2017 Rock Hall profiles: Pearl Jam brought honesty, integrity and sweat to the alt-rock world
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/03/2017_rock_hall_profiles_pearl.html
By Chuck Yarborough, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio - New York City had its share of historic clubs, one being the Bowery's CBGB, the really dirty, really nasty, really iconic place whose banner hangs in the museum of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame here in Cleveland.
But the North Coast had its own variations, and one was the equally dirty, equally nasty and equally iconic place called Peabody's DownUnder, one of the hallmarks on the east bank of Cleveland's Flats.
Back in the day, Peabody's DownUnder was a subterranean dive that felt like you were walking into the seedier sections of the Roman catacombs. The floors were caked with spilled beer, old sweat and probably the byproduct of too much Genny Cream Ale and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
It smelled like the south end of a northbound mule - on a good day. And going into one of the restrooms was like visiting a sticker- and graffiti-infested Petri dish. Doing so without a haz-mat suit was a deed done at your own risk.
But everybody - EVERYBODY - played there.
For example, in 1992, when Nirvana and grunge were king, another band from the genre's hotbed home - Seattle - parked outside Peabody's and trudged in with their equipment. They were touring in support of "Ten,'' their debut album, poised on the verge of the same kind of success found - perhaps reluctantly - by Nirvana. The 12-song set list was mostly FROM that album, as a matter of fact.
Eddie Vedder and his Pearl Jam band mates just flat killed it.
Michael Norman, who is now the entertainment manager at cleveland.com, was The Plain Dealer's rock critic at the time. In a 1994 review of a Pearl Jam show at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center, he had this to say about that Peabody's gig:
"Two years ago this month, Pearl Jam played a gig at Peabody's DownUnder in the Flats that I still think is one of the best rock 'n' roll shows this town has ever seen. In that small club setting, Pearl Jam had an almost mystical hold on its audience. Its music was visceral, sweaty, honest, cathartic."
Peabody's is gone now, having relocated near the Cleveland State University campus, and then being bought out by the school a few years ago.
But Pearl Jam and its music today remain as Norman described them - visceral, sweaty, honest and cathartic. It's no accident that the band has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide.
That is why in the band's first year of eligibility, Vedder & Co. will take the Barclays Center stage in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday, April 7, as part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2017.
They will be inducted alongside Joan Baez, Electric Light Orchestra, Journey, Nile Rodgers of Chic, Tupac Shakur and Yes. Pearl Jam and Shakur are the only members of this class being enshrined in their first year of eligibility. And appropriately enough, those two inductees were the only two consensus "no-brainers'' in a 19-artist/band list of nominees.
True to form - the band has always been a lightning rod for controversy - the band's induction hasn't been without drama. Original drummer Dave Krusen is among those who will be enshrined, alongside current drummer Matt Cameron, but former stickmen Matt Chamberlain, Dave Abbruzzese and Jack Irons all were invited to the ceremony.
It's not clear just who will take the stage in the usual three-song set each inductee does, but it's a good bet that Abbruzzese, who waged a public campaign to attend and played on the band's celebrated "Vitalogy'' album, will be onstage for at least one of those numbers.
Oh, and the band also is known for refusing to give interviews, so it should be no surprise that no current member - Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament or Cameron - would make themselves available for this story.
McCready, Gossard and Ament, all from or with long histories in Seattle, were part of the original group that became Pearl Jam. Vedder was a surfing gas station jockey in California when he received a demo from Irons that featured music from the band. He wrote lyrics to three of those songs - "Alive,'' "Once'' and "Footsteps'' - that became what Vedder terms in a Rolling Stone article by Cameron Crowe "a mini-opera'' he called "Momma-son.''
The three Washington-based musicians heard the cassette, flew Vedder north and 10 days later, according to Crowe, the band had its frontman.
One of the great myths, originally spread and then debunked by Vedder, is that the band's name came from his great-grandmother, Pearl, who had a recipe for great peyote-laced jam.
The truth is that the band, originally named Mookie Blaylock, after a pro basketball player popular at the time, came from a suggestion by Ament to use "Pearl'' in the name, then hearing a Neil Young concert, where jams are an integral part.
Indeed, one of the band's best-known tunes - and maybe its most popular cover, other than a variation of J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers' ballad "Last Kiss'' - is a version of Young's "Rockin' in the Free World.''
Activism has always been a part of the band's makeup, so it was no surprise when they took on concert giant Ticketmaster in the mid-1990s, even so far as testifying against the ticket monolith in Congress and refusing to play events where Ticketmaster controlled the box office.
In his book, "Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the '90s,'' former critic and music journalist and current assistant professor at Chicago's Columbia College Jim DeRogatis had this to say about that feud:
"[Pearl Jam] proved that a rock band which isn't comprised of greed heads can play stadiums and not milk the audience for every last dime . . . [The band's battle] indicated that idealism in rock 'n' roll is not the sole province of the '60s bands enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn may have captured the spirit of the band in a 2009 interview with Vedder, who told him:
"I think at some point along the way we began feeling we wanted to give people something to believe in because we all had bands that gave that to us when we needed something to believe in. That was the big challenge for us after the first record and the response to it. The goal immediately became how do we continue to be musicians and grow and survive in view of all this. ... The answers weren't always easy, but I think we found a way."
Activism continues to be a Pearl Jam hallmark, and in 2011, the band was named Planet Defenders by Rock the Earth for its environmental stances and the band's push to curb its own carbon footprint.
And yet, the thing that remains is the music. Pearl Jam - and in particular Vedder, with his dusky, emotive voice - remains one of the best bands currently playing. Which is one reason why a ticket to this year's induction ceremony or the simulcast at the Rock Hall itself is such a big deal.
According to former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios, a longtime friend of Vedder's, the band is taking a year off from touring. So far, Vedder and company have not confirmed Chelios' report, which has been repeated in outlet after outlet.
But it remains likely that the enigmatic band will indeed take time off, maybe to record a new album that would add to its 10-studio-album discography, the last being "Lightning Bolt,'' in 2013.
Or they could just be waiting for Peabody's DownUnder to reopen.
By Chuck Yarborough, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio - New York City had its share of historic clubs, one being the Bowery's CBGB, the really dirty, really nasty, really iconic place whose banner hangs in the museum of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame here in Cleveland.
But the North Coast had its own variations, and one was the equally dirty, equally nasty and equally iconic place called Peabody's DownUnder, one of the hallmarks on the east bank of Cleveland's Flats.
Back in the day, Peabody's DownUnder was a subterranean dive that felt like you were walking into the seedier sections of the Roman catacombs. The floors were caked with spilled beer, old sweat and probably the byproduct of too much Genny Cream Ale and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
It smelled like the south end of a northbound mule - on a good day. And going into one of the restrooms was like visiting a sticker- and graffiti-infested Petri dish. Doing so without a haz-mat suit was a deed done at your own risk.
But everybody - EVERYBODY - played there.
For example, in 1992, when Nirvana and grunge were king, another band from the genre's hotbed home - Seattle - parked outside Peabody's and trudged in with their equipment. They were touring in support of "Ten,'' their debut album, poised on the verge of the same kind of success found - perhaps reluctantly - by Nirvana. The 12-song set list was mostly FROM that album, as a matter of fact.
Eddie Vedder and his Pearl Jam band mates just flat killed it.
Michael Norman, who is now the entertainment manager at cleveland.com, was The Plain Dealer's rock critic at the time. In a 1994 review of a Pearl Jam show at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center, he had this to say about that Peabody's gig:
"Two years ago this month, Pearl Jam played a gig at Peabody's DownUnder in the Flats that I still think is one of the best rock 'n' roll shows this town has ever seen. In that small club setting, Pearl Jam had an almost mystical hold on its audience. Its music was visceral, sweaty, honest, cathartic."
Peabody's is gone now, having relocated near the Cleveland State University campus, and then being bought out by the school a few years ago.
But Pearl Jam and its music today remain as Norman described them - visceral, sweaty, honest and cathartic. It's no accident that the band has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide.
That is why in the band's first year of eligibility, Vedder & Co. will take the Barclays Center stage in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday, April 7, as part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2017.
They will be inducted alongside Joan Baez, Electric Light Orchestra, Journey, Nile Rodgers of Chic, Tupac Shakur and Yes. Pearl Jam and Shakur are the only members of this class being enshrined in their first year of eligibility. And appropriately enough, those two inductees were the only two consensus "no-brainers'' in a 19-artist/band list of nominees.
True to form - the band has always been a lightning rod for controversy - the band's induction hasn't been without drama. Original drummer Dave Krusen is among those who will be enshrined, alongside current drummer Matt Cameron, but former stickmen Matt Chamberlain, Dave Abbruzzese and Jack Irons all were invited to the ceremony.
It's not clear just who will take the stage in the usual three-song set each inductee does, but it's a good bet that Abbruzzese, who waged a public campaign to attend and played on the band's celebrated "Vitalogy'' album, will be onstage for at least one of those numbers.
Oh, and the band also is known for refusing to give interviews, so it should be no surprise that no current member - Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament or Cameron - would make themselves available for this story.
McCready, Gossard and Ament, all from or with long histories in Seattle, were part of the original group that became Pearl Jam. Vedder was a surfing gas station jockey in California when he received a demo from Irons that featured music from the band. He wrote lyrics to three of those songs - "Alive,'' "Once'' and "Footsteps'' - that became what Vedder terms in a Rolling Stone article by Cameron Crowe "a mini-opera'' he called "Momma-son.''
The three Washington-based musicians heard the cassette, flew Vedder north and 10 days later, according to Crowe, the band had its frontman.
One of the great myths, originally spread and then debunked by Vedder, is that the band's name came from his great-grandmother, Pearl, who had a recipe for great peyote-laced jam.
The truth is that the band, originally named Mookie Blaylock, after a pro basketball player popular at the time, came from a suggestion by Ament to use "Pearl'' in the name, then hearing a Neil Young concert, where jams are an integral part.
Indeed, one of the band's best-known tunes - and maybe its most popular cover, other than a variation of J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers' ballad "Last Kiss'' - is a version of Young's "Rockin' in the Free World.''
Activism has always been a part of the band's makeup, so it was no surprise when they took on concert giant Ticketmaster in the mid-1990s, even so far as testifying against the ticket monolith in Congress and refusing to play events where Ticketmaster controlled the box office.
In his book, "Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the '90s,'' former critic and music journalist and current assistant professor at Chicago's Columbia College Jim DeRogatis had this to say about that feud:
"[Pearl Jam] proved that a rock band which isn't comprised of greed heads can play stadiums and not milk the audience for every last dime . . . [The band's battle] indicated that idealism in rock 'n' roll is not the sole province of the '60s bands enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn may have captured the spirit of the band in a 2009 interview with Vedder, who told him:
"I think at some point along the way we began feeling we wanted to give people something to believe in because we all had bands that gave that to us when we needed something to believe in. That was the big challenge for us after the first record and the response to it. The goal immediately became how do we continue to be musicians and grow and survive in view of all this. ... The answers weren't always easy, but I think we found a way."
Activism continues to be a Pearl Jam hallmark, and in 2011, the band was named Planet Defenders by Rock the Earth for its environmental stances and the band's push to curb its own carbon footprint.
And yet, the thing that remains is the music. Pearl Jam - and in particular Vedder, with his dusky, emotive voice - remains one of the best bands currently playing. Which is one reason why a ticket to this year's induction ceremony or the simulcast at the Rock Hall itself is such a big deal.
According to former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios, a longtime friend of Vedder's, the band is taking a year off from touring. So far, Vedder and company have not confirmed Chelios' report, which has been repeated in outlet after outlet.
But it remains likely that the enigmatic band will indeed take time off, maybe to record a new album that would add to its 10-studio-album discography, the last being "Lightning Bolt,'' in 2013.
Or they could just be waiting for Peabody's DownUnder to reopen.
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