for over a decade, and I owned a ton of their live albums and DVDs already, I never had the opportunity to see one of the best alternative bands of all time up until then.
So with all that build up, and with my fellow co-worker Sara Wilson telling me that the concert in Calgary was going to be her 40th time seeing them live (which makes my Matthew Good concert visits seem rather tame), my excitement levels were at a high.
And then the snowstorm hit.
As I watched the wind blow at crazy speeds around Airdrie and saw a work truck get stuck in the fire station parking lot across the street from the Rocky View Weekly office, I was having serious doubts about making the trek down to Calgary.
But in the end, I decided to bite the bullet and drive to the Saddledome, because how often am I going to see Pearl Jam live?
The drive was a bit slower than usual down Deerfoot Trail, and the whiteout conditions at times made things a bit helter skelter, but I finally made it to the arena after a white-knuckle hour.
After waiting in the lobby for a couple of hours, where I met a number of people who flew from all over Canada just to see Pearl Jam live, I finally made my way up to the rafters to watch the performance.
And it’s safe to say a week after the fact that my mind is still completely blown.
Since I had heard a number of Pearl Jam live records, I already knew that this was going to be an awesome show, but I had no idea how crazy this one was going to be.
Whether it was the awesome atmosphere of the crowd in Calgary, the crazy amount of back catalogue tracks and my own personal favourite songs that the band played, or lead singer Eddie Vedder’s amazing on-stage presence, the whole experience was out of this world.
The hype that I had built up for the concert, and the crazy drive to get there, was totally worth it, and I am already counting down to when Pearl Jam is back in Calgary again.
