When/How did you discover Pearl Jam?

Loujoe

cblock4life said:

Not my story but a good one....friend of ours who was SC (eds baseball friend) roommate tells us "hey, was at SC the other day and I think I met that guy you and your wife travel around to see, think his name is Ed"  Seriously?  WTF - he didn't even realize it!  What a kick in the ass that was!!!

That's so funny!!!'If that was me I'd have ran home and came back with a pile of stuff and some fresh sharpies. Eddie would have ran away fast.

tdawe

Jeremy video. I was 10 years old. 

I was hooked on Ten, but I do think that the ‘92 VMA performance with Neil is the moment that took me to the next level. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Incidentally that was also the night that (1) I was first exposed to my second favorite band of all time (REM) and (2) I dropped my previous favorite band (U2) after the hype for them performing their new single as the follow-up to Achtung Baby ended up being just The Edge sitting alone on a stool doing the spoken-word parts of Numb. 

Loujoe

Jeremy, I think at mtv awards, was something to watch back then. Pj was still a little too mainstream for my taste, but there was no denying the depth/passion of that performance. I remember watching it with a bunch of people and this older biker dude was stroking his beard watching it like 'woah this is good'. It's the song I don't want to have on the setlist, but when they play it...it sucks me it! 

Massara133

Being a teenager in Western Canada in the early 90’s I had to rely on Muchmusic, great music always found its way there but I was always behind my friend who had MTV. He introduced me to Nevermind and my mind was blown - I was buying every magazine with Nirvana on the cover to try and learn everything I could about them. One magazine had an article way in the back about this “other Seattle band” called Pearl Jam. The only thing I remember about that article was how it talked about their live shows being pretty intense and the lead singer actually smashed a cymbal with his hand and gave himself a smile shaped scar. I told my MTV friend I’d like to hear this band and low and behold he had just picked up Ten when he was in the city cause this song called Alive was the MTV buzzclip and it was pretty cool. I borrowed his cassette and started listening, after a few listens I was absolutely hooked. YEARS later I was watching a YouTube video of an early record store performance and Ed’s hand was completely bandaged up - I guess the cymbal story was true.

PJ5a1

MR242791 said:

I had known about PJ in HS when Jeremy came out and I remember listening to betterman on the radio and loving it. But it wasn’t until probably 2003 or 2004 when I went into a tower records looking for something new.  I stumbled upon PJ live in Tokyo 2003 and I remember being intrigued that PJ was still making music, they were selling live albums, they played In Tokyo and the album was being sold in a cardboard CD case Vs. a plastic one. The album was on sale for like $5 so I bought it on a whim.  I fell in love with that album and a Pearl Jam fan was born.   I like to think it was divine intervention lol. Plus I still have my Tokyo CDs

I want to say around 1994/1995.... my brother who is 7 years older than me made me a mix tape.... I listened to it every single day... and then he went to Randall's island in 1996 and I just remember the stories there after -  I was only 12 at the time... went through some heavy family stuff in 1997 and PJ was my escape... 

JH6056

blackhawks said:

JH6056 said:

blackhawks said:

My brother turned me on to them in October 91.  He said I had to attend this show where he was going to college in Ames, Iowa.  He got 4th row tickets and the venue was a theater that holds 3000 or so.  10 was just out and he played it for me and I thought it was really solid.  Anyhow, I was staying at the Best Western in Ames and Eddie, Flea were swimming in the pool and having fun with other members of all the bands on the ticket (PJ, Smashing Pumpkins, Chili Peppers).  We were drinking beers at the pool and it was a real fun and laid back experience.  At the show PJ was first and blew the roof off the joint.  I was a fan after that performance!  Funny thing is Billy Corgan punched his guitar tech in the face when he came off stage for some reason after their set.  That show will always be memorable as it was the last time I saw one of my good friends alive unfortunately.  But it was a great introduction to PJ and I have been a fan since seeing them many many times.  

Wow that is one hell of an introduction! How do you even move on from there?

Btw don't even get me started on Billy Corgan. He's STILL sore that PJ took off the way they did, and still never gives them credit for actually being that talented and deserving the focus.  Smashing Pumpkins are talented too, but he's such a hater.  Over it.

I'm not a big fan of cell phones or the obsession with recording everything, but is it bad to say that I wish you'd had a smart phone at that pool?  Ooops, did I say that out loud? =D

Hah!  I wish I had some way to document it.  I remember one little boy was splashing around them and Eddie asked kindly for him to please stop.  If I knew then what I knew now.......  They seemed so normal and it holds true today.

Crazy, I am only now revisiting this conversation (been off the pages for ages) and I forgot this story and my comment.  Yeah, glad we both wish you'd been able to record it!  Still a great "origin story"!  I once watched Alice In Chains, Arrested Development and a few other bands play basketball backstage at an early Lollapalooza, would have loved a cell phone then too but even now that they're everywhere I don't take pics of videos during people's "downtime" so I still don't get much precious footage.  But being considerate is more important.

JH6056

BookieMaylock said:

JH6056 said:

BookieMaylock said:

I'm the youngest of five children. My oldest sister (11 years older than me) LOVES music, and she was saddled with taking care of me most of the time, and so from birth on, (luckily) most of my life had an amazing soundtrack sponsored by her favorite bands: Pink Floyd, The Who, Led Zep, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Heart, ELP, CSN/Y, etc. etc. ETC!  When we were together, which was always, there was music. In fact, she helped me learn to read by showing me how to follow along with the lyrics printed inside the album covers. 

When I graduated from high school it made sense that I would try to get a job at a record store- its where I belonged- I think I told them that when I gave them my application- I didn't even ask how much it paid (I didn't care) and that's probably why I got the job.  One of my first tasks on my first day there was to help to put up a display in the corner window for a band I'd never heard of. We stapled dozens of album flats to the walls, bending and bowing them to create interesting shapes and give it some dimension, and we hung 50 red plastic apples on clear fishing line from the ceiling at various heights- we even got some apple air scented air freshener to spray around near there (we wanted it to feel immersive). As we listened to the band's music (which was the tradition at the store- play the band's music while you put up their display) and I was steeped in the awesomeness of the whole experience; being out of school and having an unbelievably lucky and amazing new job, and the cool people who worked there and shopped there, and this new amazing music playing so loud on the huge speakers that the whole place vibrated (and also, I was probably a little high on apple air freshener ...) that band was quickly becoming MY BAND and these songs were being pressed into a new life soundtrack that I was now creating for myself, separate from (but still part of) the one my sister had started for me when I was a child.  But, when I finally overcame my fear of sounding like a "know nothing poser" to ask the guy I was helping if he knew more about the band, he told me that Andy Woods, the lead singer, had died of an overdose in the spring, and the album we were listening to would be the only Mother Love Bone album.  He told me a little bit about how young he was, what a shame it was because of how talented they all were, how it was sad that he died before Apple was released- it was such a fantastic album. But I really loved it, I told him- already feeling entitled for more music from them I guess, I felt robbed of something.  "You know Alice in Chains, right? You know Soundgarden..." that's what he said- I did know them, a little, but then after that, after talking to him (over the course of the year and then the rest of my life to today), I REALLY started to know them. (In fact, that guy gave me a red vinyl "Louder than Love" album that I still cherish). He's the one who introduced me to MudHoney.  Of course, none of these bands were the same as MLB (no band will ever be), but they all came from the same place (and I don't mean Seattle). This was my music.

I think it was in the winter that we heard at the record store that Stone and Jeff were starting a new band. We couldn't wait.
When Temple of the dog came out in the Spring, there was NO WAY we weren't all over it. It was fucking amazing.
And then Pearl Jam.  And just like my first day in that corner display, I heard them for the very first time on a pre-released record store promo copy, over huge speakers that shook the store... it was so powerful and so full of energy and life and soul- all I could think is "they came back!"... MY BAND. They have been this for me, from that day until now. 

I wasn't able to see them live until THIS YEAR (when i had the time I didn't have the money, when I had the money I didn't have the time... it all finally worked out for me 27 years or so later). Saw three shows (both shows in Seattle, and Missoula).  Gotta tell ya, there was a moment during Crown of Thorns (Night 2, Safeco) when I saw Jeff and Stone playing together and I just couldn't stop the tears from falling (really, I didn't want to).  I'm pretty sure that just for a moment, I caught the scent of apples in the air...

Thanks Pearl Jam.

Wow. Wow and more WOW!!! I'm all tears from your story!  The power of good, heart-originating music!  I love your story, thanks for sharing!

Hey while in Seattle did you see the PJ exhibit at MoPio? If so, what did you think of the Andy Wood statue with the faint soundtrack behind it?

Wouldn't have missed it for anything!  It's perfect.

Only now coming back to this thread, just seeing this. SO HAPPY you got to go and checked all this out, especially this statue. Beautiful!

Watching Seattle 2 on the webcast last night, because I was so emo during the actual show and not in front and also I'm short, I didn't see that little stretch when Stone & Jeff were playing to each other.  I saw it on the webcast and yeah, I got WAY emo all over again for that especially. Beautiful!

brandonbowling

Forgive me, friends. I'm a young'un by comparison. My older brother had a copy of Yield when I was in middle school. (Thankfully. He turned out to be more of a Garth Brooks type). I wore his copy of Yield out in middle school, then bought my own copy along with vitalogy and No Code from a local pawn shop in early 2000s. Then I went down the rabbit hole!

pledgeagrievance

I was in middle school and my friend had an older brother who always had good music blasting from his room. He introduced us to AIC Facelift, Kyuss, Janes Addiction, and Ten. He played Alive and Black for us and that was it.  He also had an “import” of PJ that hooked me as well. 

May 30th

My parents had a copy of Ten on cassette. I was in grade 5 or 6 and used to play it all the time. 

nooram

It was August of '91 and I was visiting my brother who lives in Mukilteo, WA. I had the Mother Love Bone album and knew, from Rolling Stone, of a new band forming from their remnants. My brother had heard of a free show so we went down to the Mural Amphitheater and experienced their awesomeness. I was hooked.

hrd2imgn

It was 1992, and I was in flipside records when  I heard evenflow flow on the speakers and asked the clerk who is this.
 He told me Pearl Jam I had no idea who they were but I bought the cassette on spot. I remember how different sounding evenflow was from all the crummy hair metal that was my genre of the time.  The Seattle sound was just breaking through in the midwest.  I went to college and became immersed in Metallica and Pearl Jam with Pearl Jam going to my favorites as the anticipation of VS grew.  Ibstill remember VS being my 1st midnight sale, and I have never looked back.

Tape trading hit me hard in the mid 90s(man I miss that- miss all you formers)

Poster craziness started,
Avocado tour took it to a new level, I finally had money to see multiple shows, got lucky with the VIC. Traveled to NYC and DC. PJ20etc

The journey has so amazing,.met so many cool people with great hearts (hey Foxy).  My favorite part though is no matter how many shows, how long, every show is amazing and a bunch of old pals getting together again to sing loud as we can, and cling to every word, nuance, note, pogo, bass line, drum beat, horrible but awesome Stone vocal, Boom Gaspar orgasm face, and Eddie story.

I love you all like brothers and sisters. 

huntersthompson

I was attending University of Oregon and got tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Salem, Oregon (loved Blood Sugar Sex Magik immediately upon its release)...there were a couple of opening bands on that I had heard of (Nivana) and another that I strolled in on half way through their set--the "opener opener" I called them.  Too busy drinking beers in the parking lot to catch them when they came on stage....After listening to them, I thought that they were pretty good....    
PS-If anyone has a spare poster from the show sitting around...I would be happy to trade a four eyed cowboy for it.....

Loujoe

Yep. I missed pj on that tour too here in the east coast...Whoops. 

JOEJOEJOE

Saw them open for RHCP in December 1991.

EMC77

In 1992, I asked a friend to record a cassette for me with Nirvana's Nevermind. There was some free space and he added Jeremy and Oceans. I was immediately hooked and Jeremy is my all time favorite song since then.

I found that cassette about 6 months ago. What memories! 😊

drakeheuer14

My dad listened to them casually on the radio mostly, so I knew of them growing up and I enjoyed the hits but didn’t really associate it as Pearl Jam when I heard them. Around 2010 Just Breathe was getting played pretty regularly and I loved it, so I took it upon myself to go to Youtube and I went down the rabbit hole of amazing music and performances. Then 3 years of mild obsession led to my dad getting us tickets for Pitt 13 when I was 16 and 2 other shows together and one without since then. Amazing memories.