Easy Street owner Matt Vaughan says Pearl Jam in-store #1!

bigeye21 · January 2010

http://easystreetonline.com/blog/2467/here-it-is-matts-top-10-in-stores-of-the-decade

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1. Pearl Jam- Surprise! I had never had to hold a secret like this one. On a typical 55-degree, drizzly night in West Seattle, April 29, 2005, I held a staff party - "free beer" - which turned into a surprise concert in the middle of our West Seattle store. Easy Street was hosting an indie retail convention so there were a bunch of record store guys in town. Mike McCready had caught wind of it and thought it would be a nice gesture to say “hello and thanks” to these indie store owners. We talked about it and made some arrangements when he said, “Ya know, maybe we could do more than just handshakes, put something together that you think would be good and we’ll see what can be done.” I proposed an in-store. Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis and I talked a few times on the phone and I gave a soapbox speech at his office, but there were issues in doing an event like this. If it leaked out, there might be security and safety issues, some of the guys were going to be on vacation or having kids, the Queen Anne store was too visible, the West Seattle store was too small. Kelly and I met for breakfast at my café, he was basically going on about trying to do something else, a party of some kind, a dinner, something, but the idea of the in-store was a little too far fetched is where it seemed to be going. It was at that moment that Eddie walked into the record shop side and catches our eye. Kelly drops his head, smiles, and says “oh no.” Eddie walks over to the Sonic Youth section, the store was kinda busy, he looks over at us, plays air guitar for few seconds and yells over to Kelly, “this’ll do” and walks out. Kelly shakes my hand and says “I guess we’ll be playing in here somehow. I’ll have my crew get in touch with you, keep this very quiet.” Pearl Jam, Kelly, and I held the secret for about a month. A few days before the show, I had to tell two of my managers (they were held to secrecy), but other than that nobody was informed. I bussed the indie store guys out to join my staff at our “work party.” The band hid out in the vinyl section upstairs, which I had roped off - nobody could see them. I’m a few minutes from introducing them, writing a speech upstairs in a corner, when Eddie comes over, reads it, grabs a red pen and crosses out everything but a line or two, saying, “Hey, let us do all the thank yous, you don’t need to say all this." The lights dim, I get up to the mic, most people don’t know what’s going on, I give my quick speech and introduce the band. People are like, what?? Pearl Jam?? One by one the band walks down the stairs. Eddie grabs the mic and says, “Oh sorry for the delay folks, we thought Matt had more to say," as he looks at me and laughs. Got me. Matt Cameron’s drums never sounded better than in that small store. A blistering set and now considered one of the most legendary Pearl Jam shows ever. Only 200 people were in attendance. There were people across the street pointing at the store saying, “My God, that’s the best Pearl Jam cover band I’ve ever heard.” The special attendees were in shock. The set sounded so good that the band released it as a CD. It has since become Easy Street’s #1 selling record of all time and helped pave the way for indie stores being able to compete with big box retailers in the game of exclusive product, as the record was only available at indie record shops. Arguably one of the coolest things a band of Pearl Jam’s size has ever done. You think indie record stores have forgotten? Pearl Jam’s latest record, Backspacer, debuted at #1 and has gone on to be the biggest selling indie record of 2009. - 04/29/05