This past Tuesday I went to see Pearl Jam concert for the very first time. I have seen well in excess of 500 concerts, but until this week, I had never seen Pearl Jam perform live. Pearl Jam was the music of my junior and senior year of college, so this was going to be a bit of a nostalgic trip down college memory lane (which is always a pleasant journey). The other interesting bit of trivia is that this year is Pearl Jam's 20th anniversary as a band. That's right, 20 years of Pearl Jam. And yes, that makes me feel old. The other interest tidbit is that I know all of the first 10 years of Pearl Jam music and none of the last 10 years of their music.
Turns out this is as close a concert as you got to Pearl Jam playing a greatest hits tour. It was a great show. What I like is that a PJ concert is all about the music. There's no video, no cameras, no light and smoke show, just Pearl Jam playing their music and singing their songs. It was a bare bones, stripped down concert experience, but PJ always wanted it to be all about the music and not about "the show".
So while they were playing the songs that I knew, I would sing along, but with the songs that I didn't know, I would sit back (yes, I have to sit down at concerts now) and think about the history of the band. Back in the early 90's Pearl Jam was the biggest band in the world. As I looked at my Ticketmaster purchased ticket, I remember how Pearl Jam fought against Ticketmaster and by now had apparently lost that battle years ago. So much for the power of the fans. Also, as I was seeing the concert in the Gibson Amphitheater (which is a decent sized space), I wondered if they had embraced their rock god status in the early 90's if they would be playing stadium tours now instead of smaller arena venues.
Despite not playing Jeremy, Pearl Jam played all of the hits that I loved from my college years. During the encore, PJ brought out Chris Cornell to duet on Hunger Strike (the rare male rock duet) and Jerry Cantrell (of Alice In Chains) to play guitar on the final song, Pearl Jam's best and signature song - Alive.
The other interesting note from the concert was how drunk lead singer Eddie Vedder became as the evening went on. He went from sober at the beginning to slurring by the end of the show. Apparently he does this at every concert.
Between Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains, Blind Melon, Mudhoney, and of course, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Pearl Jam is the last band left in the 21st century still playing the Seattle grunge music scene. That signature sound itself was an cultural offshoot of the pop overhang of the late 1980's (coincidentally, the last time the U.S. went through a real estate devaluation). I vividly remember the press at the time pitting Kurt Cobain (the more talented songwriter, lyricist and lead singer) against Eddie Vedder (the more successful, but less talented) of the two. For the press, it was a good story to set up a fake rivalry between Pearl Jam and Nirvana. And on that thought, I wondered what kind of music Kurt Cobain would be making today, were he still alive. And would Foo Fighters would even exist if Nirvana was still a band?
Overall, it was a great concert and a good trip down memory lane. What more can you ask for for $90?
Entertainment Weekly's Review and You Tube posts of the concert:
For my history with Pearl Jam see my blog post:
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