Pearl Jam

See also: Hovercraft, Mad Season, Three Fish

When Pearl Jam first rose to superstardom in the early ‘90s, the quintet was rarely regarded in the same light as Seattle colleagues such as Nirvana (more attitude) or Soundgarden and Alice In Chains (they rocked harder). Indeed, at first everything was a struggle for Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, and Mike McCready, from getting “metal” radio to play “Alive” to struggling for cred amid its more established local mates. Then suddenly Pearl Jam and its roaring update of Aerosmith, the Who, and Led Zeppelin was more popular than them all. Ten went on to sell 9 million copies. Vs. set a record by shifting nearly 900,000 units in its first week of release. Listeners followed the band’s every whim: when 1994’s Vitalogy was issued on vinyl two weeks before it came out on CD, enough people bought that version that it debuted just outside the top-50 of The Billboard 200. Appropriately, the first single was called “Spin the Black Circle” and was the band’s least radio friendly track to date.

But with success came struggle, some media generated (the famous losing battle with Ticketmaster) but most of it fueled by band members’ own insecurity with their newfound celebrity. Pearl Jam pulled back on every level, looking to its influences for guidance and in the process establishing for itself new and important means of collaboration. What followed were a series of increasingly personal, musically intricate albums (1996’s No Code, 1998’s Yield, 2000’s Binaural) that often befuddled the masses but cemented Pearl Jam’s place as one of the best rock bands of its generation. The group’s rabid following was always rewarded with thrilling live shows that never featured the same setlist, justifying the otherwise preposterous scheme that saw 72 complete concerts from the 2000 tour made available to retail. By the 2002 release of Riot Act, Pearl Jam had reached a milestone not one of its hometown rivals had even come close to achieving: more than a decade of great music, made on its own terms.

Album reviews

Binaural
Epic (2000)
Pearl Jam's previous two long-players were steeped in classic rock nods (albeit brilliantly), but Binaural sounds much more modern, lending credence to the notion that this quintent could very well be an indie rock band inside a classic rock body.

'Given To Fly'
Epic (1998)
The first single from Yield is a soaring rock epic that, despite its melody's passing resemblance to Led Zeppelin's "Going To California," more than conveys the album's majestic splendor.

Yield
Epic (1998)
The smile-inducing sound of five guys who absolutely love what they're doing and who've emerged from the throes of superstardom with their integrity and their sense of purpose intact.

No Code (Recommended)
Epic (1996)
No Code is the musical statement that definitively separated Pearl Jam from alternative rock's rank and file -- an album wherein fist-pumping and solemn contemplation co-exist like old friends.

Merkin Ball
Epic (1996)
Succeeding in its role as a stop-gap, this EP -- recorded during sessions for the Neil Young collaboration Mirror Ball -- offers a relatively accurate precursor of the sound Pearl Jam arrived at on its two subsequent releases.

Vitalogy (Recommended)
Epic (1994)
Consider Pearl Jam in 1994. What kind of music do you make if you find yourselves to be the lone kings of the most precarious, queasy, chaotic year of rock in decades, eyes glued to your every action like you're caged birds in a shoddy mine that's just claimed another life?

Vs.
Epic (1993)
Every note is charged with an absolute urgency -- it's a desperate attempt to retain Pearl Jam's integrity in the face of crushing popularity.

Concert reviews

August 18, 2000
Deer Creek Amphitheater, Indianapolis
Ten years into a career few would have anticipated, the Seattle band is still growing stronger, as evidenced by an energetic, emotional two-hour-plus performance Friday night in Indianapolis.