Anyone feel like we r a unique group that can't be classifid

DW203649

Those that LOVE PJ, there is never a discussion, but those that I know of that don't get it, I feel like I have to explain the creation of the universe. Why? IDK but that's what I feel ends up happening. PJ saved me in SOOO many ways when I was growing up that I JUST CAN NOT EXPLAIN. If there was to be a movie of my life, it will be a long drawn out Pearl Jam video. Not what I ever had planned, but how it just so happened to be. I could pick out 10 songs that would describe me to a tee, but even those closest to me will never ever ever get it. I do feel shut out, and lost, alone and afraid, but I know there are those that really do understand me, only because of the music I love SOOOO much!! I am not a x-gen, or emo, or half of the other bs that kids are coming up with today. I am me. You want to know ME, listen to all of PJ's records, that's me. EV knows our pains, struggles and everything and will fight for us all, through music. Gotta love the man!! And gotta love the band!! Saved me from myself so many times I owe them a postcard!!

Illridethewave20

agreed, PJ Fans are unique, generous, and the Best people I have ever met. The band is increadable in every sense.

dcfaithful

Yup, we're unique and I fly my flag high...I always try to tell my girlfriend about the forum, band facts, band history, cool stories, song meanings...and she just shrugs it off,a nd smoetimes makes fun of me for my obsession but I look at it like this:

I have something she doesn't

an undying love and connection to one of the best god damn rock bands of all time.

dcfaithful

DW203649 wrote:

Those that LOVE PJ, there is never a discussion, but those that I know of that don't get it, I feel like I have to explain the creation of the universe. Why? IDK but that's what I feel ends up happening. PJ saved me in SOOO many ways when I was growing up that I JUST CAN NOT EXPLAIN. If there was to be a movie of my life, it will be a long drawn out Pearl Jam video. Not what I ever had planned, but how it just so happened to be. I could pick out 10 songs that would describe me to a tee, but even those closest to me will never ever ever get it. I do feel shut out, and lost, alone and afraid, but I know there are those that really do understand me, only because of the music I love SOOOO much!! I am not a x-gen, or emo, or half of the other bs that kids are coming up with today. I am me. You want to know ME, listen to all of PJ's records, that's me. EV knows our pains, struggles and everything and will fight for us all, through music. Gotta love the man!! And gotta love the band!! Saved me from myself so many times I owe them a postcard!!

I love what you've said there. That is how I've felt about Pearl Jam the whole time I've listened to them...a band that can accurately describe me and a band I can definitely indulge myself into, and most of all a band that allows you to be your fucking self.

DreamOfAngels

This topic is such a timely find...I actually went out at lunch today, sat in the sun, and started writing a poem about how deep the feeling is, how no one seems to understand, how I feel alone, but how it doesn't matter if "they" get it. I was totally writing about my love for this band, their music, then kindness, etc. Then I just sat there and thought about that for a while. I've always had a heard time trying to explain what PJ music and Ed's voice have meant to me, what it does for me.. I usually say, something like this - "It just takes me away. It absolutely fills my soul to a point that it removes me from whatever thoughts, feelings, emotions I'm feeling and it puts me in a different place. It heals me. It absolutely fills my soul." I decided today that I really don't want to try explain it anymore.

In spring 2006, I introduced a friend of mine to PJ music (introduced is such a fun word - actually I made him listen to it on a 5 hr road trip with only a brief escape for Metallica - then right back to PJ). He went to his first PJ concert a few months later - guess what - hooked... all by himself. I didn't need to say anything. It wasn't any explanation about what it meant to me that would help him... I think it is just one of those things that either it speaks to you or it doesn't. I cannot be happier that it speaks to me. PJ music and Ed's vocals. Life is great.

Fifthelement

I've given up trying to explain as well I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't really matter if those closest to me get it or not. I get it and that is all that matters. I'm thankful that this forum exists though, so I know that I am not alone in my PJ love I've met some really cool people from this site and I definitely hope to meet more :P

dimitrispearljam

PJ Fans are unique,
pj fans are the best people in the world...u know why?
becouse they love the BEST ROCK BAND IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

prodacake

Agree 100 percent, i dont even try to explain anymore to my friends, i really believe we share a unigue experience as pearl jam fans and no other bands i like or have seen live can get anywhere near it. My heartfelt thanks goes out to all members past and present of pearl jam, in my eyes the greatest band ever to walk this earth

dasvidana

I prefer to consider us all Zen masters in training. Zen philosophy suggests that once you label something, you kill it, like wind. If you stop it long enough to study and label it, it isn't wind anymore. I like to think about Pearl Jam music in the same way. Go with it and enjoy the journey.

Sanctusorium

The band has two major fan groups from what I have notices. Theres more than that, but I have to be broad or this will get way too long!

You got one who just like some of the songs, really likes the music, but doesn't care about/comprehend the lyrics. Then you got some deep fans who have listened and allowed it to shape us and change us. (In all honesty that goes for most good music.)

I think you can tell a lot about a band from its core fan base. This band has an amazing core fan base...

TAC

My wife just doesn't get it, All the Pj music I have, posters, old t-shirts, etc..... But that's ok. Been fan since day one. No one seems to understand the uniqueness or the connection fans and pj have. Smaller group of dedicated fans just makes it more special to me.

Sleep.With.Innocence

I think Eddie Vedder said it best when he said "give me some truth." Thats what this band is all about. They are genuine, real. They are all huge activist, and all of those qualities are absent in todays music industry.

It's hard for me to share it with my peers, but what little I do share everyone likes. I just wish I had more time to tell everyone. They are an amazing band and I feel like the world needs to know about them.

engine351

I feel like Pearl Jam fans are to music,,,what Jeep drivers are to vehicles. Its like a club that you're either somewhat interested in, or you're totally in love with it.

pandora

The concerts we've been to and meeting the wonderful fellow fans/people its a feeling like "going home."
A comfortable belonging feeling.
PJ has been the biggest support in my life other than my very immediate family and bestest friend and its the other fans that get this, other people in my life haven't and I'm just a "groupie"
It sounds silly maybe but I also think PJ gets this. I think they know the importance of their music to us.
I know I celebrate with it, party and get crazy with it let loose
I cry, I'm mad or frustrated and often lost and the music is there with me.
We are unique fans cause PJ is a unique band.
It just all works together

SprockeTee

I think you said it all....

DITTO.

Even when the bottom drops out (sometimes repeatedly), I turn to the music & it heals the soul. I dont know that I can put a finger on it exactly or how it works but it does. This is the only music that ever did that for me. And it's worked since I heard Alive on MTV way back when.... I think I was 13.

Funny - as I type this my husband is playing Alive on Rockband2 - and suckin' big time!

BhagavadGita

I do think we are an unusual group of people. Although, I agree with someone who said that there are two groups of PJ fans. Those that love the music and the band and those whose brains are forever engraved with certain lyrics and songs that have caused us to almost feel like they are our family. People who help each other through hard and good times.

I do wish Pearl Jam toured like Phish did once in a while.....where the venues were close enough to each other that people could actually follow them and camp out, like Phish did at the Gorge or Deercreek. I would love to spend a couple of nights camping out before shows with other fans to really see who we all are. Spiffs to the Phish fans who are peaceful people and behave as though they have known you forever. It's easy to make friends at those shows.

Sometimes, I find the forums to be less than friendly and I know this does not represent all the fans.

I appreciate the packages they offer to see the band in far off places, but who can really afford 5 grand to go see a show down under and in New Zealand. That must be a third group of fans, the ones with big bucks. :!: I'd certainly do it, if money were no object.

One thing I know for sure is we do stand the test of time.

tattooedinblack

I'm with all you guys I've been trying to explain it for almost 20 years, but you know what? I think in a deep meaningful way it's just unexplainable, no words. If anybody could properly explain it in words it'd probably be Ed!

I sometimes wish, if I was very well off, I would love to just follow PJ around the country on tour. In 2006 I got to see them 7 times which is the most I've seen them on one tour, and it was amazing. Saw them in NY/NJ a bunch and then at the Gorge shows, it was beautiful.

One of the nights at the Gorge after the show I was on cloud 9, like literally. Me and my fiance were on this crazy roadtrip across country, we saw friends in Colorado and Sacremento and visited all these cool places and REALLY saw America and it was the best 2 1/2 weeks of our lives.

So after the Gorge show my girl had gone to sleep in our tent and I'm just sitting there alone in the starlight, but I'm not alone... really. I put on a PJ cd but meanwhile I hear a PJ song coming from every conceivable direction. I'm sitting there, smokin some weed, taking in the billions of stars (I'm from Jersey, I had NO idea how many stars there actually are) listening to PJ, seein my girl's angelic face asleep in the tent, just staring at the sky. It was the calmest, most peaceful moment of my whole life. As I'm sitting there I see a shooting star, within 5 seconds I see another shooting star... I've never seen a shooting star EVER! In a matter of seconds I see 2! I think the inspiration I got from the Avocado was part of what got me to say yeah lets travel across the country, even though we don't really have the money you know. Plus all our friends and family thought we were nuts. PJ has always inspired me, helped me see the possibilities of life, without them I don't know who I'd be, but it wouldn't be ME

I give the credit for that moment, the most peaceful of my life, to Pearl Jam

janina

Wow, I just love how we all have our stories... we are indeed, a very special group of people.
Can I indulge and share mine? Cheers.

My ears were blown right open by a mix tape given to me when I was 12 by a girl called Tracy, she was coolness personified. She was witty, her older sister was in a punk band called Sidi Boo Said, she had 14 hole DMs, she played guitar,she dyed her hair with henna...Cool. And she took me under her wing when I started in her class at Gravesend Grammar School for Girls, me!

That was 17 years ago now. Tracy's big sister was a member of Ten Club, and so Sonic Reducer was on the tape (from the TC 1992 holiday gift)plus Jeremy, along with stuff by Temple of the Dog, Smashing Pumpkins, Mother Love Bone, Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Tracy gave me this with an equisitly annotated booklet that she'd made herself with the middle pages from an exercise book. In it were breakdowns of each song; why she'd chosen them, a bit about the history of each band and the story behind each song, plus drawings done in black biro, all bound together with staples and red electrician's tape. I poured over the book whilst playing the tape over and over, soaking up every last written word and note played.
This was a huge awakening. Massive. The year before I was screaming my lungs out at a New Kids on the Block concert in Wembley Arena.

Since then my love and deep gratitue for Pearl Jam has grown, slowly but determindly, like an oak. And now I'm 30, and that tree stands magnificent; proud and strong.

Over the years, many reasons have made me run into my room, slam on an album and through myself onto the bed. From anger right through to elation with a detour to utter despare, Pearl Jam have always, always been there.

Yeah, I've drifted a little, who hasn't? But best friend's don't question you when you return, they just pick up where you left off. A while ago I found myself really getting into contemorary folk; the likes of Tunng, Devendra Banhart, Elliot Smith, acoustic stuff. I thought I'd left PJ behind, but then I heard Ed's Into the Wild soundtrack... woah. Then (after 17 years of waiting, 17!!) I finally saw PJ at the O2 in August... THEN Backspacer, and I realised they had been with me all along, evolving and growing with me.

Seeing Ed bound onto that stage at the O2 was like coming home. That voice I feel I know every tone of.. that face that had stared at me from years of posters and magazine cuttings.. this wonderous musician, was just meters infront of me. And it was like I was with my familiy.
where I belonged.

I still play the tape. Really loud.

Ms. Haiku

My twin thinks that my attending out-of-state Pearl Jam concerts for a couple years (2005, and 2006) was a great role model activity for her kids. They were positive experiences, I was responsible, and it was a very enthusiastic joyful time. She also thinks that my coming on here is a way that I have met some very cool people. She definitely appreciates my PJ fanaticism even though she doesn't share it. My NJ siblings didn't have a problem whatsoever with my travelling up there, staying at their place, and bringing my oldest niece and nephew to the E. Rutherford 06' concerts. When I suggested that my nephew may be too tired to go to school the next day my one sister didn't appreciate that (How can a concert be more important than school blah blah blah)

If I include a Pj song on a CD compilation disc I give to my twin she usually skips through it, but at least she knows it's there if she would like a little listen.

When my mom found out PJ was playing near them (Gorge 2006) she made sure to notify me

Got a hard hard head

I've said this before and, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

Pearl Jam fans exist for the band and the Pearl Jam exist for their fans. There's definitely a connection that few other bands have and for a band to promote positivity in a world filled with negatives is a rare thing and one to be treasured.

Eddie is the personification of everything that's good about Pearl Jam. A real rock n' roll frontman in the greatest live band on Earth and yet he shows such affection for the fans and, I'm sure, would share a beer and while away the day with you without giving it a passing thought.

I think it's this that the fans relate to and that's why the love goes on...

Jo

Pearl Jam has been a part of our All our lives since we started being All our lives.
All of us relate to the music.
How Awesome is THAT?
Awesome.
Pearl Jam are so unique to this world, it is only us UNIQUE people who cant help wanting to be a part of it.

And although techniquely I wont have any Grandkids for atleast 6 years, I can't wait to tell all of them about Pearl Jam.