Pearl Jam Fans?

[HuffAndPuff]

Hey Gang-

I was just curious as to whether or not we have any Pearl Jam fans amongst us. I have to say, I wasn't a huge fan until I saw them live in Zurich in 2000. You were either a Nirvana fan or a Pearl Jam fan, when I was a kid. I was a Nirvana fan. The absurdity of that reality became clear the first time I saw them. Eddie and the band were amazing. I was up front, General Admission, and thought he was playing to me and the 2 kids I went with. Ed called for the house lights during the Yellow Ledbetter finale, so that he could see the crowd... I turned around, and HOLYSHIT. The Hallenstadion was PACKED. Sold out. I couldn't believe how he managed to make it feel so intimate.

Since then, I have been fortunate enough to see them about a half-dozen times. I've had really good luck with the shows that I have seen, too. They rarely, if ever, put on a 'bad' show. I have heard countless bootlegs, and I've never heard one. Some, however, are more 'special' than others.

If you like them, but don't love them, and have never seen them live, PLEASE GO SEE PEARL JAM THE NEXT TIME THEY ARE IN YOUR AREA! I promise you, you will be converted. The majority of the fans are great people, too. There is a small meat-head contingent that seems to confuse Pearl Jam with Metallica, but they're usually not that bad anyways.

I saw them twice this summer, and also saw Ed perform solo recently. Magical experiences, all of them. In fact, of all the crazy, fun, wild, exciting shit that I have done so far, the half-dozen PJ shows I have seen are amongst the top 10 things I have most enjoyed.

If you've seen them, please share your experiences! What is your favorite Pearl Jam song? If you hate them, is there a reason? Like the music, hate the politics? Discuss.

Stay Safe,

HuffAndPuff

 

[Smurf]

The last PJ gig I went to was crazy, it seemed to go on for hours; the usual story, a packed house, electric crowd and the music was awesome.
Like others, I believed the story of where the original Pearl Jam band name came from until reading Rolling Stone Mag...

Legend has it that Vedder wrote the lyrics to the songs in one burst, while surfing ("Even Flow" and "Alive."). That particular story, he tells me in his Chicago hotel room, is "100 percent true." But he concedes that another oft-told tale is less accurate: that the name Pearl Jam came from Vedder's great-grandmother Pearl, who, he used to claim, was married to an American Indian and was in the habit of making preserves spiked with various hallucinogenics. His great-grandma really was named Pearl. The rest is, indeed, "total bulllshit."

Told of Vedder's admission, Ament and McCready seem relieved. They cough up the true -- if less romantic -- tale behind the band's name. Brainstorming in a Seattle restaurant to come up with something, anything, to replace their original name, Mookie Blaylock (inspired by the NBA star), Ament came up with "pearl." The band didn't settle on the second half of its name until a 1991 trip to New York to sign a deal with Epic Records. Gossard, Vedder and Ament drove out to see Neil Young play Nassau Coliseum. "He played, like, nine songs over three hours. Every song was like a fifteen- or twenty-minute jam," says Ament. "So that's how 'jam' got added on to the name. Or at least that's how I remember it."

I have too many favorites to mention just one , the entire album 'Ten' is up there!,, Black is also a fav of mine.



here's one for ya HuffandPuff ... Eddie & Chris Cornell