| --pearl jam- |
| Pearl Jam is the band I listen to most often, and that's saying a lot as I have hundreds of compact discs and tapes. Neil Young, The Who, The Rolling Stones, and even Cheap Trick, all classic rockers of infinite fame worldwide, know of, appreciate, and have toured with, Pearl Jam.
For those only familiar with "Jeremy," from the band's first album, you are missing out on a band the history books will one day compare to the great bands mentioned above.
If you saw them on the David Letterman show on April 12, you have an idea of what their music is all about. Believe it or not, they are one of the best-kept secrets in the music world. Why is not easily understood. "Alternative" was never more than rock and roll pushed to its limits, and in retrospect, songs like Black, Evenflow and Jeremy were always safely inside the definiton of rock. Since 1991, the band has evolved musically; with surfing tunes ("Gremmie Out Of Control"), hard rock ("Not For You," "Do The Evolution") and, for lack of a better term, ballads ("Nothingman"). In short, the band started big, grew smaller (in record sales only), and with the tour in 1998 for "Yield" appeared to be on what is falsely considered a "comeback." If you have read this far, you are ready to be introduced to Pearl Jam by a "true" fan: someone who has remained with the band since Ten, through Vs., Vitalogy, No Code and Yield. |
|
Oceans was a surprise opener, but it took only seconds for the crowd to jump in and begin singing. Hail Hail followed, and the energy level raised the song to new heights... Brain Of J was played at 4 times normal speed it seemed, launched into Spin The Black Circle, then slowed with Tremor Christ. The Crowd was totally into each song, all 25,000. Riverport didn't allow people to bring in blankets for the lawn seats because there was no room to lay them out; even the lawn was standing room only!!! Then Ed salutes and we salute and Given To Fly soars. Next is In Hiding. Mike's solo is sweet; he stands with one foot on the monitor and his head's tilted back and his eyes are closed and he's in the groove. Stone does the outro. Corduroy slows things down, if only for a moment, but when Mini Fast Cars starts up, the floodgates open and The Crowd takes it up a notch. Ed takes out an "e-bow" for his guitar for Wishlist, which they play like they did on Letterman's show, with the final line a repeat of "I wish I was a messenger". Eddie's wearing a shirt that says, "Champagne Breakfast Club," and after initially wiping sweat from his forehead and removing his shirt, he takes a few sips here and there. Wishlist leads to Nothingman, which is the slowest (relatively speaking) number of the night. It's a beautiful song, at least as good as the Bridge School Benefits version. Then after noodling around, Habit cranks up. The Crowd goes berserk!!! The line is "Speaking as a child of the 90s" tonight. Eddie does a Townsend jump. Until now, Mike and Jeff have stayed in place, except for Mike's two laps around the stage; Stone is all business and doesn't even really crack a smile. Matt's banging the drums, a real pro, but the band is focused on the music. In just under two hours, Eddie only talks to us 3 times, and it's late in the show before Mike and Jeff smile, and Stone lightens up. Evenflow jumps out at us, and there's Mike's solo, and Jeff standing before Matt and the drum kit. Daughter is played and ends with Eddie making little roaring noises, followed by, "I'm not crazy, you're the one that's crazy," and personally I thought it referred back to The Color Red, with it's "War, we're all crazy about war." Immortality comes and it's THE highlight now. Mike's solo was brilliant, and the build-up took the song into the stratosphere. The two fans who had seen PJ in Chicago and (??) said the first half of the show was by far the best of the 3 shows they'd seen. Then comes Black, then ALIVE, and again The Crowd explodes. This ends the body of the show. For the first encore, Eddie brings out a baseball hitter's helmet for the Cardinals. I couldn't understand half his monologues (from 15 feet from the stage, you'd think otherwise, but...). But I understood Do The Evolution, which they ripped through. Jeremy, then I Got Shit, with Jeff & Mike together smiling, and you can tell that The Crowd has pleased them, they've only stopped playing for 5 minutes outside of the break before encore. Betterman ends with "runaway" repeated a few times, after Ed sings "sooner or later." Then comes Neil Young's "Fucking Up!" which starts off eerily similar to RITFW before kicking into gear. Everyone in the front rows was screaming the lyrics, still, after two hours of non-stop singing. Ed picks up a rose, and the mic stand, and the guys are loose and loving it now, totally at ease. They end with Yellow Ledbetter, and Mike's guitar work ends the song while Matt leaves his drums, Stone sets his guitar in front of the amp for feedback, and Jeff and Ed join them to watch Mike play all alone, all of them smiling and loving it, and then it's a last exit for PJ and fans. Up close, Ed uses so much body language. Fans in the back had to rely on the video screens to see what he was doing. The others let Ed run the show, and really aside from playing beautifully, remained anchored in place. The "light show" consisted of a mirrorball and a strobe light (couldn't tell you which songs they were used in, because I was singing and groovin'). There were the candles in the back, a huge, non-descript tarp for a backdrop, and a couple of pictures on the amps behind Mike (someone said it was Muddy Waters). Ed threw everything back that came his way, (including a rose) sometimes with his wine poured over it. "See you next time," he says to end the show, and they're gone. |
