Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Pearl Jam, along with other, less estimable *rock* stars, will be formally inducted into the 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tonight in Brooklyn. To commemorate this event, let’s delve into the most comprehensive justification for their enshrinement, Cameron Crowe’s fawning documentary Pearl Jam Twenty. Although it was released in 2011 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the band, Decider did not exist then so no words were written about it on this site.
(If you read the above paragraph and got physically excited, then I think you should enjoy the rest of this article. To those who are not Pearl Jam fans, thanks for reading this far and enjoy plunging headward into the rest of the internet.)
If you were to poll most upright walking humans on earth and ask how they feel about Pearl Jam, their responses will range from, “Are they still around?;” “Ew, why?,” or most likely they will begin to do their best mumbly Eddie Vedder impersonation and grunt in their lowest possible vocal register “Jeremy’s spokenduhduhduhhhhderrrdduhh…”
Yes, if the fictional Pearl Jam polling station I’ve conjured up here is not teeming with white men in their 40s and 50s, they will probably lose the popular vote. This may come as a shock to many of you who do not fall in the aforementioned demographic, but Pearl Jam is still a band, including four out of five of its original members; they also continue to put out albums, including one in 2014 called Lightning Bolt. Many more of you would be surprised to realize that they still tour.
Most millennials can’t really fathom why on earth anyone would attend a Pearl Jam concert in the year 2017 when there are much more relevant rock bands to enjoy. My question to you, you slow-witted goblins, is this: are there?
Nope!
Good news is that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame voters have wonderful taste in performers and PJ got in on the first ballot, easy.
For 25 years, Pearl Jam has been underappreciated by music nerds because God forbid they would be caught listening to Vitalogy the day Kurt Cobain’s ghost swoops in to check out their 7-inch vinyl collection. We are lucky that terminally uncool Cameron Crowe does not spook easy and went ahead to make a beautiful three-hour movie about the band anyway. (Crowe, as you know, was the director of the stellar 90’s movie Singles, whose CD soundtrack was the most overplayed in college dormitories circa 1993 right behind the Led Zeppelin box set, disc 1.)
The first 90 minutes of Pearl Jam Twenty is a wish-you-were-here appreciation of Seattle’s music scene in the late ’80s/early ’90s, which was authentically alternative until it was not. The film carefully tip-toes through the “Grunge” era to explain how it became an accidental flashpoint for the commodification of Gen X sullenness, and how Seattle’s music and art scene desperately tried to separate itself from commercialization as best as it could. (Locals forced to suffer through the nation’s sudden fascination with the scene at that time declared a small victory when Caroline Records receptionist Megan Jaspar totally duped some “lamestain” at the New York Times into running a phony list of grunge speak, highlighted by the phrase “Swingin’ on the Flippity Flop.”)
Pearl Jam was one of the bands that benefitted from all the hype, but also became trapped by it and by 1993 they were (reluctantly) world famous. Like most conflicted “artists,” their overnight success began to soul-ache them over time, especially lead singer Ed, and by the early aughts Pearl Jam predictably almost imploded. There were no Pearl Jam lunchboxes, but Eddie Vedder’s appearance on the cover of Time magazine hastened some backlash. Nevertheless they persisted, and managed to survive this long mainly due to their collective decision to do anything they wanted to musically (including nightly setlist changes on tour) without concern for commercial, Top 40 radio success. That risk paid off and now they are a band at peace without itself.
But let’s not deny the fact that Pearl Jam, the band, was extremely blessed to have found its lead singer. (Prediction: Within the next 25 years Eddie Vedder, will become America’s unchallenged troubadour king.) Even though Vedder’s knee-buckling baritone has been parodied (and copied by many lesser lead vocalists), it remains deeply affecting, especially live, mainly because it’s hard to believe such a godly voice can come out of such a tiny, handsome man. He is the reason many people fell in love with Pearl Jam (and will continue to do so, despite most millennials’ aversion to guitars). So if this weekend you find yourself in an existential funk wondering where all the rock bands have run off to these days, rent Pearl Jam Twenty on Amazon and you will find the answer and all subsequent answers to the universe as well. That is an excellent bargain for just $2.99. Momma-Son, children.
A.J. Daulerio is a writer and editor living in Los Angeles.
