Music - Preview - Pearl Jam - Still not your f'g messiahs O2
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Music - Preview - Pearl Jam - Still not your fucking messiahs O2, Tuesday
Eddy Lawrence
13 August 2009
Time Out
Pg. 87
What's often omitted from the cliche maelstrom which defines most comment on Pearl Jam (miserable hippies, not as good as Nirvana, questionable hats etcetera) is just how much fun they are to see in concert. After all, they spent their first five years on a global permatour, and have kept up an intermittently relentless pace of gigging ever since, despite their legendary War on Ticketmaster preventing them from playing in the States for the latter part of the '90s. As a result of their work rate and a policy of supporting fan recordings, there are now more Pearl Jam bootlegs in existence than there are grains of sand on a beach. And this isn't just due to nerdish devotion and an opportunity for social one-upmanship on the part of the 'Jamily' (although that's probably part of it), but because Pearl Jam are a really, really good live band.
While they've been blistering performers since their first UK show at Southend Esplanade - where they handed out joss-sticks and singer Eddie Vedder wore a 'Keep Southend Tidy' poster on his shirt - their various post-grunge excursions into new wave-tinged art-rock, folkadelia and garage punk, not to mention a spell backing Neil Young, have given the band whole new worlds of dynamics to play with.
New album 'Backspacer' is their most unashamedly accessible record for some time. Given PJ's history of recording deliberately experimental material to limit their commercial appeal in case they got too big for their own mental health, this suggests that the band are in the proverbial 'good place', and it's likely their audiences will reap the benefits.
Eddy Lawrence
13 August 2009
Time Out
Pg. 87
What's often omitted from the cliche maelstrom which defines most comment on Pearl Jam (miserable hippies, not as good as Nirvana, questionable hats etcetera) is just how much fun they are to see in concert. After all, they spent their first five years on a global permatour, and have kept up an intermittently relentless pace of gigging ever since, despite their legendary War on Ticketmaster preventing them from playing in the States for the latter part of the '90s. As a result of their work rate and a policy of supporting fan recordings, there are now more Pearl Jam bootlegs in existence than there are grains of sand on a beach. And this isn't just due to nerdish devotion and an opportunity for social one-upmanship on the part of the 'Jamily' (although that's probably part of it), but because Pearl Jam are a really, really good live band.
While they've been blistering performers since their first UK show at Southend Esplanade - where they handed out joss-sticks and singer Eddie Vedder wore a 'Keep Southend Tidy' poster on his shirt - their various post-grunge excursions into new wave-tinged art-rock, folkadelia and garage punk, not to mention a spell backing Neil Young, have given the band whole new worlds of dynamics to play with.
New album 'Backspacer' is their most unashamedly accessible record for some time. Given PJ's history of recording deliberately experimental material to limit their commercial appeal in case they got too big for their own mental health, this suggests that the band are in the proverbial 'good place', and it's likely their audiences will reap the benefits.
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
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