I was 8 or 9 when Ten came out and I always thought my older brother was very cool because he had a 5-disc CD changer in his room and a ton of CDs. He had all the great alternative stuff: Everclear, the Toadies, Nirvana, the Foo Fighters (later on), Seven Mary Three, Collective Soul, Soundgarden, Soul Asylum, and of course Pearl Jam. While some of those bands are clearly long gone now (name another song besides "Cumbersome" from Seven Mary Three...I dare you), PJ really connected with me then. I remember he had Ten when it came out and I remember sneaking into his room when he was at work (he hated that I was in there all the time) and blasting the album, especially "Jeremy" over and over again. I also remember when the video for that song was on MTV...a lot. I guess I don't really have an "it" moment when I got hooked on PJ, because that's more of less of what I remember about getting into them, a hazy dream in an in an 9-year-old's head that still exists 19 years later.
1998-06-30 Minneapolis
2003-06-16 St. Paul
2006-06-26 St. Paul
2007-08-05 Chicago
2009-08-23 Chicago
2009-08-28 San Francisco
2010-05-01 NOLA (Jazz Fest)
2011-07-02 EV Minneapolis
2011-09-03 PJ20
2011-09-04 PJ20
2011-09-17 Winnipeg
2012-06-26 Amsterdam
2012-06-27 Amsterdam
2013-07-19 Wrigley
2013-11-21 San Diego
2013-11-23 Los Angeles
2013-11-24 Los Angeles
2014-07-08 Leeds, UK
2014-07-11 Milton Keynes, UK
2014-10-09 Lincoln
2014-10-19 St. Paul
2014-10-20 Milwaukee
2016-08-20 Wrigley 1
2016-08-22 Wrigley 2 2018-06-18 London 1 2018-08-18 Wrigley 1 2018-08-20 Wrigley 2 2022-09-16 Nashville 2023-08-31 St. Paul 2023-09-02 St. Paul 2023-09-05 Chicago 1 2024-08-31 Wrigley 2 2024-09-15 Fenway 1 2024-09-27 Ohana 1 2024-09-29 Ohana 2
Just imagine you heard PJ for the first time last week! ALL THAT AMAZING MUSIC.
I am going through this with Neil Young right now. I always thought he was alright, but never really got into him until the last few years. DOZENS of albums to learn...dozens. Over 40 years of music to catch up on. Its freaking great.
1998-06-30 Minneapolis
2003-06-16 St. Paul
2006-06-26 St. Paul
2007-08-05 Chicago
2009-08-23 Chicago
2009-08-28 San Francisco
2010-05-01 NOLA (Jazz Fest)
2011-07-02 EV Minneapolis
2011-09-03 PJ20
2011-09-04 PJ20
2011-09-17 Winnipeg
2012-06-26 Amsterdam
2012-06-27 Amsterdam
2013-07-19 Wrigley
2013-11-21 San Diego
2013-11-23 Los Angeles
2013-11-24 Los Angeles
2014-07-08 Leeds, UK
2014-07-11 Milton Keynes, UK
2014-10-09 Lincoln
2014-10-19 St. Paul
2014-10-20 Milwaukee
2016-08-20 Wrigley 1
2016-08-22 Wrigley 2 2018-06-18 London 1 2018-08-18 Wrigley 1 2018-08-20 Wrigley 2 2022-09-16 Nashville 2023-08-31 St. Paul 2023-09-02 St. Paul 2023-09-05 Chicago 1 2024-08-31 Wrigley 2 2024-09-15 Fenway 1 2024-09-27 Ohana 1 2024-09-29 Ohana 2
Had Ten when it first came out, but it really kicked into high gear w/ the '93 MTV awards show when they brought Neil Young out. Animal into RITFW with Neil? Such a great performance. That hooked it for me.
"You're no help," he told the lime. This was unfair. It was only a lime; there was nothing special about it at all. It was doing the best it could.
I was in 5th grade when i picked up my Mom's copy of Ten and listened to it. It was mindblowing to me. Then i listened to later albums like Vs, Vitalogy, No Code, and all the others. I was addicted. I'm 13 now in 8th grade and still LOVE PJ. I listen to PJ everyday on the bus. I have tons of bootlegs and all the albums. I hate when i get that look from people when i wear a PJ shirt to school. I guess other people my age can't appreciate good music when they see it. Pearl Jam changed my life for the better. Thanks for all the amazing music Ed, Stone, Jeff,Mike, and Matt. My life will never be the same.
2013 : London, Buffalo
_____________________________
It makes much more sense, to live
In the present tense
1992 cutting high school driving in my friends car . He puts in a copy of ten in the cassette deck and that was it . Kind of lost them for a little through the club and techno days then re-found them in 2000 when i saw them for the first 2-times at Jones beach . Since then have seen them 25 or so times !!!
I bought the cassette tape of Ten, played the hell out of it. But being a mother of 3 young kids at the time, I never followed the band beyond Ten. Then my boys played Pearl Jam all the time when they were in Middle School and High School. I started loving them again (2000). Then I bought all there CD's, saw them in concert and the rest is history. The best Mother's Day Present was when PJ came to Cleveland on Mother's Day (2010) and we all went to the concert together as a family!
I was 22 (hey kids :wave: ) when Ten came out. I was at my girlfriends house when her step sister came in and put it on, this would have been very close to release day. I'd been a music obsessive since I was 11 (still am) and I'd read about this new Seattle band ( I was a big Nirvana/Mudhoney fan) but this was the first time I'd heard PJ, I was blown away, it was love at first listen, I've never looked back.
And may I just say, Thank You Linda, wherever you may be, you changed my life that day
My first introduction to Pearl Jam was way back in elementary school when I had just joined Boy Scouts ('91/'92). There were a bunch of us crammed into someone's conversion van on our way to some sort of camp out/jamboree and I was sitting near a kid who was in high school. For whatever reason he and some of the other older kids were singing, "Sheets of empty canvas....bashdabeeny bannee."
Soon after that my mom took me to Sound Waves by our local Gerland's grocery store and I picked up Ten, on tape. I also got Megadeth - Count Down to Extinction. No clue where Megadeath came into the picture. Those were the first real music albums that I bought (I'm talking beyond Vanilla Ice/MC Hammer/Cocktail Soundtrack).
It was at that point that I discovered that the words "bashdabeeny bannee" are no where to be found in any Pearl Jam song, let alone the song Black.
Shortly after I made my big purchase my mom confiscated both of the tapes after a local boy killed his mother claiming that he received a message from the devil in the form of a Megadeth song. I can't really blame her for that, can I? We all know that Megadeth and PJ are really far apart musically but at the time I'm sure my mom lumped it all together.
After enough of me begging for my Ten tape back my mom and I sat on the end of my bed and tried to read through the lyric sheet - of course it's in Ed's handwriting and she couldn't read it....but we didn't see any words that looked like "Kill" or "Mother" so I got it back. I'm not sure whatever happened to my Megadeth tape.
It was around this time that I also bought my first band poster at a school book-fair. It was the classic Stickman with a bunch of their '93 European tour stops listed at the bottom. I really wish I still had that.
I read somewhere that your favorite music all dates back to the ages of 13-18 and that is right on the money for me. I was pretty saturated with Pearl Jam when I was 13 which coincided with my awkward, goofy, peach fuzz mustache teenage years.
I picked up Vs. and Vitalogy the day they came out....I joined 10 Club for a couple of years (I know I got the Angel X-Mas single). I listened to Vs. more than any other CD I ever owned. I would put Daughter on repeat for HOURS as I sat in my room and read all my baseball cards. I'm pretty sure my mother hated that song.
There was also a concert that was broadcast across the radio which at the time was a really big deal and 104.1 KRBE broadcast it in Houston. I spent the night at a friends house and we recorded it onto tape. I've torn through all my old stuff looking for that tape but I can't find it. (can anyone tell me what show that might have been?)
After Vitalogy, I drifted away - this was as I was entering high school. My music tastes changed and when No Code came out I was into something else. During college my brother bought me Riot Act. It was quite a bit different from the Pearl Jam of my youth but it got me back in the groove again and I started to download a bunch of the band's bootlegs and acoustic stuff and was really into that for a year or so. Until this stretch, the only version of Yellow Ledbetter I owned was from that radio bootleg concert that we dubbed.
Then in 2010 I just so happened to catch a few minutes of Saturday Night Live, which I don't really ever watch anymore, and the musical guest was on. It took me a few seconds but I said, "Hey, that's Eddie Vedder. Does Pearl Jam have a new album?" I was sooooooo far out of the loop.
Right around that time my brother and I were planning a trip to Boston & New York to go to a game at Fenway and see NYC. I was poking around on the internet trying to figure out if they gave tours of Boston Garden when I saw that Pearl Jam was playing there a couple days before arrived. I thought, "Man, that sucks it would be awesome to see them play with my brother (he has always been way more into music than I am)." Then it hit me - if they're on tour then they are probably playing somewhere nearby fairly soon after that show. Bingo. Madison Square Garden on Friday May 21st.
The next 2 months consisted of me completely engulfing myself in everything the band put out beyond Vitalogy. It was like I was cramming for an exam. I couldn't get enough. I ended up being more excited about the show than I was about Fenway and everything else we had planned.
Then the night of May 21st changed my life. It was the greatest event I had ever been to.
Since that day I think there might have been three non-PJ albums that have hit my speakers. I think I'm over 1,000 bootlegs now. I'm a tad bit o.c.d.
The music has become a soundtrack to my life - I'll be in a conversation with someone and they'll say something that will remind me of a song lyric and it'll be stuck in my head all day.
My brother and I made the trip up to Alpine Valley for PJ20 and we'll be hitting up both of EV's Houston shows. I can't wait for their new album to come out and for the band to set up another tour!
It was 1991 and grade 9, Nevermind was getting big. I bought it and Metallica's Black album on a school bball trip to the city. They were my 1st albums I bought myself. Xmas 91 and my childhood friend gets 2 copies of Ten, one of them from my folks. I tell them I'll take the extra copy as I'd heard Jeremy playing in the gym during lunch bball pickup games. I didn't get it, but kept MTV on as much as possible to catch a glimpse. Lack of funds and persistence on my part kept me from getting Ten until 1993 after I had stolen my sisters copy of Vs. None of friends were into PJ either so copying/stealing it from them wasn't an option either, but once I had it I wore the liner notes out from pouring over them for hours.
I bought Vitalogy shortly after release on another school trip to the city and remember a few guys from the team asking how it was. Of course I was biased and gave it a glowing review, not that it didn't deserve it. Around that time was the birth of Internet access in our area and this new font of information opened fed my PJ needs. 5Horizons, the old synergy site and all the other early PJ related sites were my only source of info. I had a bunch of Eddie quote wav's that I really wish I still had. I have no idea why I never joined the fan club back then. I knew it existed, but wasn't aware of cool perks at the time.
I actually don't remember a moment, although my first show I remember very clearly which was probably the point at which it went a bit further.
However my much older brother claims he used to play Ten to me when I was a small child and that when I was being a complete brat (never!) it would settle me. However I don''t know know how true that is
I don't mean to offend anyone, a lot of what I say should be taken with a grain of salt... that said for most of you I'm a stranger on a computer on the other side of the world, don't give me that sort of power!
14 years old in 1992, doing a paper round, reading Kerrang magazine that I was meant to be delivering - kept reading about Pearl Jam, who I'd never really listened to as I was a huge Nirvana fan and had got it into my head that PJ was evil and a sell out etc, but decided to give them a go.
Listened to Ten which a friend had, and was hooked. Got a Saturday job when I was 16 at a local independent music store and was able to get loads of promo's and import singles that I still have to this day - until the advent of the internet and eBay in particular, I was the only one of my friends that had the whole 3CD set of Dissident for a number of years having got one through that job. Also got the orignal Alive promo for it (the one with the alternate solo and I've Got A feeling on it) which, if my memory serves, I got for the princely sum of £1.99
kept seein the videos for alive & evenflow, was diggin it. saw mtv unplugged- have been HOOKED ever since. i was 15 & am now 35- i have literally grown up with pearl jam's music. my wife thought they were ok when we met. my first show wasn't until va beach 2000. hers was d.c. (really bristow,va) 2003. we've been busy with life whenever they've got close the last few years, but next time they're within a 6 hour radius i will be there. hoping to hit 2-3 shows next tour. please come to charlotte next tour! no other band is as diverse & has such a wealth of quality material like pearl jam. BEST BAND EVER
"It's best to live in grace before you're forced to." EV- 10/09/2014
I was working at a record store in L.A. when they first came out. Two memories stand out. One is that a co-worker came to the store one day absolutely raving about this band she had seen in concert the night before. She just went on and on about how amazing they were, how the singer was climbing into the rafters of the club, etc. They didn't have an album out at this point, but I guess you can figure out who they were. We kind of ignored her because she was always on a kick about this or that band, but I do remember her raving out their live show and Ed in particular was the first I'd heard of them.
Second memory is that I worked with a guy who was obsessed with the Seattle scene long before it became a huge phenomenon. This kid just loved any rock/metal/punk band from Seattle, didn't really matter who they were. So he was on to Green River and Love Bone and Mudhoney and Nirvana those kinds of bands before there was a Pearl Jam. And of course when PJ released Ten, he was all over it, playing it constantly at work, etc. He definitely got me into a lot of those bands, especially MLB. I wasn't a huge fan of Ten, but it was clear that Ed was an amazing singer. (Does anyone remember how Ed was "this guy who sings exactly like Jim Morrison" when Ten first came out? Cracks me up because that was the big thing about PJ at the time, but it never really came up after the Ten era.)
Anyway, fast forward me and the Seattle obsessed co-worker went to Lollapalooza 2, which featured Soundgarden and PJ. They were awesome live, no question about it. At this point they had hit real big, but were playing early in the day and just killed it. Best set of the day on the main stage, no question. I say main stage because .... (wait for it) ....
The Seattle obsessed co-worker insisted that we get to Lolla the second the gates opened because there was a brand new band playing the first slot on the second stage that he'd heard good things about. Me and the Seattle obsessed coworker were pretty much the only two people there to see this new band, which turned out to be a group called Stone Temple Pilots. They didn't have an album out at this point, but they were great.
But the best band of the day on the second stage was another new group that was getting a lot of attention in L.A. at the time. There was a big buzz on the street, even though they didn't have an album out (just a two-song cassette demo) and had only played a handful of shows. But there was such a big buzz that about 5000 people showed up to see them play the second stage. Me and the Seattle obsessed coworker managed to get in the front row, dead center. The band? Rage Against the Machine, and let me tell you, they fucking killed it. Just destroyed the audience with these amazing songs that almost no one had heard before. They were giving out copies of the two-song demo and I got one. (Wish I still had it!) I think it was Bombtrack and Killing in the Name Of. I played it constantly. Anyway, it was clear from that show that something new was happening in music, that it was a whole new era, our era. I guess I owe the Seattle obsessed coworker some thanks because he turned me on to some good bands.
When PJ put out Vs., I became a huge fan. Vitalogy was even better and No Code was awesome, too. They made huge leaps in progression back then. Each new record was a whole new ballgame, where they upped the ante significantly from what had come before. And while I loved Yield, it was the first time (IMO) that they kind of took a step backwards and attempted to put the genie back in the bottle. Ten to Vs to Vitalogy to No Code was an amazing run, with massive jumps in artistry and quality each time. They haven't really grown that way since, more like found their sound and produced infinite variations upon it. They've been wonderful variations, of course, and they continue to put out great music, which is more than most bands can say at this stage in their career. Okay, that was long.
Los Angeles - Sep 11, 1992
Memphis - Aug 15, 2000
Chicago - May 16, 2006
Chicago - Aug 23-24, 2009
Columbus - May 6, 2010
Noblesville - May 7, 2010
Manchester - June 20-21, 2012
Amsterdam - June 26-27, 2012
Berlin - July 4-5, 2012
I was going through one of my chronic insomnia periods.I used to watch tv all night.There was a middle of the night tv show called The Power Hour.
They did a Seattle special,I remember barely getting through another train wreck interview with Courtney Love/Hole.I was ready to turn off when the VJ introduced a new video.It was Alive,I sat there stunned,the next day I raked Edinburgh music stores with the details of this band written on a scrap of paper.Finally the guy in Avalanche on Cockburn Street said he would try and track it down for me.
Two weeks later I get a call,he had sourced the 7' single and was keeping it for me.I went to collect.I took round friends houses insisting it be played.I wore it out on repeat for weeks.
I have never looked back,insomnia changed my life.
“There should be a place where only the things you want to happen, happen”
Any excuse to tell it again...
My uncle came down to visit.. he brought the touring band VHS with him, I Walked in during Do the Evolution & couldn't tear myself away. that was 12 years ago now and theres been no other band for me. After that it was PJ presents for my sister & I every christmas and birthday to date. he's done well at making sure we turned out allright we'll all be in Manchester for the gig in june Woooooop!!
I first really got into music in 1999/2000, when I discovered Nirvana who quickly became my favorite band. I began to listen to other Seattle bands as well, and I bought Vs. when I somehow stumbled upon it in a store, but I remember not really getting into it at the time. I liked Daughter & Elderly Woman, but that was about it.
Fast forward a few years, I met some friends on a Smashing Pumpkins forum, and we spent each evening chatting with each other. Two of them were huge PJ fans, and they introduced me to more songs, most memorably Wishlist. I now became a casual fan, but it wasn't until 2010 that I really got into them...I can't explain how or why it happened, I was youtubing some videos, they somehow came on, and it clicked. Been listening to their whole catalogue and am now anxiously waiting to finally see them live this summer.
I was 10 when I first began listening to and loving Pearl Jam. It was 1992 and luckily I had a friend in my neighborhood who was a couple of years older. I also had an awesome baby sitter. They both had Ten on cassette and as soon as I heard it, I knew it was better than any music friends my age were interested in. Thankfully my dad was into music such as Tom Petty and Led Zepplin, so I had no problem getting my parents to buy me Ten...
I spent many a days in my teenage years in my bedroom absorbing Pearl Jam. I listened to No Code for days on end when it was first released. If I had the time these days, I would love to be able to shut the door, lay on my bed, close my eyes, and just listen. Instead, I find myself taking in Pearl Jam with every household chore, with every student's paper I check at home, as I get ready in the morning, in the car, and every once in a while I do take some time to sit back and relax while I listen. I am so grateful for this band.
0
curmudgeoness
Brigadoon, foodie capital Posts: 4,039
Outside of alive and black they didnt play much of them in the NY area when I listened to the radio. I read in 08 in the newspaper how they broke the rules at the garden and played for 3 hrs and that made me interested that a band had the courage to do that so it made me want to see them. And that I heard they didnt just play hits. My dad won tickets on the radio to see them at the first night in philly and I went even though I had swine flu. that night is still played in my head from time to time. I was blown away and hooked since
So you're Patient Zero for the Philly Phlu?!?? :fp: All this time I assumed someone working in the box office was spreading it (I picked up all the tickets for my family, was first to get sick).
Just kidding, sort of.
Ah, well, I hope you're enjoying the ride. I've got both of my boys hooked, too.
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
I am 23 years old, so I guess I would be what you'd consider a new fan. I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and moved to a suburb of Seattle in 2004. I knew who Pearl Jam was, but at the time I was much more into Nirvana (as I think every middle/high schooler discovering rock music was) and I knew Kurt Cobain never liked Pearl Jam, so I never bothered.
I got my first car in 2006, and it was natural that I started listening to 107.7 the End, since the car didn't come with a CD player. At that time, songs from the Avocado album were getting heavy rotation and I was really digging the new album. I didn't know much about their prior albums, and didn't take the time to listen to them. I then heard Rearviewmirror for the first time on the radio, which had that fast, steady beat and angry sound that I liked from punk rock. That is when it clicked that hey, Pearl Jam sounds like a pretty sweet band. From there, I started discovering some of their other well known works.
Fast forward two years to the re-release of Ten. I buy it (which is rare that I buy music) and enjoy every track on Ten. I start to realize that this is my new favorite. From there, I got all excited about Backspacer, and then seeing them in concert for the first time. I didn't join Ten Club until the day after the Seattle show was announced, so I never got great seats for that show. Despite this, one thing grew to another and now not a day goes by that I am not listening to Pearl Jam or playing a Pearl Jam song on my guitar or ukulele.
Member Number: 437xxx
Pearl Jam:
Key Arena - Seattle, WA - Sep 21, 2009
Pacific Coliseum - Vancouver, BC - Sep 25, 2011
Key Arena - Seattle, WA - Dec 6, 2013
Eddie Vedder Solo:
Benaroya Hall - Seattle, WA - Jul 15, 2011
I was 13 at the time, in April-ish of 1994, I lived right next to the school so I would get home at 3:00 sharp everyday. For 3 straight days MTV, during that Pauly Shore show, played Even Flow at the same exact time. By the 3rd time, I had a new favorite song. A little later on in the Spring or early Summer, they played a 100 greatest videos of all time countdown, Jeremy,Even Flow, Alive all made the cut. Think I bought Versus (thinking it was the album that had all the video hits on it) first at about that time, then taped Ten off my cousins high quality stereo shortly after it.
They were my first real serious band, I started to listening to albums and not radio or MTV stuff because of them.
I knew about PJ in the early nineties, but I wasn´t a fan, I liked Nirvana and Hole a lot though. But then ... a couple of years ago, I was on youtube listening to a psychology teacher and saw that she had a Pearl Jam video among her favourite videos. I thought that was strange for a 60 year old woman and got curious. It was PJ performing Last Kiss in Argentina. I was blown away, mostly because of the passion in Eddie´s performance. He was so present in the moment, it was beautiful to watch. It wasn´t like anything I remebered about PJ when I was a sad teenager.
I started listening, got into Backspacer and Just Breathe, suddenly I loved all the songs on Backspacer. I started buying records, I had like 20 years of music to explore. Discovered "Into the wild", it came out in 2007 when I had a baby and didn´t listen to music at all - this music became magical to me. I continued, suddenly "I got id/shit" just hit me, and then another, and another, it was like I was in this musical universe and I had all the time I wanted to listen and explore. A lot of the songs grew on me slowly, it wasn´t love at first listening with all of them, but I just felt a magical feeling. Tried to get my friends into PJ, it didn´t work and I felt lonely in this experience.
In December I got my first PJ ticket to Stockholm 2012, and a month ago, I got a ticket for Ed solo in London. I still have a lot to explore and I´m quite new in here too, but I´m very grateful to this 60 year old psychology teacher who showed me the way to Pearl Jam. It was like it was meant to be, and finally, I was ready for Pearl Jam. I also love their intuition, their kindness etc. And of course, I have a huge crush on Eddie Pearl Jam has also helped me through a lot of shit during these years and I´m so very grateful to them for that.
"I gather speed from you fucking with me"
PJ in Stockholm, Sweden, 7th July 2012. EV solo in London, 31st July 2012. PJ in Stockholm 28th of June 2014. PJ in Milton Keynes UK, 11th of July 2014, Eddie solo in London 6th of June 2017. PJ London 18th of June, 2018, and 17th of July, 2018.
I was a bit of a run amok 14 year old and I had caught the tram down to Glenelg beach late at night with a friend of mine. When we were riding a show ride down there called The Zipper, they had put on Evenflow and I just thought it was the best song I'd ever heard. Made it my business to find out who the hell wrote it. loved them ever since.
“ "Thank you Palestrina. It’s a wonderful evening, it’s great to be here and I wanna dedicate you a super sexy song." " (last words of Mark Sandman of Morphine)
Adelaide 1998
Adelaide 2003
Adelaide 2006 night 1
Adelaide 2006 night 2
Adelaide 2009
Melbourne 2009
Christchurch NZ 2009
Eddie Vedder, Adelaide 2011
PJ20 USA 2011 night 1
PJ20 USA 2011 night 2
Adelaide BIG DAY OUT 2014
Im 31 and when i was about 15 I discovered Pearl Jam through my eldest sister, I liked them for a few years, but was never into them, or "obsessed" like some of my friends describe me, until I watched PJ20, in November last year, that Friday night, that film, that band, that history, totally blew me away!!! From that day on, I was totally obsessed! Id watch many many You Tube videos with interviews, I was intrigued by them, and wanting to know more and more! I then decided to buy PJ20 album, Vs., Ten, Rearviewmirror, Ukulele Songs, Live on two Legs and Live on ten legs, then Water on the Road, then I read 5x1, and many more... The more I found out about them, the more I loved them, I wouldnt rest until I got tickets for the summer gigs, it actually made me loose sleep, and sent my anxiety levels through the roof! Like our friend above, I feel like they are a way of life, and I have to listen to a bit of Pearl Jam and Eddie's solo work, at least once a day, to get my fix!
Anyway, Im now a happy member of 10C, Have tickets to see Pearl Jam and Eddie ( which by the way, made me cry when I found out I got tickets, and I dont think It's sank in yet, that Im going to see my hero live in a small venue), and Im also getting a tattoo on my rib cage, saying: " got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul" out of 'Guaranteed'. I have never seen them live, I'll probably cry all the way through!!!
Im so glad that I "re-discovered" them, and Im now part of all of this, but Im sad at the same time, because I missed all the amazing music I could have experienced live, over the years! I would give anything have been able to see them when they were starting, when Eddie flicked his gorgeous long hair, jumped like a nutter around the stage, and climbed up the walls!! but eh! it will be an amazing experience to be part of the next 20 years!!!
And answering your question, yeah listening to Yield, Backspacer, and other albums for the first time, is almost overwhelming!!
Wendy Testaburger
" we're going to take this to some level that people aren't going to forget... and if that means risking your life, we're going to do it!..." EV
I was nine years old,and my babysitter introduced me to this amazing band, and also took me to see them play at Lollapalooza in 1992 in Cincinnati....the rest was history.
I joined the ten club early on, but being so young it was hard to attend any concerts, really at all. I missed out on some very awesome shows, but I was able to appreciate the music and their albums.
The first cd I purchased was Vitalogy, I had owned Ten and Vs on cassette.
I didn't see pj live for almost ten years, and I saw them five times during Binaural tour. I was second row in Cincinnati at Riverbend, saw them In Indy, Chicago,Columbus, and Alpine Valley at the coldest show ever.
Right after the Binaural tour I let my membership lapse during a turbulent time in my early college life, involving transferring schools and other problems.
I re-enrolled in the ten club in '03, and have seen them a few times since(Detroit in '03 twice, Cincy in '06,Columbus in '10, and Indy '10)though never as many as I would like, but life and work make it difficult.
I am thankful that I can come home and listen to this band and everything can change for the better in an instant.
I could write endlessly on this band and their influence in my life, but speaking as a child of the 90's, there's no better band .
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2003-06-16 St. Paul
2006-06-26 St. Paul
2007-08-05 Chicago
2009-08-23 Chicago
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2010-05-01 NOLA (Jazz Fest)
2011-07-02 EV Minneapolis
2011-09-03 PJ20
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2011-09-17 Winnipeg
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2013-07-19 Wrigley
2013-11-21 San Diego
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2016-08-20 Wrigley 1
2016-08-22 Wrigley 2
2018-06-18 London 1
2018-08-18 Wrigley 1
2018-08-20 Wrigley 2
2022-09-16 Nashville
2023-08-31 St. Paul
2023-09-02 St. Paul
2023-09-05 Chicago 1
2024-08-31 Wrigley 2
2024-09-15 Fenway 1
2024-09-27 Ohana 1
2024-09-29 Ohana 2
I am going through this with Neil Young right now. I always thought he was alright, but never really got into him until the last few years. DOZENS of albums to learn...dozens. Over 40 years of music to catch up on. Its freaking great.
2003-06-16 St. Paul
2006-06-26 St. Paul
2007-08-05 Chicago
2009-08-23 Chicago
2009-08-28 San Francisco
2010-05-01 NOLA (Jazz Fest)
2011-07-02 EV Minneapolis
2011-09-03 PJ20
2011-09-04 PJ20
2011-09-17 Winnipeg
2012-06-26 Amsterdam
2012-06-27 Amsterdam
2013-07-19 Wrigley
2013-11-21 San Diego
2013-11-23 Los Angeles
2013-11-24 Los Angeles
2014-07-08 Leeds, UK
2014-07-11 Milton Keynes, UK
2014-10-09 Lincoln
2014-10-19 St. Paul
2014-10-20 Milwaukee
2016-08-20 Wrigley 1
2016-08-22 Wrigley 2
2018-06-18 London 1
2018-08-18 Wrigley 1
2018-08-20 Wrigley 2
2022-09-16 Nashville
2023-08-31 St. Paul
2023-09-02 St. Paul
2023-09-05 Chicago 1
2024-08-31 Wrigley 2
2024-09-15 Fenway 1
2024-09-27 Ohana 1
2024-09-29 Ohana 2
http://www.last.fm/user/merkinball/
spotify:user:merkinball
_____________________________
It makes much more sense, to live
In the present tense
And may I just say, Thank You Linda, wherever you may be, you changed my life that day
My first introduction to Pearl Jam was way back in elementary school when I had just joined Boy Scouts ('91/'92). There were a bunch of us crammed into someone's conversion van on our way to some sort of camp out/jamboree and I was sitting near a kid who was in high school. For whatever reason he and some of the other older kids were singing, "Sheets of empty canvas....bashdabeeny bannee."
Soon after that my mom took me to Sound Waves by our local Gerland's grocery store and I picked up Ten, on tape. I also got Megadeth - Count Down to Extinction. No clue where Megadeath came into the picture. Those were the first real music albums that I bought (I'm talking beyond Vanilla Ice/MC Hammer/Cocktail Soundtrack).
It was at that point that I discovered that the words "bashdabeeny bannee" are no where to be found in any Pearl Jam song, let alone the song Black.
Shortly after I made my big purchase my mom confiscated both of the tapes after a local boy killed his mother claiming that he received a message from the devil in the form of a Megadeth song. I can't really blame her for that, can I? We all know that Megadeth and PJ are really far apart musically but at the time I'm sure my mom lumped it all together.
After enough of me begging for my Ten tape back my mom and I sat on the end of my bed and tried to read through the lyric sheet - of course it's in Ed's handwriting and she couldn't read it....but we didn't see any words that looked like "Kill" or "Mother" so I got it back. I'm not sure whatever happened to my Megadeth tape.
It was around this time that I also bought my first band poster at a school book-fair. It was the classic Stickman with a bunch of their '93 European tour stops listed at the bottom. I really wish I still had that.
I read somewhere that your favorite music all dates back to the ages of 13-18 and that is right on the money for me. I was pretty saturated with Pearl Jam when I was 13 which coincided with my awkward, goofy, peach fuzz mustache teenage years.
I picked up Vs. and Vitalogy the day they came out....I joined 10 Club for a couple of years (I know I got the Angel X-Mas single). I listened to Vs. more than any other CD I ever owned. I would put Daughter on repeat for HOURS as I sat in my room and read all my baseball cards. I'm pretty sure my mother hated that song.
There was also a concert that was broadcast across the radio which at the time was a really big deal and 104.1 KRBE broadcast it in Houston. I spent the night at a friends house and we recorded it onto tape. I've torn through all my old stuff looking for that tape but I can't find it. (can anyone tell me what show that might have been?)
After Vitalogy, I drifted away - this was as I was entering high school. My music tastes changed and when No Code came out I was into something else. During college my brother bought me Riot Act. It was quite a bit different from the Pearl Jam of my youth but it got me back in the groove again and I started to download a bunch of the band's bootlegs and acoustic stuff and was really into that for a year or so. Until this stretch, the only version of Yellow Ledbetter I owned was from that radio bootleg concert that we dubbed.
Then in 2010 I just so happened to catch a few minutes of Saturday Night Live, which I don't really ever watch anymore, and the musical guest was on. It took me a few seconds but I said, "Hey, that's Eddie Vedder. Does Pearl Jam have a new album?" I was sooooooo far out of the loop.
Right around that time my brother and I were planning a trip to Boston & New York to go to a game at Fenway and see NYC. I was poking around on the internet trying to figure out if they gave tours of Boston Garden when I saw that Pearl Jam was playing there a couple days before arrived. I thought, "Man, that sucks it would be awesome to see them play with my brother (he has always been way more into music than I am)." Then it hit me - if they're on tour then they are probably playing somewhere nearby fairly soon after that show. Bingo. Madison Square Garden on Friday May 21st.
The next 2 months consisted of me completely engulfing myself in everything the band put out beyond Vitalogy. It was like I was cramming for an exam. I couldn't get enough. I ended up being more excited about the show than I was about Fenway and everything else we had planned.
Then the night of May 21st changed my life. It was the greatest event I had ever been to.
Since that day I think there might have been three non-PJ albums that have hit my speakers. I think I'm over 1,000 bootlegs now. I'm a tad bit o.c.d.
The music has become a soundtrack to my life - I'll be in a conversation with someone and they'll say something that will remind me of a song lyric and it'll be stuck in my head all day.
My brother and I made the trip up to Alpine Valley for PJ20 and we'll be hitting up both of EV's Houston shows. I can't wait for their new album to come out and for the band to set up another tour!
HAIL! HAIL!
EV: 11/12/12 - Houston, 11/13/12 - Houston
Play the South
I bought Vitalogy shortly after release on another school trip to the city and remember a few guys from the team asking how it was. Of course I was biased and gave it a glowing review, not that it didn't deserve it. Around that time was the birth of Internet access in our area and this new font of information opened fed my PJ needs. 5Horizons, the old synergy site and all the other early PJ related sites were my only source of info. I had a bunch of Eddie quote wav's that I really wish I still had. I have no idea why I never joined the fan club back then. I knew it existed, but wasn't aware of cool perks at the time.
However my much older brother claims he used to play Ten to me when I was a small child and that when I was being a complete brat (never!) it would settle me. However I don''t know know how true that is
Listened to Ten which a friend had, and was hooked. Got a Saturday job when I was 16 at a local independent music store and was able to get loads of promo's and import singles that I still have to this day - until the advent of the internet and eBay in particular, I was the only one of my friends that had the whole 3CD set of Dissident for a number of years having got one through that job. Also got the orignal Alive promo for it (the one with the alternate solo and I've Got A feeling on it) which, if my memory serves, I got for the princely sum of £1.99
Which my Alive 12" definitely cost me too:
http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/ff4 ... 1305119579
Had to wait to 1996 to see them live for the first time
Second memory is that I worked with a guy who was obsessed with the Seattle scene long before it became a huge phenomenon. This kid just loved any rock/metal/punk band from Seattle, didn't really matter who they were. So he was on to Green River and Love Bone and Mudhoney and Nirvana those kinds of bands before there was a Pearl Jam. And of course when PJ released Ten, he was all over it, playing it constantly at work, etc. He definitely got me into a lot of those bands, especially MLB. I wasn't a huge fan of Ten, but it was clear that Ed was an amazing singer. (Does anyone remember how Ed was "this guy who sings exactly like Jim Morrison" when Ten first came out? Cracks me up because that was the big thing about PJ at the time, but it never really came up after the Ten era.)
Anyway, fast forward me and the Seattle obsessed co-worker went to Lollapalooza 2, which featured Soundgarden and PJ. They were awesome live, no question about it. At this point they had hit real big, but were playing early in the day and just killed it. Best set of the day on the main stage, no question. I say main stage because .... (wait for it) ....
The Seattle obsessed co-worker insisted that we get to Lolla the second the gates opened because there was a brand new band playing the first slot on the second stage that he'd heard good things about. Me and the Seattle obsessed coworker were pretty much the only two people there to see this new band, which turned out to be a group called Stone Temple Pilots. They didn't have an album out at this point, but they were great.
But the best band of the day on the second stage was another new group that was getting a lot of attention in L.A. at the time. There was a big buzz on the street, even though they didn't have an album out (just a two-song cassette demo) and had only played a handful of shows. But there was such a big buzz that about 5000 people showed up to see them play the second stage. Me and the Seattle obsessed coworker managed to get in the front row, dead center. The band? Rage Against the Machine, and let me tell you, they fucking killed it. Just destroyed the audience with these amazing songs that almost no one had heard before. They were giving out copies of the two-song demo and I got one. (Wish I still had it!) I think it was Bombtrack and Killing in the Name Of. I played it constantly. Anyway, it was clear from that show that something new was happening in music, that it was a whole new era, our era. I guess I owe the Seattle obsessed coworker some thanks because he turned me on to some good bands.
When PJ put out Vs., I became a huge fan. Vitalogy was even better and No Code was awesome, too. They made huge leaps in progression back then. Each new record was a whole new ballgame, where they upped the ante significantly from what had come before. And while I loved Yield, it was the first time (IMO) that they kind of took a step backwards and attempted to put the genie back in the bottle. Ten to Vs to Vitalogy to No Code was an amazing run, with massive jumps in artistry and quality each time. They haven't really grown that way since, more like found their sound and produced infinite variations upon it. They've been wonderful variations, of course, and they continue to put out great music, which is more than most bands can say at this stage in their career. Okay, that was long.
Memphis - Aug 15, 2000
Chicago - May 16, 2006
Chicago - Aug 23-24, 2009
Columbus - May 6, 2010
Noblesville - May 7, 2010
Manchester - June 20-21, 2012
Amsterdam - June 26-27, 2012
Berlin - July 4-5, 2012
They did a Seattle special,I remember barely getting through another train wreck interview with Courtney Love/Hole.I was ready to turn off when the VJ introduced a new video.It was Alive,I sat there stunned,the next day I raked Edinburgh music stores with the details of this band written on a scrap of paper.Finally the guy in Avalanche on Cockburn Street said he would try and track it down for me.
Two weeks later I get a call,he had sourced the 7' single and was keeping it for me.I went to collect.I took round friends houses insisting it be played.I wore it out on repeat for weeks.
I have never looked back,insomnia changed my life.
My uncle came down to visit.. he brought the touring band VHS with him, I Walked in during Do the Evolution & couldn't tear myself away. that was 12 years ago now and theres been no other band for me. After that it was PJ presents for my sister & I every christmas and birthday to date. he's done well at making sure we turned out allright
Fast forward a few years, I met some friends on a Smashing Pumpkins forum, and we spent each evening chatting with each other. Two of them were huge PJ fans, and they introduced me to more songs, most memorably Wishlist. I now became a casual fan, but it wasn't until 2010 that I really got into them...I can't explain how or why it happened, I was youtubing some videos, they somehow came on, and it clicked. Been listening to their whole catalogue and am now anxiously waiting to finally see them live this summer.
I spent many a days in my teenage years in my bedroom absorbing Pearl Jam. I listened to No Code for days on end when it was first released. If I had the time these days, I would love to be able to shut the door, lay on my bed, close my eyes, and just listen. Instead, I find myself taking in Pearl Jam with every household chore, with every student's paper I check at home, as I get ready in the morning, in the car, and every once in a while I do take some time to sit back and relax while I listen. I am so grateful for this band.
So you're Patient Zero for the Philly Phlu?!?? :fp: All this time I assumed someone working in the box office was spreading it (I picked up all the tickets for my family, was first to get sick).
Just kidding, sort of.
Ah, well, I hope you're enjoying the ride. I've got both of my boys hooked, too.
I got my first car in 2006, and it was natural that I started listening to 107.7 the End, since the car didn't come with a CD player. At that time, songs from the Avocado album were getting heavy rotation and I was really digging the new album. I didn't know much about their prior albums, and didn't take the time to listen to them. I then heard Rearviewmirror for the first time on the radio, which had that fast, steady beat and angry sound that I liked from punk rock. That is when it clicked that hey, Pearl Jam sounds like a pretty sweet band. From there, I started discovering some of their other well known works.
Fast forward two years to the re-release of Ten. I buy it (which is rare that I buy music) and enjoy every track on Ten. I start to realize that this is my new favorite. From there, I got all excited about Backspacer, and then seeing them in concert for the first time. I didn't join Ten Club until the day after the Seattle show was announced, so I never got great seats for that show. Despite this, one thing grew to another and now not a day goes by that I am not listening to Pearl Jam or playing a Pearl Jam song on my guitar or ukulele.
Pearl Jam:
Key Arena - Seattle, WA - Sep 21, 2009
Pacific Coliseum - Vancouver, BC - Sep 25, 2011
Key Arena - Seattle, WA - Dec 6, 2013
Eddie Vedder Solo:
Benaroya Hall - Seattle, WA - Jul 15, 2011
They were my first real serious band, I started to listening to albums and not radio or MTV stuff because of them.
I knew about PJ in the early nineties, but I wasn´t a fan, I liked Nirvana and Hole a lot though. But then ... a couple of years ago, I was on youtube listening to a psychology teacher and saw that she had a Pearl Jam video among her favourite videos. I thought that was strange for a 60 year old woman and got curious. It was PJ performing Last Kiss in Argentina. I was blown away, mostly because of the passion in Eddie´s performance. He was so present in the moment, it was beautiful to watch. It wasn´t like anything I remebered about PJ when I was a sad teenager.
I started listening, got into Backspacer and Just Breathe, suddenly I loved all the songs on Backspacer. I started buying records, I had like 20 years of music to explore.
In December I got my first PJ ticket to Stockholm 2012, and a month ago, I got a ticket for Ed solo in London. I still have a lot to explore and I´m quite new in here too, but I´m very grateful to this 60 year old psychology teacher who showed me the way to Pearl Jam. It was like it was meant to be, and finally, I was ready for Pearl Jam. I also love their intuition, their kindness etc. And of course, I have a huge crush on Eddie
PJ in Stockholm, Sweden, 7th July 2012. EV solo in London, 31st July 2012. PJ in Stockholm 28th of June 2014. PJ in Milton Keynes UK, 11th of July 2014, Eddie solo in London 6th of June 2017. PJ London 18th of June, 2018, and 17th of July, 2018.
Adelaide 1998
Adelaide 2003
Adelaide 2006 night 1
Adelaide 2006 night 2
Adelaide 2009
Melbourne 2009
Christchurch NZ 2009
Eddie Vedder, Adelaide 2011
PJ20 USA 2011 night 1
PJ20 USA 2011 night 2
Adelaide BIG DAY OUT 2014
Im 31 and when i was about 15 I discovered Pearl Jam through my eldest sister, I liked them for a few years, but was never into them, or "obsessed" like some of my friends describe me, until I watched PJ20, in November last year, that Friday night, that film, that band, that history, totally blew me away!!! From that day on, I was totally obsessed! Id watch many many You Tube videos with interviews, I was intrigued by them, and wanting to know more and more! I then decided to buy PJ20 album, Vs., Ten, Rearviewmirror, Ukulele Songs, Live on two Legs and Live on ten legs, then Water on the Road, then I read 5x1, and many more... The more I found out about them, the more I loved them, I wouldnt rest until I got tickets for the summer gigs, it actually made me loose sleep, and sent my anxiety levels through the roof! Like our friend above, I feel like they are a way of life, and I have to listen to a bit of Pearl Jam and Eddie's solo work, at least once a day, to get my fix!
Anyway, Im now a happy member of 10C, Have tickets to see Pearl Jam and Eddie ( which by the way, made me cry when I found out I got tickets, and I dont think It's sank in yet, that Im going to see my hero live in a small venue), and Im also getting a tattoo on my rib cage, saying: " got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul" out of 'Guaranteed'. I have never seen them live, I'll probably cry all the way through!!!
Im so glad that I "re-discovered" them, and Im now part of all of this, but Im sad at the same time, because I missed all the amazing music I could have experienced live, over the years! I would give anything have been able to see them when they were starting, when Eddie flicked his gorgeous long hair, jumped like a nutter around the stage, and climbed up the walls!! but eh! it will be an amazing experience to be part of the next 20 years!!!
And answering your question, yeah listening to Yield, Backspacer, and other albums for the first time, is almost overwhelming!!
" we're going to take this to some level that people aren't going to forget... and if that means risking your life, we're going to do it!..." EV
"
I joined the ten club early on, but being so young it was hard to attend any concerts, really at all. I missed out on some very awesome shows, but I was able to appreciate the music and their albums.
The first cd I purchased was Vitalogy, I had owned Ten and Vs on cassette.
I didn't see pj live for almost ten years, and I saw them five times during Binaural tour. I was second row in Cincinnati at Riverbend, saw them In Indy, Chicago,Columbus, and Alpine Valley at the coldest show ever.
Right after the Binaural tour I let my membership lapse during a turbulent time in my early college life, involving transferring schools and other problems.
I re-enrolled in the ten club in '03, and have seen them a few times since(Detroit in '03 twice, Cincy in '06,Columbus in '10, and Indy '10)though never as many as I would like, but life and work make it difficult.
I am thankful that I can come home and listen to this band and everything can change for the better in an instant.
I could write endlessly on this band and their influence in my life, but speaking as a child of the 90's, there's no better band .