Pearl Jam

all those yesterdays, of course. slipped my mind. same thing with sonic reducer. one of their classic covers.

zeke, completely agree with you about SOLAT. one of my all time favorites. i remember the night i first heard the song: i was up all night studying for an exam and i heard the spin the black circle/SOLAT combo on the boise 00 boot. it was incredible. i probably listened to that entire boot at least five times on that night. i would have felt the same way except as you when i first saw it live but, there were extenuating circumstances from the night before and the entire day of the show that completely ruined the whole show and experience for me. it was sad shit. and regarding wishlist, the cheese doesn't matter to me. shit i will always wear one of my pj shirts to a show. but if i have to piss and the band starts playing wishlist, i'm jumping at that opportunity.

here's one of my random pj experiences: i was in orlando for the big dance in 04 and i was walking through the hotel lobby wearing my stickman shirt. dude stopped me out of nowhere and asked if i was a pj fan. "uh, yeah." i said. he pulled up his pantleg and showed me his stickman tattoo on his calf that was about 6" high with a huge sun surrounding the stickman. it was sweet. truly a small world.

 

Freaky you mention this because I was getting coffee the other day while wearing a PJ shirt (this thread inspired me!). Guy sits next to me wearing a blue PJ shirt. I say "Hey"" and point to my chest. It was a cool experience and then I went on with my day.

Few bands unite like PJ and not to get all gay about it but I dare say that I haven't met someone that loves PJ that I haven't liked.

 

The stickman is just flat-out cool. I ordered it on two stickers off ebay a few years ago for my car. But I don't want the weather to ruin them. they're in my drawer still.

 

Amen. Preach on, brother!

 

i have a purple one on my left calf.

 

I've only read the last few pages, so I might be repeating something here, but I hope not.

First, a few days ago, I pulled No Code off the shelf for the first time in a long while and I've been listening to the shit out of it.

Second, Pearl Jam came in a perfect time in my life. I was 18 when Ten came out. And in the Summer of 1992, they were on the main stage at Lollapalooza. It's almost hard to believe now, but they were only the second band on the bill... still growing. They were between Lush and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Soundgarden came later. Ice Cube, I think. Ministry and RHCP.

Anyway, Pearl Jam comes on, still early in the afternoon, obviously. And Lush didn't exactly pump up the crowd. Pearl Jam starts into a pretty heavy set, but everyone's still rising up to the day, you know?

In the middle of it, Even Flow, I think, long jam, Eddie starts climbing the scaffolding at the left side of the stage. Climbs up, sincerely, 70 or 80 feet -- like seven or eight storeys. And then he balances on a beam that's holding up the tarp over the front of the stage. I mean, this beam's a foot wide, and if he falls, he dies. Crowd is going crazy now. He teeters across it, gets to the other side, and starts climbing down the scaffold on the right. Gets so he's about 30 feet above the crowd and he jumps. Crowd catches him, he surfs for a while, somehow gets back to the stage, and he and band drop right back into the chorus without missing a beat.

It was the craziest fucking thing I've seen at a concert, I think. And everyone who came to see Soundgarden and Ministry and RHCP left talking about Pearl Jam.

 

Eddie might not do crazy shit like that anymore, but the band is still phenomenal live. The best I've ever seen.

 

i don't wanna say they're the best i've ever seen live, but they're stage presence and ability to do covers and make them their own is amazing. i think u2 and wilco are just as phenomenal live.

 

too bad u2 is playing u2 songs

 

That's interesting, Jones, because I've done the same thing. I was digging World Wide Suicide on my XM and "rediscovered" my Vs. album. Not their best, Vitalogy was probably better, but Pearl Jam is damn good.

As far as Pearl Jam vs. Nirvana -- they're both great. And I maintain that In Utero is much better than Nevermind, proving they were more than just hype and more than just the Doors of the 90s.

 

And to bring the Stones back into the debate from the early stages of this thread, the opening guitar riffs of Black are eerily similar to the Stones' song Winter, which is a great unknown track on Goats Head Soup.

Pearl Jam is great. Zep is great. The Stones are great. I've got room on my plate for all of them.

 

As for Grunge bands, Alice in Chains is better than Pearl Jam or Nirvana, and I'll take Mad Season's Above as the single best album of the "genre."