By Victor S.
This story took place during the Avocado Tour in 2006. It was the tour during which I attended the most concerts—ten in total. But without a doubt, the five most special ones were those on the Iberian Peninsula, the shows in Spain and Portugal. They involved many kilometers traveled with many friends.
By the fifth concert, in Madrid, I was already quite exhausted. We always had the habit of taking a selfie the old-fashioned way, with our photo camera, during the concert. At the Madrid show in 2006, where we were right in the front row, during the song “Alive” we were trying to take that selfie. But with so many people and so much movement, the photo always came out blurry on our small camera.
Eddie must have noticed what was going on, because in the middle of the song he asked me to throw him the camera. I told him I wouldn’t throw it because it might fall. Then a member of the security team came over, I handed him the camera, and he passed it to Eddie. He took a couple of photos of us, which honestly were quite blurry—but just for the gesture alone, it was absolutely worth it. It was without a doubt one of the most important and most beautiful moments I’ve ever experienced at a Pearl Jam concert.
But the story doesn’t end there. The next concert was in Marseille, France. If I was already tired at the Madrid show, by this one I was completely exhausted. We arrived in the city very early, so what did we decide to do? Line up to try to get as close to the front as possible—and we succeeded. We ended up in the front row, right in front of Jeff.
Before the concert started, I had to ask a security staff member for some aspirin or ibuprofen because I couldn’t take the pain in my body anymore. Thanks to them, I managed to make it through to the end of the show.
During the concert, almost right at the beginning, I think Eddie recognized us again from the Madrid show, because during the first song he handed my friend his guitar pick directly into his hand, which made us incredibly happy. And at the very end of the concert, at a time when Eddie maybe didn’t give away that many tambourines, he threw his tambourine straight at me, clearly pointing at me.
At first, I was afraid someone else might grab it, but I don’t know if it was because he pointed so clearly at me that no one even tried to catch it. So that tambourine is probably one of my most treasured possessions—along with the many guitar picks we’ve always managed to get at concerts, especially thanks to Mike, who throws hundreds of them. In fact, at this very concert I also got a couple of Mike’s picks, and probably a few more that I ended up giving to the people around me.
Honestly, at both concerts—Madrid and Barcelona—beyond Eddie’s gesture with the camera and later giving us those items, what really stood out was the joy of the people around us at the shows. Some of them even asked us for photos, as if we were the important part of the story. When in reality, it was Eddie’s generosity—once again, freely given to his fans—that allowed us to relive such incredibly happy moments.
