“Remember the girl on the bus-you know, the one with the Pearl Jam t-shirt?”Īlicia laughed at the non-coincidence and said, “You’re always looking for signals from the universe.” “That woman I just bumped into-she was wearing pearls.” “Huh, that’s odd,” I said when Alicia walked up to me. I apologized profusely in my Mexican-influenced Spanish and she graciously forgave my obliviousness to the world around me. The colorful stainless steel shapes had been placed under a skylight, and I must have spent a half-hour circling the work to view the “tulips” from different angles until I accidentally bumped into a woman who was studying one of the nearby paintings. The Miró exhibition was very interesting, but Jeff Koons’ Tulips was the highlight for me. I saw them in San Sebastian before we met.” Though I lived in Seattle for six years, during that time I was more interested in up-and-comers than established bands, so I knew very little about Pearl Jam except that they were adored by the natives.Īfter arriving in Bilbao, Alicia led the way to the Guggenheim. I pointed her out to Alicia and said, “I didn’t know Pearl Jam was that popular in Spain.” “Oh yes, very popular. Right before the doors closed, a young woman with a tasteful array of tats, tits and piercings hopped onto the bus wearing a Pearl Jam t-shirt. The next morning we arrived at the station early so we could get decent seats on the bus. It’s better to take the bus-we can get there in a little more than an hour.” I immediately deferred to la mujer española and her superior knowledge of her country of birth. “Why are the trains so fucking slow?” “Because they’re direct-they stop everywhere. I immediately looked up the train schedules on my phone and learned that a one-way trip would take two hours and forty minutes. This review is part of my unofficial “Honeymoon Series,” consisting of music I heard in clubs, cafés and other places while on my honeymoon, a combination of the unfamiliar and music I thought I’d never review in a billion years.ĭuring our stay in San Sebastian, Alicia suggested we pop over to Bilbao to catch the Miró exhibition at the Guggenheim.

Pearl jam even flow genre