Summer of "92, as a soon to be college sophomore on a weekend road trip with some friends, my buddy asks if anyone in the car had heard of pearl jam and if he could play Ten. We were all in agreement that the album kicked ass and had a different sound. I went out and bought it when I got home and became hooked on Alive, Why Go, Black, Garden and Release. But the real "ah-ha" moment came in the fall when I went to a party for the MTV awards. I was excited cuz I was really lookin forward to seeing how PJ was live. When they came on, for most of the people there, the music of the show was background music and the awards party was just an excuse to party. However, with each passing second of Jeremy, more and more people gathered around the tube gawking in awe. By the time Ed was saying "i don't need no mom and dad" the whole room was silent, about 20-25 people in all, just blown away by what we had witnessed. From that performance on, I have been hooked. Soldier Field in 95 blew me away, and i have been a devoted fan ever since.
The Jeremy video started it, but the 2 songs on the "Singles" soundtrack cemented it (most particularly Breath).
Boston II 94 Boston II 06 Mansfield I 08 Mansfield II 08 Seattle I 09 Seattle II 09
Hartford 10 Boston 10 Wrigley 13 Worcester I 13 Worcester II 13 Hartford 13
NYC I 16 NYC II 16 Fenway I 16 Fenway II 16 Fenway 1 18 Fenway II 18
E.V. Boston II 08 E.V. Albany II 09 E.V. Providence 11, E.V. Boston 11
Troubled Souls Unite
It was definitely when I saw commercials for the movie Alive (i think it was about a soccer team turned cannibals) and they used the song Alive in it. Bought Ten- been a fan since. MTV Unplugged was the clincher.
Fenway 1 & 2 2016
MSG 1 & 2 2016
Central Park 2015
Barclays 2, Seattle 2013
MSG 1 & 2 2010
Boston 1 & 2 2006
Boston 1 2004
Augusta 1996
Bought Ten after seeing an article in RIP magazine titled "Life after Love bone." Album didn't immediately hit me, but Alive was the song that eventually stood out for me.
Then I seen them live and was blown away. Almost 20 years later and still loving it.
I was a senior in high school in 1992 and I was completely blown away by their unplugged performance on MTV. I have been a huge fan ever since. I am still mesmerized that a band that I started loving in high school is still making unbelievable music. I saw them live for the first time in 1995 and just saw them again this tour and they are stronger than ever.
I was 10 back in '91 when 10 came out (it was meant to be) and I remember hearing Alive on the radio on the bus to school. From then on they were my favorite band. I begged my Mom to buy me a cd player and that album for months until finally on christmas I got them both. I was so happy. Vs. and Vitalogy were also christmas presents the years they were released. It still always feels like christmas every time I listen to a new PJ album for the first time!
The first time I heard Pearl Jam it was Alive and Even Flow videos back to back on MTV. I can't remember which one was first, but I think it was Alive then Even Flow. The sound and the vibe that the band was putting out immediately clicked with me, and so not long after I borrowed a friend's copy of Ten, but the sound on the record was different (because those videos were live performances) and I remember having to adjust to the sound, but after about 6 or 7 listens, I had found my favorite band, and nothing's changed in 18 years
I remember Jeremy from when I was 9 or 10. Thought the chorus said "Bitterly Spoken" An amazing song, but no way was I ready to be hooked on PJ at that age. It was Ten that did it for me though, and Black was the song. Everything else up to that point(Binaural) followed pretty quick and of course I had the standard Beast of Burden, "bastard that married my mama" Betterman, and all the other Napster bootleg material.
They were my second musical love after Mr. Page over there>>> and his little ol band. I know they've never been one of the chief influences of the band overall, but there is somethin mysteriously similar about both bands to me.
Driving in the car with my brother and hearing Betterman. Loved it.
That's so funny because I always remember singing Betterman with my Mom one day in the car...and that was my song too, I think...I was like 19 and it was summer, we just got back from swimming and we were both driving down the expressway belting out the lyrics. I remeber thinking my Mom was pretty cool for knowing the words.
Saw the Jeremy video and then a clip of Alive on SNL. Bought Ten the next day.
"there's a lot to be said for nowhere...."
1996 - Randall's Island II 1998 - MSG I
2000 - Jones Beach II & III 2003 - Uniondale, MSG I & II
2006 - E. Ruth I & II 2007 - Lollapalooza
2008 - MSG I & II, Hartford 2009 - Philly IV
2010 - Newark, MSG I & II
Summer of 99... I was subjected to Dave Matthews like crazy. A guy I was working with would listen from sunrise to sunset. He wouldn't get out of bed (it was a summer camp) until DMB was turned on the stereo.
I get home and the radio station is playing Last Kiss and the Two Legs version of "Small Town." I'm like.. "I have no idea who the hell is playing that version of Small Town" but I need it.
2 Legs was the first thing I bought by PJ... Ten was next, but a few years later, IIRC.
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I think it had to have been all of Live on Two Legs really....I can't say just one. I bought Vitalogy when it came out and I liked them when I heard them on the radio but wasnt a huge fan until I bought Live on Two Legs.
Noblesville 6/22/2003 St. Louis 5/4/2010 East Troy 9/4/2011
Cleveland 5/20/2006 Columbus 5/6/2010 Chicago 7/19/2013
Cincinnatti 6/24/2006 Noblesville 5/7/2010. Buffalo 10/12/2013
Lollapalooza 8/5/2007 Mountain View 10/23/2010 Cincinnatti 10/1/2014
Washington D.C. 6/22/2008 Mountain View 10/24/2010 St. Louis 10/3/2014
Chicago 8/22/2008(EV Solo) St. Louis 7/1/2011 (EV Solo) St. Paul 10/19/2014
Kansas City 5/3/2010 East Troy 9/3/2011 Milwaukee 10/20/2014
Hampton 4/18/2016 Columbia 4/21/2016 Lexington 4/26/2016
NYC 5/2/2016
I was always a casual Pearl Jam fan as a kid (born in 81). I had Ten on cassette, used to listen to it while I mowed my grandparents property out on the countryside. Vs and Vitalogy came out, but I was really into Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Aerosmith, Prince ... well a whole lot of random shit (not that any of that is shit!!!). For whatever reason, I hadn't actually bought Vs or Vitalogy by the time No Code came out.
So the lead single for No Code was Who You Are, and believe it or not THAT was the song that turned me from a casual listener to a crazy "gotta have everything related to this band" fan. I broke in Yield during a church retreat to New Mexico with our youth group, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. The drive from Louisiana to Taos New Mexico was spent listening to so much music. Our Pastor, Mike Aus, is a huge Neil Young fan and after that volunteer retreat I was too.
Didn't see my first live show till the 2000 New Orleans show, which is also when I joined the fanclub. Sonic Youth opened, and I was already a huge fan of them. Prior to 2000 I had purchased a few (very expensive) live bootlegs, lots of tshirts, and all the officially released stuff (including most of the singles).
I even taped most of the live performances of the band on VHS since they didn't do many interviews in the 90s, but when SVT came out I thought all the Letterman and SNL appearances we're obsolete. My old VHS tape is probably is bad shape since I watched it so often.
A friend of mine played Alive's video once but didn't pay attention to it at all... I don't know what a hell was I thinking!!! Anyways... I like most PJ songs... but I got hooked definitely with Jeremy at MTV's ceremony... after my parents separation... with Ed finishing with "I don't need no... I don't need no mom and dad". It's like PJ filled that emptiness. Crazy about PJ ever since. There's not a single day I can live without hearing them! Come to Colombia this year!
spring/summer 2000-nothing as it seems, summer before my senior year in high school. hearing it live at my first pj concert in va beach was great. that concert holds a special place in my heart. i lost a great friend that summer due to a car accident, so i really related to the band and the crowd. the first concert after the roskilde tragedy.
Va Beach 08-03-00, Pittsburgh 04-28-03, State College 05-03-03, Hershey 07-12-03, Boston 09-29-04, Reading 10-01-04, Philly 10-03-05, Camden 05-27-06, Pittsburgh 06-23-06, Va Beach 06-17-08, Philly 10-30-09, Philly 10-31-09, Bristow 05-13-10
Ah, the memories. Here's a little trip down memory lane for me...
I remember stumbling upon an awesome station on AM radio while growing up in NYC, 1480 Z-Rock. They played a good mix of metal/hard rock/alternative. It was the first time I heard "Alive" - that was early 1992. Before I even heard that song I listened to Top 40 and hard rock (mostly what was popular at the time - Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, etc.). But something changed for me when I first heard that PJ song. I was hooked already - the same week I took a trip to the Wiz and bought "Ten" on cassette (I didn't even have a CD player at the time). I remember playing it for the first time, and when it started with that Master/Slave intro to "Once" I thought, hmm, what is this? But then the song kicked in, and the rest of the album... and it felt like my life had changed.
I became obsessed - I went out and started to get into everything alternative/grunge. I got into Mother Love Bone and Green River. I fell in love with the Singles soundtrack and movie. I found bootleg shows on cassette. I heard some B sides on 89.5 WSOU Seton Hall Pirate Radio and taped them off of the radio (I fell in love with "Footsteps" that way). When I finally got a CD player, I bought all of the import singles because of the extra songs on them. I freaked out anytime anything about the band was mentioned. MTV Unplugged was classic. Appearance on Headbangers Ball.
I remember getting Vs. the Saturday before it came out in stores because of a record store that I knew sold new releases early. I rushed home with the CD and played it non-stop for months. "Rearviewmirror" = amazing.
Since this was a time before I even owned a computer, I didn't really think about the fan club that much (although I am kicking myself that I should have joined back then, or at least I shouldn't have let my membership expire when I did join for one year in 1995 and not again until 2000). The 1994 show they played at the Paramount at MSG was a fan-club only show - I was outside the venue for about 2 hours trying to get tickets for a reasonable price (I just started college so I didn't have a lot of cash) but no luck. I had to wait until 9/29/96 at Randall's Island to see them the first time (trying to get tickets on the phone for a half hour before finally getting through). Of the 12 shows I've seen since that one, it still remains the best. And I've been to a couple of cool shows since (the post-Letterman show in 2006, the 2003 "experiment" in Mansfield, MA when they played the acoustic set before Sleater-Kinney, when they played Leash in Boston in 2006). And I did get to see Ed perform with Mike Watt at NYC's Tramps in 1995 (front row!) and met Jeff at a Three Fish show. And I will be going to my first show outside of NY or MA (or outside the US) when I will be seeing them in Dublin in less than two weeks.
Now we are approaching the band's 20th anniversary, and it's been close to 20 years since I've been listening to them. It's hard to believe that it's been that long, and my life has changed so much in this timespan, but Pearl Jam has been with me every single step during this time. And to think that this all started from an awesome song I heard on AM radio.
Thank you Pearl Jam...
NY 9/29/96; NJ 9/8/98; NY 9/10/98; NY 8/24/00; Mansfield 7/2/03; Mansfield 7/11/03; Boston 9/28/04 (VFC); Post-Letterman, NY 5/4/06; Boston 5/24/06; Boston 5/25/06; Mansfield 6/28/08; Mansfield 6/30/08; Boston 5/17/10; Dublin 6/22/10; Alpine Valley 9/3/11; Alpine Valley 9/4/11; Worcester 10/15/13; Worcester 10/16/13; Brooklyn 10/18/13; Philadelphia 4/29/16; Boston 8/5/16; Boston 8/7/16, Seattle 8/8/18, Seattle 8/10/18, Boston 9/2/18, Boston 9/4/18
Mike Watt featuring EV, NY 4/27/95; Three Fish w/JA, NY 7/11/96; Three Fish w/JA, NY 6/11/99; EV Solo, Boston 8/1/08, Tres Mts. w/JA & MM, Boston 3/27/11; EV Solo, Boston 6/16/11
Age six, flipping through channels. caught "Jeremy" on MTV. Hooked ever since. I remember at first thinking the band was called Jeremy.
What's up my little partner in crime? Hope you enjoyed MSG2! The song that hooked me was Evenflow. I was a freshman in college (please no old man jokes) and I heard it at a party in the early winter of '91. Saw them at Lolla in Saratoga of '92 and I was hooked.
The song that hooked me was Evenflow. I was a freshman in college (please no old man jokes
Same for me except I was in Baton Rouge LA in 91. The DJ at the bar my friends and I used to go to started playing Even Flow and Alive in his wacky but fun music sets.
A typical list would be
Queen - Flat bottom Girls
Clarence Carter- Strokin'
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Southern Cross
Steve Earle - Copperhead Road
Pearl Jam - Alive
Dwight Yoakam - Little Sister
Chris Isaak - Wicked Game
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give it Away
Reading PA 2004
Virginia Beach outside in the grass 2008
Philly Spectrum night 2 2009
New York MSG night 2 2010
Montreal Bell Centre 2011
Nothingman off the album.....then It was a slow process of finding song after song that I enjoyed. Then I decided to buy Live on two legs and it was all over with after that!!
Jeremy, i used to sit on the bus on the way to a from school playing it on my walkman on repeat, over and over again. all this stemming from seeing the 1991 vma's performance of the song on MTV. The intensity in ed during the performance is unbelievable
E. Rutherford 6/03/06
Camden 6/19/08
Newark 5/18/10
MSG 5/20/10
MSG 5/21/10
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Comments
I had to get used to Ten, but I remember Release...
Daughter: second album credibility
Not For You: cemented my passion.
Hartford 10 Boston 10 Wrigley 13 Worcester I 13 Worcester II 13 Hartford 13
NYC I 16 NYC II 16 Fenway I 16 Fenway II 16 Fenway 1 18 Fenway II 18
E.V. Boston II 08 E.V. Albany II 09 E.V. Providence 11, E.V. Boston 11
Troubled Souls Unite
MSG 1 & 2 2016
Central Park 2015
Barclays 2, Seattle 2013
MSG 1 & 2 2010
Boston 1 & 2 2006
Boston 1 2004
Augusta 1996
Then I seen them live and was blown away. Almost 20 years later and still loving it.
2003: Albany, Hartford, Camden 1+2,
2006: Albany, Hartford, Boston 2,
2008: Mansfield,
2010 MSG 1+2,
2011: Alpine Valley 1+2
2013: Buffalo, Brooklyn 1+2, Philly 1+2, Hartford
Then of course heard Ten, and fell in love with Porch (i think cause i was so young and was loved that he said "fuck" in it!)
Spin the black circle and Once got me when i really started to know who the guys on the tape and records were!
They were my second musical love after Mr. Page over there>>> and his little ol band. I know they've never been one of the chief influences of the band overall, but there is somethin mysteriously similar about both bands to me.
That's so funny because I always remember singing Betterman with my Mom one day in the car...and that was my song too, I think...I was like 19 and it was summer, we just got back from swimming and we were both driving down the expressway belting out the lyrics. I remeber thinking my Mom was pretty cool for knowing the words.
1996 - Randall's Island II 1998 - MSG I
2000 - Jones Beach II & III 2003 - Uniondale, MSG I & II
2006 - E. Ruth I & II 2007 - Lollapalooza
2008 - MSG I & II, Hartford 2009 - Philly IV
2010 - Newark, MSG I & II
Summer of 99... I was subjected to Dave Matthews like crazy. A guy I was working with would listen from sunrise to sunset. He wouldn't get out of bed (it was a summer camp) until DMB was turned on the stereo.
I get home and the radio station is playing Last Kiss and the Two Legs version of "Small Town." I'm like.. "I have no idea who the hell is playing that version of Small Town" but I need it.
2 Legs was the first thing I bought by PJ... Ten was next, but a few years later, IIRC.
Cleveland 5/20/2006 Columbus 5/6/2010 Chicago 7/19/2013
Cincinnatti 6/24/2006 Noblesville 5/7/2010. Buffalo 10/12/2013
Lollapalooza 8/5/2007 Mountain View 10/23/2010 Cincinnatti 10/1/2014
Washington D.C. 6/22/2008 Mountain View 10/24/2010 St. Louis 10/3/2014
Chicago 8/22/2008(EV Solo) St. Louis 7/1/2011 (EV Solo) St. Paul 10/19/2014
Kansas City 5/3/2010 East Troy 9/3/2011 Milwaukee 10/20/2014
Hampton 4/18/2016 Columbia 4/21/2016 Lexington 4/26/2016
NYC 5/2/2016
So the lead single for No Code was Who You Are, and believe it or not THAT was the song that turned me from a casual listener to a crazy "gotta have everything related to this band" fan. I broke in Yield during a church retreat to New Mexico with our youth group, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. The drive from Louisiana to Taos New Mexico was spent listening to so much music. Our Pastor, Mike Aus, is a huge Neil Young fan and after that volunteer retreat I was too.
Didn't see my first live show till the 2000 New Orleans show, which is also when I joined the fanclub. Sonic Youth opened, and I was already a huge fan of them. Prior to 2000 I had purchased a few (very expensive) live bootlegs, lots of tshirts, and all the officially released stuff (including most of the singles).
I even taped most of the live performances of the band on VHS since they didn't do many interviews in the 90s, but when SVT came out I thought all the Letterman and SNL appearances we're obsolete. My old VHS tape is probably is bad shape since I watched it so often.
I remember stumbling upon an awesome station on AM radio while growing up in NYC, 1480 Z-Rock. They played a good mix of metal/hard rock/alternative. It was the first time I heard "Alive" - that was early 1992. Before I even heard that song I listened to Top 40 and hard rock (mostly what was popular at the time - Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, etc.). But something changed for me when I first heard that PJ song. I was hooked already - the same week I took a trip to the Wiz and bought "Ten" on cassette (I didn't even have a CD player at the time). I remember playing it for the first time, and when it started with that Master/Slave intro to "Once" I thought, hmm, what is this? But then the song kicked in, and the rest of the album... and it felt like my life had changed.
I became obsessed - I went out and started to get into everything alternative/grunge. I got into Mother Love Bone and Green River. I fell in love with the Singles soundtrack and movie. I found bootleg shows on cassette. I heard some B sides on 89.5 WSOU Seton Hall Pirate Radio and taped them off of the radio (I fell in love with "Footsteps" that way). When I finally got a CD player, I bought all of the import singles because of the extra songs on them. I freaked out anytime anything about the band was mentioned. MTV Unplugged was classic. Appearance on Headbangers Ball.
I remember getting Vs. the Saturday before it came out in stores because of a record store that I knew sold new releases early. I rushed home with the CD and played it non-stop for months. "Rearviewmirror" = amazing.
Since this was a time before I even owned a computer, I didn't really think about the fan club that much (although I am kicking myself that I should have joined back then, or at least I shouldn't have let my membership expire when I did join for one year in 1995 and not again until 2000). The 1994 show they played at the Paramount at MSG was a fan-club only show - I was outside the venue for about 2 hours trying to get tickets for a reasonable price (I just started college so I didn't have a lot of cash) but no luck. I had to wait until 9/29/96 at Randall's Island to see them the first time (trying to get tickets on the phone for a half hour before finally getting through). Of the 12 shows I've seen since that one, it still remains the best. And I've been to a couple of cool shows since (the post-Letterman show in 2006, the 2003 "experiment" in Mansfield, MA when they played the acoustic set before Sleater-Kinney, when they played Leash in Boston in 2006). And I did get to see Ed perform with Mike Watt at NYC's Tramps in 1995 (front row!) and met Jeff at a Three Fish show. And I will be going to my first show outside of NY or MA (or outside the US) when I will be seeing them in Dublin in less than two weeks.
Now we are approaching the band's 20th anniversary, and it's been close to 20 years since I've been listening to them. It's hard to believe that it's been that long, and my life has changed so much in this timespan, but Pearl Jam has been with me every single step during this time. And to think that this all started from an awesome song I heard on AM radio.
Thank you Pearl Jam...
NY 9/29/96; NJ 9/8/98; NY 9/10/98; NY 8/24/00; Mansfield 7/2/03; Mansfield 7/11/03; Boston 9/28/04 (VFC); Post-Letterman, NY 5/4/06; Boston 5/24/06; Boston 5/25/06; Mansfield 6/28/08; Mansfield 6/30/08; Boston 5/17/10; Dublin 6/22/10; Alpine Valley 9/3/11; Alpine Valley 9/4/11; Worcester 10/15/13; Worcester 10/16/13; Brooklyn 10/18/13; Philadelphia 4/29/16; Boston 8/5/16; Boston 8/7/16, Seattle 8/8/18, Seattle 8/10/18, Boston 9/2/18, Boston 9/4/18
Mike Watt featuring EV, NY 4/27/95; Three Fish w/JA, NY 7/11/96; Three Fish w/JA, NY 6/11/99; EV Solo, Boston 8/1/08, Tres Mts. w/JA & MM, Boston 3/27/11; EV Solo, Boston 6/16/11
I had the first two albums on cassette, it wasn't until vitalogy I got a CD player.
What's up my little partner in crime? Hope you enjoyed MSG2! The song that hooked me was Evenflow. I was a freshman in college (please no old man jokes) and I heard it at a party in the early winter of '91. Saw them at Lolla in Saratoga of '92 and I was hooked.
David
Same for me except I was in Baton Rouge LA in 91. The DJ at the bar my friends and I used to go to started playing Even Flow and Alive in his wacky but fun music sets.
A typical list would be
Queen - Flat bottom Girls
Clarence Carter- Strokin'
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Southern Cross
Steve Earle - Copperhead Road
Pearl Jam - Alive
Dwight Yoakam - Little Sister
Chris Isaak - Wicked Game
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give it Away
Virginia Beach outside in the grass 2008
Philly Spectrum night 2 2009
New York MSG night 2 2010
Montreal Bell Centre 2011
Camden 6/19/08
Newark 5/18/10
MSG 5/20/10
MSG 5/21/10
Brian (Staten Island): Does Boom even speak to you guys?
SportsNation Jeff Ament: (6:42 PM ET ) we can only speak to Boom when spoken to...