What is it about Pearl Jam?

63schoefflin said:

See them live. You will never be able to really get it until you do. Same thing with a lot of great bands.

I disagree with this too...as I've been a fan for 20 years...and NEVER SEEN THEM LIVE...never had the funds when were in town, life happened, I just haven't been able to go...I plan on it next time, but shit has happened and I totally get it, I am IN LOVE with Pearl Jam, OBSESSED with Pearl Jam some might say...

what dreams said:

I remember one time I was at a Shakespeare conference with world-renowned scholars where the keynote speaker's very basic thesis was that "we read Shakespeare because it gives us pleasure." He stripped all theories bare and just spoke about how readers enjoy the pure language of the plays and everything else is extra.

This reminds of how I feel about Pearl Jam. If you strip everything bare and just speak about the language of the songs -- they give us pleasure. Nobody invests in anything unless they enjoy it. I enjoy Pearl Jam's songs. It doesn't matter how dark, funny, or thought-inspiring. The fact is that when I hear a PJ song, I'm totally immersed in the language of the music -- the instrumentation, the lyrics, the mood, the history, the in-the-moment performance. They give it all. Each song has its own thing. Especially with the songs that I'm unsure of, I want to know more because they plant something in the language that I want to know more about.

I feel like the best things in life are uncertain, and Pearl Jam songs have an element of uncertainty that make me wonder what I should be thinking about next. Their catalog is not so extensive that if I were crazy I could have memorized them all and moved on. But I don't want to memorize them all and move on. They make me think deeply so that I'm always learning. What is that bass line? What does that lyric really mean? Why do fans react a certain way at this specific moment? If they didn't leave me questions, I would have no reason to keep coming back . . . 20 years later.

From a literary perspective, that is the definition of genius. It's the questions that matter, not the answers. "I don't question her existence, her modern needs . . . " In that lyric alone, a million questions arise, and that's what it is about Pearl Jam for me.

You made a lot of points that I think are doing it for me too. I keep thinking about this. We have gotten a couple of tickets to shows of other bands for the summer, and I am looking forward to it, but I know it will not be the same.
I try to find out what it is. It is all of what you said. And then for me, there is another element. I am so familiar with them. So I love their music. And since I am familiar with it so much, I am having a fantastic time at the shows, I am "into it". I can get overwhelmed in such a way by stuff that I don't know yet too, but then it has to be something really really really good. To me. I guess I am a habit animal. Even if I have seen a PJ song a thousand times, I can still get goosebumps. Just because I am in that space. At that moment. With tons of others who are like me in that respect. And I feel at home with their music. It calms me down, it fuels me, it makes me think. As a non native speaker maybe in a different way than for a native speaker. Or not. I don't know. do we have to explain it?