Fill in the blank: 2020 marks my ___ year as a Pearl Jam fan.

JT167846

25th/26th. Should have joined the Vitalogy Health Club back then instead of dicking around.

TS28928

First heard Ten on a cassette while driving from Kingston, Ontario to Washington DC in summer of '92. Joined the 10 C in '98. First show was Molson Park in Barrie, Ontario in '98.  57 more shows since then,  on 4 different continents, in 14 different countries.  

JeBurkhardt

28th. I was in the Navy stationed on an island off of the coast of Alaska in 1992. The only way to hear new music was to watch 120 minutes on MTV. I saw the video for Even Flow and was like "whoa!". Not having access to a record store, I called my Dad, who went to the Tower Records in Campbell California, bought the Ten CD along with Smashing Pumpkins Gish and mailed it up to me. Been listening even since.

mrussel1

LOV2ROCK said:

Once I heard Alive I was mesmerized and had to find out who these guys were so I started ordering all the import cd singles I could get along with any shirts and Merch I could find. 

1991,so 29 years a fanatic and 27 as a fan club member (1993). Sent in my $5 when Vs came out. 

Dan - are you going to any shows this spring?  I'm going to work on getting the regulars organized so we know who is where.  

Glorified KC

18th, I wish I had gotten on board sooner.  Mad respect for those who have been with them since the beginning.

Greatplainsman...

29th. Freshman in High School.

tempo_n_groove

"first"  !!!

Spags

It's a good question and I was tempted to blurt out "since 1991 fools!!!!"...but looking back on it, I remember going to Spain with my friend and her family for the Summer, in either '92 or 93. I'd got a Sony Discman for Christmas so 'borrowed' a bunch of CDs from my mate - RHCP's Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam's Ten and The Goats' Tricks of the Shade were among them. I'd been into Hip Hop before that trip and these albums helped open up my tastes a bit. Looks Like The Goats album came out in Nov '92 so that trip must have been Summer 1993 which is later than I'd have expected. I obviously fell hard for Pearl Jam as I bought a bootleg tshirt from a market on that trip. Here I am back in '93 and more recently in Italy for an Eddie solo gig.



Pretty much the soundtrack to my life. 

rearviewmirror33

29th

Pearl34Jam

7th

anakin_pdx

29th for me.  Sophomore in high school a friend gave me the cd in the fall of 91 to listen to over the weekend.  I probably played it 10-12 times that weekend, and scrounged up enough money to buy it the next week.  Still have the cardboard long box it came in.  And for you youngins, cds used to come in oblong cardboard boxes (width of the cd but hight of an LP).  

Abe Froman

anakin_pdx said:

29th for me.  Sophomore in high school a friend gave me the cd in the fall of 91 to listen to over the weekend.  I probably played it 10-12 times that weekend, and scrounged up enough money to buy it the next week.  Still have the cardboard long box it came in.  And for you youngins, cds used to come in oblong cardboard boxes (width of the cd but hight of an LP).  

My aunt threw away my Ten longbox while I was at college.  She thought it was trash.  I was so pissed at her.  Not sure I have forgiven her to this day lol

Murphymulligan

First year. I am 58 and  it's a long story. ..wanna hear it? I listen to music whenever I can, always have always will. I studied with music in the background through every level of school. I listen while I read and exercise and often all three at the same time.  It is on from the time I wake, on in the car, on at work all day. On the radio I always listen to the rock stations (thank god my co-workers are simpatico and okay with CHEZ106 CLASSIC ROCK emanating loudly from my office).  So this one day, I go home with a tune stuck in my head from a song I had heard on CHEZ that day. I am walking the dog and humming the chorus, to which I am making up words because I cannot remember them, but it is annoyingly beautiful and catchy and stuck! A day later the riff is still in my head, so I decide that’s it, I have to somehow figure out what this f****g songs is! Never been much of a YouTube person, but I recently discovered this beautiful Shine Down version of Simple Man on it (highly recommend),

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgFQ6WmxdMs

so thought, okay, what the heck, I will give it a try. 

So, what do I know about this song?I think the guy’s voice was deep and gravelly and it was on a rock station.  So this is literally what I put in the search bar, and the search bar is, “seriously, I am going to need a little more information than that”, but still it obediently spits out a bunch of random crap among which is some Pearl Jam songs, which I start to listen to and about 5 hours later I am feeling something that I am now going to do a poor job describing, because I really can’t do it justice, but I will try.   The first feeling was, holy shit, have I been living under a rock? am I from another planet? have I been in a coma for the last 28 years?  I know I must have heard many of their songs on the radio over the years. Their first (freakin amazing!) album  came out in 1991, the year we adopted our son, so I am going to forgive myself for being a bit distracted and busy at that time, but Christ, how could I miss this talent for the next 28 fucking years!?  To make it worse this chap called Eddie Vedder is the most captivating, primal, philanthropically generous, funny, thoughtful, down to earth, sweet, talented f**k have ever gotten to know over Youtube in my life.. Which I suppose might not be saying a lot, since I really have not gotten to know anyone over YouTube before…. but still. 

Now this whole experience, when you think about it, is extremely surreal. The YouTube interviews presents  a 27 year old kid starting out, innocent, humble, naïve, cute and sexy as all hell (to which my inner solid self keeps saying, “that is a creepy thought Tanja, stop it!”) and then aging, maturing, fast forward to a 54 years old, married, two kids, ridiculously famous, rich, just as cute, talented wonderful person my age (ish), and everything in between.   This experience is weird, fun, neat and scary all at once.  And the music, Jesus, the music.

And here is where the Story gets fun.  Ottawa has crazy ass snow, and they were predicting a doozy starting Tues Feb 12th into Wednesday the  13th.  On the Tues night I have a Board meeting and I usually go home to walk the dog and come back, but the snow has started, so I figure I’d stay the two hours at work and do me some more internet stalking of Pearl Jam, as it was just on the past weekend that this revelation had occurred.  I am looking at random shit and come across the names of few songs that I recognize from the recesses of my previously PJ blind mind. I don’t really have time to listen fully because I am busy watching videos of Eddie accepting and presenting awards, but write them down on a sticky note to buy on itunes later at home and add to my growing PJ playlist.  The next day the snow storm hits in full force and the independent school that I am the Director of Finance at, calls a snow day for the first time in its 105 year old history.  Guess what I did all that free day?  I am on the elliptical machine listening to one of the PJ songs noted from the other night which I just downloaded, finish, sweaty, go down to the kitchen to get a glass of water, humming the last song, and HOLY SHIT, it hits me like the proverbial ton of bricks, like freaking lightening, I practically drop to my knees, it’s the fucking song I had been humming in my head that started this whole journey.  The relief is palpable, and I start laughing out loud and I swear to god, it feels better than sex and chocolate combined.  Clearly, this is all kismit, I think after gaining back my senses.

Since then though, I really have been wondering why this band, this person, this music, has obsessed me like this and made me so want  to tell the story, Maybe  it is because I have never before experienced a revelation of this sort, in this crazy manner, and isn’t that what makes life fun.. discovering new “stuff/people”, in new ways, and getting such incredible enjoyment out of it at the same time. Maybe it’s as simple as that.

mrussel1

So what was the song???

washedinblack91

liked them since Ten (i was only 3 at the time) but didn't decide they were my favorite band until I was 12 so officially 20 years

Murphymulligan

mrussel1 said:

So what was the song?? Arghhh, can't believe I forgot to mention that....It was Sirens

mrussel1

Murphymulligan said:

mrussel1 said:

So what was the song?? Arghhh, can't believe I forgot to mention that....It was Sirens

Welcome to the fan club.  Hope you get a chance to see a show this year.  That will be life changing as well. 

Murphymulligan

I just got confirmation today of my seat location in Ottawa. Life changing doesn't even begin to describe it!!!!!

PD279656

19th 

Kevinman

Spags said:

I got in on the ground floor.

Same

rollings

Andy Griffith show theme song

rollings

Spags said:

It's a good question and I was tempted to blurt out "since 1991 fools!!!!"...but looking back on it, I remember going to Spain with my friend and her family for the Summer, in either '92 or 93. I'd got a Sony Discman for Christmas so 'borrowed' a bunch of CDs from my mate - RHCP's Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam's Ten and The Goats' Tricks of the Shade were among them. I'd been into Hip Hop before that trip and these albums helped open up my tastes a bit. Looks Like The Goats album came out in Nov '92 so that trip must have been Summer 1993 which is later than I'd have expected. I obviously fell hard for Pearl Jam as I bought a bootleg tshirt from a market on that trip. Here I am back in '93 and more recently in Italy for an Eddie solo gig.



Pretty much the soundtrack to my life. 

:thumbs up:

O_G_D

27 years.

Pap

Murphymulligan said:

I just got confirmation today of my seat location in Ottawa. Life changing doesn't even begin to describe it!!!!!

Wonderful!

spankyMP

28th. Hooked from first listen. Still bummed my brother wouldn’t bring me to lollapalooza at Jones beach. First show Randall’s Island II (I brought my brother ), about 20 more since then, and Baltimore next.

yieldten

28th first show/concert Soldier Field 1995.

veddie10

26 years for me. I was 14, and listening to a lot of other stuff at the time - hip hop, They Might Be Giants. A friend let me borrow Ten and Vs, a couple months before Vitalogy came out. It was a total game changer for me. I spent an entire weekend in my room listening to those two CDs. It was the raw emotion in Eddie’s voice, and how the music was the perfect balance of distorted and melodic at the same time. Finally got to see my first concert in Montréal in 1998 and I’ve been hooked ever since. 

moses562

22nd!

carolinaeasy

23rd

I bought the single of Wishlist at National Record Mart and never turned back. 

iJam

28th!