Adventures at a Jamily Gathering :: Personal Narrative Writing

Adventures at a Jamily Gathering â€Å"This is a little ridiculous,† my brother sneers, shivering. It’s three o’clock in the afternoon, 30 degrees and dropping; we’re about 40 people from the entrance gate, and the concert doesn’t start until 7:30 pm. At this point, I’d have to agree with him. This concert is the last to be held this year at the Alpine Valley Amphitheater, and rightfully so—by the time Pearl Jam takes the stage, the temperature’s dropped to 15 degrees, and the band walk out doused heavily with stocking caps and scarves, and Eddie Vedder, the band’s frontman, welcomes the audience to â€Å"The Ice Bowl.† The crowd erupts in a roar that is part â€Å"Damn straight!† and part, â€Å"Yeah, and your asses have been sitting cozy in the tour bus all afternoon!† Wait, maybe that last part was just me†¦ This is my third time seeing Pearl Jam in concert since I discovered the band in 1994, and though I am still dedicated enough to endure the cold in order to ensure a decent spot on the general admission hill, my enthusiasm for the band and its music has waned a bit since my first show. As I wander up and down the line of fans waiting somewhat patiently to be admitted into the amphitheater, I see myself circa 1995 in several of the people I meet: their fierce protectiveness of the band, suspicion of half-assed fans, and the competitive nature of their devotion aren’t foreign to me. The Jamily is strictly members only, and the fans that comprise Pearl Jam family will let you know quickly if you’re in or out. Thanks to my obsessive-pursuit-of-Pearl-Jam-related-information phase, I was able to get most of the hardcore fans to trust my credentials enough to talk to me about their fandom—but it wasn’t always easy. Some of the fans’ interrogation of me was much more thorough than mine of them. I was assaulted with a variety of questions covering everything from the distance I’d traveled to see a Pearl Jam concert, how many shows I’d been to, the duration of my fanhood, and obscure facts I was able to recognize about the band. Usually, I passed these credibility tests with flying colors; I think I may have even made a few people nervous. This resulted in the initiation of phase two in which the fan asserts the superiority of his/her fandom over that of any other living being.