How long have you been following the band?

Since 1998.

ThrowUrArmsAroundMe wrote:

2004...I'm only 20 so gimme a break!

same

'92

BUT
it sucks ass my first pj show wasn't til '98.

DirtyCristina wrote:

Yes, I wasnt allowed to go to concerts!

same here!!!!!!
i feel your pain.

you think the parental resentment would have faded by not for that by now.
but damn it, it hasn't! we missed pj when they were young and crazy.

1994

1992...all of the seniors on my hs lacrosse team got me hooked.

Since 1992, but didn't get to see them until 96 being in the UK as they cancelled some shows (Astoria and Brixton?) and then couldn't get tickets for the 2 Brixton shows in 93.

92

I bought Ten in '92 and played it a lot but didn't really go insane for them until I heard Yield in '98. I had a shiny new Civic with a CD player and a sunroof and thought I was the coolest thing on wheels. I'd drive around Atlanta just long enough to listen to the CD from start to finish (gas was probably $1.19 a gallon). Then I found the Fox Theatre and Soldier Field shows at a used CD store and became obsessed with bootlegs, started alt.binaries.pearl-jam and posted the entire '98 tour over my 56K connection (took 3 months). Around that time I became aware of an album called No Code which blew me away even more. Then I started collecting everything I could get my hands on, piles of CDs and posters, DVDs, gigs and gigs of bootlegs. Ahh, disposible income.

Saw my first show in 2000 and still can't get enough.

When I was about 10 (20 now) I was OBSESSED with Last Kiss. I would literally sit next to my boom box/radio in my room listing to 97.5 PST waiting for it to come on (which at the time was about 1 per 3 hours). I asked my Aunt to get me a Pearl Jam album for Christmas and instead received the soundtrack to Tarzan by Phil Collins..... Needless to say I was devastated. Finally about 2 years ago, fully forgetting my former obsession with Last Kiss, I started hearing WWS on the radio. I kind of liked it, so I downloaded a couple PJ songs from Limewire (sorry, I've since bought every album legally). The next 3 songs got me into them. Breath, Black, and Yellow Ledbetter. Been about 2 years now and I still remember the exact songs that I first downloaded. Looking back I think it’s a great mix of their styles to get me or anyone into the band. Breath rocks out and has some cool lyrics, Ledbetter had a nice sound to it from Ed especially I thought, while Black shows off their slower side and is simply an amazing song. Took me about 3 weeks of listening to these songs once in a while until I fully realized just how amazing this band was. I remember lying in bed one night listening to Ledbetter, and it was like I had an epiphany. I don’t know how to explain it, but all of a sudden I LOVED PEARL JAM. Next step was to raid my Dad’s CD collection and he had VS. Listened to that for a while, and I really liked it, but none of the songs really jumped out to me (at that point at least, now its my favorite album). I really liked the song dissident though. Next step was to visit the ole pearljam website, Here to my delight I found I could download bootlegs for free. Took me a while to figure out how to do that, but from that point on I basically only listened to live music. This was another interesting way that kind of exposed me first off, to how great a live band they were, and also to just expose me to a wide range of their music and covers. I bought Ten, No Code, Binaural, Yield, and Riot Act all at once. Later buying Avocado, and finally Vitalogy for 6 bucks at a supermarket just a couple months ago. I can’t wait to finally experience Pearl Jam live next week!