Such rocking moments were some ways off from the show’s opening though. But I was brought back to a time when, you know, it could have happened, in the same way Bill Clinton passing a healthcare plan “could have” happened. OK, no, none of that really happened of course. In short, Pearl Jam were just not my guys.Īnd yet, when the riff that announced “Even Flow” kicked in late night, I was placed in instant communion with my 22-year-old self, flooded with memories of breaking up at Lollapalooza with the girl I’d met during a Rock the Vote event earlier that summer. And their commercially successful earnestness remains the perfect riposte to anyone who claims that "Generation X" subsisted on pure "irony" throughout "the '90s."īut tastes are tastes: Their shaggy riffs didn’t slice with the sharper edge I preferred and Eddie Vedder’s enveloping growl-to-mewl stewed in its agony rather than lashing out with the pained precision I could use emotionally. (Apologies for dredging up the musical controversies of a dumb and bygone age, but nobody said evaluating a band’s living legacy would be pretty.) A group that never seemed slightly tempted to become Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam was clearly on the side of the angels even before they took on Ticketmaster. I was never dumb enough to camp with the jerks who derided Pearl Jam as the “jock” alternative to Nirvana, let alone the indie lifers who considered even signing to Matador an unprincipled move. Why had I postponed this day of reckoning? Was I hiding from something? From myself? Was I, as my peers and I were so often accused of back in the day, slacking? I have far fewer strong opinions about Pearl Jam than a man of my age is expected to, and their two-night, tour-opening stand at the Xcel Energy Center presented itself as a good opportunity to remedy that and take a (clears throat ostentatiously) firm critical stance on the most significant rock band to survive the '90s besides maybe Green Day (and no, not Smashing Pumpkins). album track ‘Indifference,’” A Pearl Jam concert is for fans who pump their fists and exclaim “Yes! I can’t believe this show is going to start with the band seated on stools for a somber, bluesy take on the Vs.
A Pearl Jam concert isn’t even particularly for the kind of fan who’s like, “Oh, I guess this show is going to start with the band seated on stools for a somber, bluesy take on the Vs. Within a year, 13x platinum-selling debut Ten was stacked high on record store shelves.A Pearl Jam concert is for Pearl Jam fans, and not in the way all concerts are for fans. Andrew’s death from a heroin overdose in early 1990 rattled bonds and drove Stone’s writing into darker, heavier territory, but the introduction of second six-stringer Mike McCready, and an inspired response to their five-track demo from Illinois-born, San Diego-based singer Eddie Vedder (who’d written lyrics for Alive, Once and Footsteps while out surfing) saw the band take shape. Guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament joined proto-grungers Green River in the mid-’80s, before forming Mother Love Bone with vocalist Andrew Wood towards the decade’s close.
Perhaps the tribulations and inspirations of their coming-together prepared them for that.
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Their first three LPs, of course – spanning the pomp of the grunge scene, and full of its revolutionary excitement – still hold a special place in listeners’ hearts, but rather than trying to cling to past glories or fading into irrelevance, their eight albums (and countless other releases) since have solidified one of the most innovative, important reputations in all of rock.
They have always been an outfit interested in everything they do. Compared to the vast majority of their platinum-rated rock contemporaries, Pearl Jam’s back catalogue does not easily stack into a defined hierarchy of hit singles, ‘underrated’ fan-favourites and forgotten album tracks.
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