The Closing Events - A celebration end of the Spectrum and Pearl Jam on the final night! Alive and Rockin' in the Free World - 10/31/2009

SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, welcome back to the concert room inside the Philly Concert Experience. I'm your host, Bob Hill. The concert room is a podcast session dedicated to all the great performances and performers who played on the stage at the legendary Philadelphia Spectrum Arena. The Spectrum held numerous events and concerts over its 40 plus years of existence, earning the nickname America Show Place. The Spectrum was a special place for music fans and bands. In this uh podcast session, I did want to actually set up a following podcast session that I have coming up, which is already taped, and uh it's in the editing phase now, uh, with an interview uh with a uh pretty interesting guest.

SPEAKER_00: Uh so what I thought I would do in this podcast session in the meantime, um we did hit on a subject that we haven't talked about before, at least I haven't talked about before, in uh any prior podcasts or sessions. Uh we've been talking about the uh Philadelphia Spectrum, the opening, the early concerts, how concerts changed, the uh spectrum itself is a concert room, and uh the particulars of of having a show there and uh all the great memories. Um there's uh um talking about going to concerts, etc. One thing we have not really talked about yet is the closing of the spectrum after its uh forty-two year history.

SPEAKER_00: Um it uh there was a lot of events and uh a lot of activity around the closing of the spectrum when it was uh announced that it would close and ultimately be uh demolished and that uh set off a lot of uh memories and uh events and uh we touched on um these closing events, I'll call them, and um in my next uh podcast session, which I will get up after this one, uh, with my guest, uh, because he um he has a lot of good insight and information. And when we are talking and recording that podcast session, it kind of occurred to me that I we uh I have not interviewed or I have not talked about the spectrum closing.

SPEAKER_00: And it was I think it's very important that we uh that we go over that. So this podcast session is uh going to set up my interview, um, which will go up uh a little bit later after this one. Um so stay tuned for that. But this uh podcast session I just want to concentrate on that one subject, uh, and that is the spectrum closing and um sort of the timeline and the events. And also uh as a bonus, I'm going to play uh two songs by Pearl Jam. And we'll get into Pearl Jam here in a couple minutes, but um let's talk about the Spectrum Closing and um some of the timeline and of course the events.

SPEAKER_00: Uh the Spectrum obviously held um over f uh close to 1,500 concerts. And they also held a lot of different events. Uh the circus was always in town for a couple weeks. Um there was uh you know, obviously the Philadelphia Flyers, there was the 76ers, um, there was uh comedy events, there was um ice capades, uh Disney on ice, there was uh lot of different events held at the spectrum and not just concerts. And that's uh early on it really earned its nickname America's showplace because it wasn't really pigeonholed as just the Sixers and uh Philadelphia Flyers um home arena uh and off uh concerts, it held a lot of different events, and over its forty-two-year history um it was indeed America's showplace.

SPEAKER_00: Uh but all good all great things unfortunately must come to an end. In 2008, Comcast Spectacor, which owned the Spectrum, uh announced in 2008 that the Spectrum would be demolished and uh make way for what became and what is now the Xfinity Live uh entertainment complex down there. Uh which is interesting. It's um I think when you go down there and you park you park in the parking lot for Xfinity Live is actually where the Spectrum sat. Um that's very uh very strange to be down there. Uh used to it now, obviously, because this closed a long time ago.

SPEAKER_00: So the Spectrum's farewell celebration was dubbed uh a celebration of a legendary arena, a season to remember. And there's uh some key closing events um in 2009, a concert series. Um it was a lineup of major artists um celebrating, as I said, their uh the arena's 42-year history. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band rolled into town in uh April and May for five sold-out shows. He did play five sold-out shows in the spring. Uh Members of the Grateful Dead played uh May 1st. Fleawood Mac played April 15th.

SPEAKER_00: This is all 2009. Elton John and Billy Joel played uh in July. Uh that was the face-to-face tour. That's pretty important because Elton John, especially Billy Joel, uh go go way back to the uh Spectrum days. So I'm glad he was able to have a last performance there uh in the summer. And then uh later on, uh toward the end of October, was a um featuring a concert series called the Last Call Concert Series, uh ultimately ending with Pearl Jam's performances. Uh but we'll get into that in a minute. There was a specific last call show on October 23rd, 2009.

SPEAKER_00: Philly centric with the uh lineup. Um it was Hall of Notes, the Hooters, and Todd Rudman. They performed in a uh, as I said, a last call concert. Ticket prices were rolled back to those uh of the first ever Spectrum show, so four dollars, four dollars and fifty cents as a uh nice little thank you to the uh public. Um so that was a great show. Um so that was October 23rd, 2009, the last call show, and then Bruce Springsteen rolled back into the Spectrum with the E Street Band. They played their final show at the Spectrum on October 20th, tw uh, 2009.

SPEAKER_00: And again, this series of farewell concerts marked the end of uh the Spectrum's uh, you know, concert room run. There was a few other um events. There was a what they call the last stroll, and the last stroll was a uh sort of like an open house. It was held on a Saturday, October 24th, and it allowed uh all the fans uh final opportunity to kind of walk through the uh spectrum before its demolition. Um you know, during the event, uh you can walk around. The there was no floor seats, uh I believe there was a stage set up, uh, so you can just walk around and take pictures.

SPEAKER_00: You can go upstairs and in the concourse and um you can walk on the event floor, purchase old merchandise and and really just uh reminisce about the venue's uh long and storied uh 42-year history. Um again that was called The Last Stroll, and that was on uh October 24th, 2009. So you can see there's some events going on. There's concerts, um, but again, we did talk about that with my guest. Uh in my next podcast session, we went into a lot of details on these final events was surrounding the uh pending demolition of the spectrum.

SPEAKER_00: So again, you have the last call concert series with some bands coming in. Uh you have the last stroll, and then you had a um you had an event where the public can come down to the spectrum and um you could uh come in and and get uh I guess if you can carry it, you can take it. So seats were a big um thing to to grab. Um they held an event where you can go in and get a little piece of the Philadelphia Spectrum, which is uh pretty cool. And if that kind of gives you an idea of uh the spectrum uh closing events and what was surrounding, it was uh kind of a sad time for all of us who grew up going to the spectrum, not only sporting events, but also the other events that I mentioned.

SPEAKER_00: It was really mainly concerts that has the most effect on uh at least everybody that I talked to, because you know, back then with the spectrum, like a lot of arenas at this time, it was just sort of like a conveyor belt of bands coming in. I mean, every month you had five or six that you could really choose from. You know, you kind of circle and say, I'm going to this one, and then next week another great band coming in, and then the following week, and here's two other bands coming in. It was just a conveyor belt.

SPEAKER_00: So a lot of memories of Spectrum Concerts because there was uh so many concerts held there, um, and it wasn't sporadic. Like I said, it was uh just on a monthly basis coming in. So um a lot of reminiscing around this time and and uh I think it's aptly uh named, you know, a celebration of a legendary arena, um, you know, a season to remember. Um so let's get to the last uh public event, and that would be Pearl Jam. Um as I mentioned, Pearl Jam uh played October 27th, 28th, the 30th, and the 31st.

SPEAKER_00: Okay, and some of the highlights the band wore Philadelphia Flyers jerseys, um the entire venue was uh filled with Pearl Jam's uh lightning bolt logo uh in the seats. Uh uh the concert, uh all four of them kind of celebrated the band's 20-year history. And uh, of course the spectrum stopped closing. Um and they played there uh you know many times since the early 1990s. So they have a little bit of a history. As far as uh uh Pearl Jam closing the Philadelphia Spectrum final public events with those four shows in October of 2009, um with the last one October thirty first, which is Halloween, I think that was a actually a good choice because um you can make an argument that the uh Bruce Springsteen show October 20th could be more apt uh because of Bruce Springsteen's history with the Spectrum going back to the you know the mid-70s uh and his proximity of uh being from Jersey.

SPEAKER_00: But Pearl Jam you know requested uh that they close down the spectrum and it was granted with those four shows in 2009. Uh I think it was you know a good choice. Um I think a lot of people are okay with it, especially the people that went down there. They were sold out for four nights. And they already got, as I said, a 20-year history behind them. Uh they've played the spectrum. They're also really big basketball fans, so I believe that uh their tie-in with the spectrum also uh uh probably had a lot to do with growing up watching those great Sixers and Celtics and Pistons and Chicago Bulls and of course the Showtime Lakers.

SPEAKER_00: You know, so being fans of uh basketball, um, you know, the Sixers a lot of great things happened at the spectrum as far as basketball. So the the tie-in could be there too. Probably not just music. You know, a sentimental thing with uh maybe Pearl Jam had to do a a lot with not only you know the great fans of of Philadelphia, this great historic arena that held a lot of different events, it was America's showplace. So they were celebrating and closing down America's show place. They weren't closing down the Philadelphia Spectrum concert room, concert arena.

SPEAKER_00: They were closing down the entire 42-year history of all the events at the Philadelphia Spectrum, and I think if we look at it uh in that view, then I I think that was the right band at the right time to do that. Um these performances are outstanding. I I'm gonna highlight, and I'm actually gonna play two songs from Pearl Jam toward the end of their set. I'll get into this in a minute. Um, it's the Halloween gig. But uh they played really a long sets um all four nights, and uh they really just gave it their all.

SPEAKER_00: By all accounts, everybody that walked out of there. Uh they did release uh the performances on CD, box set, so you can go out there and listen. There's a lot of videos out there on YouTube you can see, um, and it's just absolutely great. So let's get into this uh right now. I'm gonna feature two songs from uh the October 31st, 2009 Halloween show, the last public performance at the Spectrum, and it's uh Pearl Jam. Now this is this is at the end of their set. I believe this was the longest show that they ever played, um, or one of the longest sets in their history.

SPEAKER_00: Um it was over three hours long, featuring about 41 songs, and that's incredible. And I'm I'm gonna highlight um I'm gonna play their hit Alive, and it's gonna go right into Rockin' in the Free World, their great cover of uh Neil Young's um uh great song, which they do a great version of. And uh if you listen real carefully, you'll hear Eddie Vedder uh mention that uh how long this this show is. He kind of jokingly says, you know, this is the last time we're ever gonna play this long. We're doing it for you.

SPEAKER_00: This is for you, and he says it in a kind of a joking manner, because all 41 songs are just absolutely cooking. I mean, they are burning, they're they're saving Alive and uh Rockin' in the Free World. It is um by my list, Alive is the 39th song of the evening, and Rockin' in the Free World is the 40th song, and if you listen to it, you'll hear uh the energy, you'll hear the crowd. Uh they just absolutely gave it there all that night, and it was uh you know what they sort of kind of played the outro of Alive um as if they knew the end was kind of near because they only had uh one more song, the Encore.

SPEAKER_00: The 41st song was Yellow Lead Better. They actually came back for the Encore, so this was at the end of their set, and you can you can kind of hear on the outros of both songs that this is the end. They're not coming back the next night, and they're not coming back next year, and this crowd is not coming back anymore. This is it. I think they didn't want it to end. I mean the the outros are just absolutely killing. Uh so let's listen to it, and uh I hope you enjoy it because it's um it's just fierce, it's cooking, and um I can't think of a better way to go out than uh with that energy and uh that kind of um celebration.

SPEAKER_00: You can also hear the balloons come down when you hear the popping and the cracking, those you know, balloons that came down. So let's get to it. Here is Pearl Jam on the Spectrum stage, one last time for everyone. It is Halloween night, October 31st, 2009. This is the end of a uh 41 set marathon, and uh this is a live going right into rocking in the free world.

SPEAKER_01: The last time we played this song, I believe it was also in your state.

SPEAKER_01: And we want everybody here to tell everybody out there. We play souls this song no more ever here.

SPEAKER_01: This is for here, this is this building tonight, tonight only.

SPEAKER_02: Alright, give yourselves a hand.

SPEAKER_02: There's the four great nights in Philadelphia. Four great nice. He's nice, but better than the best, better than the rest. Which means you were the best. Thanks so much. Everybody.

SPEAKER_04: Spencer.

SPEAKER_03: My McCream, Justin, I can, stone gossip, boom, gasp. I am really.

SPEAKER_00: I will see you in the country.

The Program