selai mutiara

Golden State & The Waiting

2008-12-02T15:09:00.006+07:00

Eddie Vedder & Corin Tucker muncul dalam satu lagu dalam EP penyanyi pop punk John Doe (ex vokalis band X). EP tersebut berjudul "Golden State EP" yang isinya 5 buah lagu Golden State dgn berbagai versi, termasuk versi yang di nyanyikan duet antara eddie vedder dan corin tucker (Sleater Kinney). Duet Vedder-Tucker pernah kita nikmati dalam lagu Hard Sun dr OST Into The Wild dan lagu Hunger Strike di bonus section DVD Live at The Garden.
Lagunya sendiri cukup kalem dan cocok di dengar sambil santai-santai...
Karena nampaknya akan sangat sulit mendapat CD EP Golden State disini, maka saya coba posting track Vedder-Tucker disini

http://www.mediafire.com/?m2o542zzddj

Sebagai bonus, ada satu lagi lagu dimana om vedder nyumbang vokal. Kali ini bersama Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, lagu yang dibawain adalah "The Waiting" di rip dr bonus track DVD live Tom Petty & Heartbreakers. Lagunya cukup dinamis dan vokal eddie terasa pas, as always mr vedder selalu keren kalo bawain lagu orang (dan lagu PJ sendiri, tentu...)

http://www.mediafire.com/?uizvcnfl4dy

Enjoy

Vedder Solo Tour

2008-09-16T13:41:00.005+07:00

Di bulan April dan Agustus, Eddie Vedder baru saja menuntaskan solo tournya. Ini merupakan kali pertama vokalis pearl jam ini melakukan solo tour lumayan panjang. Solo ini terutama untuk lebih mengapresiasikan materi-materi album OST Into the Wild yang banyak mendapat pujian dan menggondol Golden Globe Award. Selain materi ITW, eddie juga membuka katalog musiknya yang kaya dalam solo tour tersebut. Tercatat materi-materi unreleased seperti Sattelitte dan Broken Hearted, cover song seperti Ship Song, Trouble, Hide Your Love, Let My Love open Door sampai materi2 Pearl Jam ikut dimainkan. Sayangnya policy dari Ten Club menetapkan bahwa solo tour tidak boleh direkam dalam bentuk audio, apalagi video. Akibatnya, banyak fans yg kurang beruntung kayak kita2 yg tinggal di indonesia ini hanya bisa gigit jari. Beruntunglah ikatan Jamily sangat kuat antara fans pearl jam seluruh dunia, melalui beberapa forum dan milis, saya bisa mendapatkan beberapa rekaman solo tour PJ. Memang kualitasnya adalah bootleg audience, tidak sebening official Bootleg PJ, tapi kualitasnya cukup bagus dan listenable krn show nya akustik dan akustik ruangan rata-rata bagus..
.

So, biar gak pada penasaran, silakan di unduh bbrp highlight song dibawah ini.

1. Hurt (cover Nine Inch Nails)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mzjzxjw259q

2. Hurt (versi asli dr album Downward Spiral) - Nine Inch Nails buat perbandingan
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?vl1jnz25cmf

3. Walking the Cow (Daniel Johnston cover)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?42g0lzm3lzf

4. Ship Song (Nick Cave cover)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?yjm39zue1dm

5. Believe You Me - No More (Bad Radio dan OST Body of War), BYM hanya teaser dan udah lama gak pernah dibawain sama eddie
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?fvjdujfbgjl

6. Broken Hearted (unrelease)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mlbbhndn9m2

7. Betterman (lullaby version), kerennnnn....pasti kaget deh dengernya...
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rsytq1wilmz

8. Satelitte (unrelease)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gjjxqazvy2n

9. Helpless (Neil Young cover)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?c6u39wdlvri

10. If you want to sing out, sing out (unknown) wah ini lupa lagu sapa ya
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2wv5layflwn

11. Someday we'll go all the way (chicago cubs songs)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?iwnytdjlvwg

Cukup kan buat nemenin nunggu bedug...
Enjoy, dan please keep untuk kalangan sendiri aja ya....jgn di posting ke forum-forum luar...

Who You Are revival!

2008-06-16T10:32:00.006+07:00

Who You Are, salah satu lagu yang menjadi single pertama album Pearl Jam "No Code". Sekaligus bukti awal sabotase karir paling wahid yang dilakukan pearl jam sendiri. Bagaimana tidak, dimasa PJ sedang top-topnya dengan musik rock keras ala spin the black circlenya, malah rilis single yg musiknya cenderung ke world musik, walaupun tetap dgn sentuhan duo gitar khas pearl jam. Kabarnya, lagu ini terinspirasi hubungan eddie dgn nusrat fateh ali khan...
Padahal di No Code ada lagu Hail hail or Habit (yg ironisnya cuma di taro di B-sidenya singel Who You Are...). Faktor unik lain dr lagu Who You Are adalah ritme drum khas Jack Irons, yg konon udah ada di kepala jack sejak dia kecil. Kayaknya jelas gak ada drummer lain yg bisa bikin ketukan dan sound yg sama kayak jack di Who You Are ini. Lagu Who You Are sendiri seingat saya pernah nge-hits di beberapa radio Jakarta, walaupun gak lama, masih pada ingat?

Berhubung JAck Irons keluar dr PJ sejak 1998, dan posisinya di gantikan oleh Matt Cameron, maka terkubur beberapa lagu trademarknya Jack spt In My Tree, Color Red, dan off course Who You Are. Tahun 98, Matt udha berani bawain Given To Fly, tentu saja dgn sentuhannya sendiri. Baru di tahun 2003, Matt dan PJ guys reworked In My Tree, yg ternyata malah membawa keunikan sendiri. PJ memang hebat kalo soal gini.

Bagaimana dgn Who You Are? well kalo gak salah terakhir di mainin secara live tahun 1996, pernah kononnya dibawain pas Soundcheck tahun 2000-an tp gak pernah jadi dibawakan. Barulah pada tahun 2008 ini, di tengah masa istirahat antar album, pearl jam mulai buka2 katalog lamanya. Dan nampaknya, Who You Are jadi pilihan Eddie. Thanks God, dgn di hidupkannya program official bootlegs setelah sempat vakum di tahun 2007, kita dapat mendengarkan lagu Who You Are yang dibawakan tanggal 11 Juni 2008 kemarin, tepatnya di West Palm Beach. Berdasarkan mp3 yg saya download, Matt Cameron kembali menunjukkan kepiawaiannya, tanpa harus terpaku dgn pola tribalnya Jack yg super khas, Matt mampu berimprov dgn roll cepat dan variasi gebukan dan pedal yang mantap. Who You Are jadi lebih Powerfull. Stone pun mengiringi dengan gitar akustik yg sangat jelas kedengaran. Dan di akhir lagu, Eddie beri sedikit improv vokal "you are who, who are you, who you are, are you who? " clever dan manis sekali....

For you listening pleassure, ini Who You Are live at West Palm Beach 2008, straight from Pearl Jam official mobile Bootleg.

http://www.mediafire.com/?uwgsygyyjgn

Untuk videonya, liat disini:

Out of my mind

2008-05-27T16:12:00.004+07:00

Setelah lama tidur (karena blognya di kunci sementara oleh blogspot), akhirnya selai mutiara dibuka kembali.

Posting pertama adalah:

Yg belum punya or belum denger Out of My Mind, nih mp3nya:

http://www.mediafire.com/?xgxyiwze0n9

Straight rip from my Not For You CD Single.

Eddie Vedder Telanjang dalam OST Into The Wild

2007-09-21T12:52:00.000+07:00

Buat seorang eddie vedder, ternyata untuk menghasilkan suatu produk musik yang berkualitas tidak banyak memerlukan bantuan, bahkan tanpa back up band-nya Pearl Jam. Di sountrack Into the Wild, eddie berpetualang sendiri tanpa stone, jeff, matt, mike dan boom. Dengan materi yg sebagian besar akustik, ntah itu dengan gitar akustik ataupun ukulele, eddie menunjukkan kepiawaiannya menulis lagu. Naked eddie, begitu kesan saya pertama mendengar album ini secara utuh, Stripped to the Bones....

Nampaknya eddie dalam menulis 11 lagu dalam album ini benar2 mencoba melihat dari kaca mata Christopher McCandless, tokok yang menjadi sentral cerita film Into The Wild. Lihat saja lagu Society, yang menyiratkan cemooh McCandless akan kehidupan bermasyarakat yang dia coba tinggalkan. Simak juga guaranteed yang sangat indah dan cocok sekali kalo didengarkan sambil naik gunung atau sambil piknik di pinggir sungai. Setting Forth sebagai track pembuka, memang membuka jalan kemana arah album/film ini berjalan. Di sela-sela lagu slow akustik ada satu lagu akustik mid tempo, Far Behind (bukan lagunya Candlebox lho...), yang dinamis dan memberi semangat (cocok buat lagu kalau lagi kayaking atau naik mountain bike), kandidat kuat buat lagu Pearl Jam klasik. Lagu lain yang menarik adalah Rise dan tentu saja Hard Sun (cover song).

Video Klip Hard Sun

CDnya sendiri mudah2an cepat beredar di Indonesia. Untuk sementara dgrkan low quality mp3 dari sini:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/08050c/
Jgn lupa beli ya CD orinya nanti...

Kings of Leon w/ Ed Vedder - Slow Night So Long Video

2007-07-03T10:05:00.000+07:00

Masih dari Werchter Festival, Eddie muncul di akhir set nya Kings of Leon shared vocal duties di lagu Slow Night So Long

Silakan unduh

Diambil dari webcast.

Pearl Jam at Werchter Festival 2007 video webcast download

2007-07-03T10:00:00.001+07:00

Ternyata, 6 buah lagu yang dimainin PJ di Werchter Festival Germany beberapa hari lalu disediakan untuk di streaming di website penyelenggaranya.
Teman2 jammers luar berhasil mengcapturenya ke hardisk dan segera disebarkan utk Jammers di seluruh dunia.

ini linknya

Webcast: 29/06/07 Werchter Festival, Werchter, Belgium
Corduroy, Small Town, Why Go, Given To Fly, Even Flow, Life Wasted

Lumayan lah untuk mengobati rindu. Enjoy.

Pearl Jam and Incubus In the Park

2007-06-29T18:30:00.000+07:00

Ini adalah report dari Retno, member PJ.Id yang bermukim di Belanda. 26 Juni lalu, dia berkesempatan menonton konser Pearl Jam di Nijmegen, yang juga diikuti oleh band favorit Retno selain PJ, yakni Incubus. Kings of Leon serta Perry Farrell' Satellite Party juga terjadwal membuka konser Pearl Jam dan Incubus yang diselenggarakan di sebuah taman kota tersebut. Here's the report:

***

Halo semua,

Aku masih dalam suasana euforia kemaren, gara-gara nonton Incubus sekaligus Pearl Jam..hehe. Pembuka konser Pearl Jam kali ini menampilkan Perry Farrel's Satellite Party (sayangnya kelewatan nonton), Kings of Leon serta Incubus. Aku dan rombongan kecil (suami dan teman dari Hungaria yang nonton lagi, setelah nggak puas nonton PJ di NovaRock festival di Wina, Austria) hanya kebagian buntut Kings of Leon. Untungnya, di lagu terakhir mereka ngundang Eddie Vedder untuk jadi backing vokal buat lagu mereka. Bahkan di sepanjang konser
Eddie memakai kaos Kings of Leon. Sweettt....

Untuk laporan konser Incubus rasanya kurang appropriate dimasukin sini (milis PJId), mungkin lebih tepat di milis incubus_echoes saja. Tapi secara sekilas ini setlist dari Incubus:

Setlist: Nice to Know You, A Kiss to Set Us Off, Anna Molly, Circles, Drive (full band after 2nd verse), Warning, Love Hurts, Earth to Bella Part 1, Megalomaniac (with long, loud intro), Are you In, Pistola (with break and long guitar/noise solo), Wish You Were Here

Sebagai penggemar Incubus, aku ngarepin Privilege dimainin, tapi wajar jika akhirnya mereka banyak mainin beberapa lagu dari album baru untuk promosi, seperti Love Hurts yang lebih masuk di telinga Eropa. Sayangnya Incubus nggak main bareng PJ.

Kembali ke konser Pearl Jam, overall setlist yang dimainkan meliputi:
Main Set: Release, Go, Hail Hail, World Wide Suicide, Whipping, Do The Evolution, Given To Fly, Not For You, Wishlist, Even Flow, Insignificance, Unemployable, Jeremy, Nothingman, Better Man/Save It For Later, Corduroy, Why Go
1st Encore: Comatose, Daughter/Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 (original by Pink Floyd)/War (original by Edwin Starr), Leash, Rearviewmirror
2nd Encore: No More, Blood, Alive, Rockin' In The Free World (original by Neil Young), Yellow Ledbetter

Sedikit cerita dibalik jalannya konser, sebelum lagu Betterman Eddie bercerita tentang peringatan meninggalnya 9 fans (salah satunya disebutkan namanya) di tragedi festival Roskilde, Denmark 7 tahun yang lalu. Sejak peristiwa tragis itu mereka lebih menghargai arti hidup. Keluarganya fan yang disebutin namanya kebetulan hadir di konser ini. Kakak perempuan fan itu me-request lagu "Betterman" untuk mengenang adiknya. Damn, langsung merinding waktu denger intro Betterman. Terharu man!!!

Secara keseluruhan penampilan mereka kemaren juga top banget. Jika dibandingkan dengan konser di Arnhem tahun lalu, rasanya jauuuhh!!

Oya, di 2nd Encore terdapat lagu "No More" yang merupakan lagu terbaru ciptaan Eddie Vedder dan bekas serdadu Amerika di Irak. Dia bilang dia lebih tahu tentang kondisi perang ketika ngobrol dengan serdadu tersebut daripada membaca beribu-ribu berita di koran dan nonton CNN..hehe. Ed juga bilang di konser ini pertama kalinya lagu ini dinyanyiin di Belanda.

Enjoy this 40s Video:
Pearl Jam
Incubus

Retno

***

Thanks a lot ke ses Retno atas review dan share-nya yak. Ditunggu kabar selanjutnya dari Belanda!

Video Pearl Jam live at Grand Rapids 2006 (VCD)

2007-06-28T17:55:00.000+07:00

Demi kepuasan anda, silakan di unduh file video konser Pearl Jam di Grand Rapids 2006.

05/19/06 - Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Ed pre-set: Dead Man, Can't Explain (not avail in video)
set: Elderly Woman..., Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Sad, Marker in the Sand, Red Mosquito, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, Corduroy, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop)/(I Believe In Miracles), Army Reserve, Green Disease, Why Go, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror
first encore: Sleight of Hand, Off He Goes, Around the Bend, Parting Ways, Hard To Imagine, Crazy Mary, Alive
second encore: Do The Evolution, Comatose, Satan's Bed, Leatherman, Blood, Baba O'Riley, Yellow Ledbetter

BEWARE, bukan Pro Shot, tp audience shot dgn 2-3 camera mix + di mix dengan audio dr official bootleg.
Total file hampir sekitar 2 GB, semuanya ngabisin 3 disk. Download dulu semua file ke dalam hardisk baru kemudian di extract dengan Winrar.

Unduh semua file dalam folder rapidshare berikut:
pearljam grandrapids 2006 VCD (3disk)

Enjoy!

update

2007-06-28T17:10:00.000+07:00

Mulai hari ini, saya akan coba update blog selai mutiara lebih sering lagi dengan berita-berita terbaru seputar pearl jam dan link-link menarik lainnya yang didapat baik dari website Pearl Jam lainnya maupun dari milis PJ.id.
Semoga dengan sering di update, blog ini akan semakin hidup.
Viva la Jam!

Chris Cornell Concert Report

2007-06-11T12:09:00.000+07:00

Fellaz, ini adalah concert report Danny Lenoir, member PJ.Id yang ada di States. He's so lucky kali ini bisa nonton Chris Cornell langsung, tapi tetep sangat berbaik hati mau share pengalamannya ke rekan-rekannya yang ada di Indonesia. Here's his letter dengan sedikit editing supaya lebih enak untuk format blog.

+++

Hi All,

Kamis, 31 Mei lalu gw nyempatin nonton Chris Cornell yang mentas di sebuah club kecil dengan kapasitas sekitar 400 orang di kota Nashville. Gw kudu antri selama 2 jam untuk tiket (meski dihibur Chris yang sedang check sound), dan dapet seat di pinggir depan stage. 30 menit kemudian, hall udah penuh sesak yang memicu turunnya larangan "no smoking" akibat banyaknya asap rokok sekaligus bikin ruangannya sedikit panas.

Setlistnya bener-bener freakin' awesome! Dari Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Audioslave, sampai Chris Cornell solo album!! Show dibuka dengan "Spoonman" yang langsung disambut audience dengan rangkaian moshing. Selepas lagu legendaris Soundgarden tersebut, Chris menyambungkannya dengan 'Garden lain, "Outshined". Aarrgh...situasi chaos memicu gw kudu pegangan pembatas besi supaya ngga pindah posisi.

Big surprise, "Hungerstrike" muncul! Dari intronya aja lagu itu udah bikin merinding... Selepas itu disambung "Say Hello to Heaven", lagu lain dari kedahsyatan boys from Temple of the Dog, band yang dibentuk Chris bersama member Pearl Jam untuk mengenang Andy Wood, vokalis Mother Love Bone yang meninggal karena overdosis. So, meluncurlah "Can't Change Me" dan juga the sweet "Call Me a Dog" (Chris sempet ngomong kalo lagu itu "dedicated for my Andy") dengan format akustik.

Lagu baru Chris yang disiapin untuk album solo mendatangnya, "Billy Jean" was so greaat! Lagu itu adalah cover song dari lagu Michael Jackson. Jacko wacko kudu dengerin lagu itu dibawain Chris sepertinya. Berturut nomor Soundgarden lain "Jesus Christ Pose" dan "Rusty Cage" sempet bikin hall-nya mau rubuh. Apalagi buat gw yang notabene perawakan Asia ditengah bule-bule. Haha...

Encore pertama konser dibuka dengan "My Wave", kemudian "Black Hole Sun" yang always hit me in the head so hard. Black Hole jadi lagu penutup konser yang overall performance-nya luar biasa. Live sekitar dua setengah jam plus encore break selama 10 menit memuaskan audience dengan deretan lagu klasik Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog dan album solonya.

Sebetulnya, konser tersebut sempet direncanakan terus berlangsung. Tetapi entah kenapa konser harus di stop oleh polisi. Sayang, padahal audience belum puas menonton Chris dan band member-nya yang nggak kalah cool, meski kudu bermandi keringat akibat ruangan yang ngga terlalu besar. It's an amazing concert, meski venue-nya kecil, tapi justru bikin Chris deket sama fans. Di sisi lain, lapak merchandise-nya juga cuman 1 meja, dengan kaos-kaos digelar begitu saja. Belom sempet beli buat semua yang nitip merchandise, soalnya sehabis gate dibuka langsung maju ke depan buat nonton Chris check sound. Selepas konser, kaos-kaos yang sisa cuman ukuran small size aja. So, sorry buat semuanya!

Overall, it's so good concert and so tiring...

Salam,

Danny

Setlist:
Spoonman
Outshined
Original Fire
What You Are
Show Me How to Live
No Such Thing
You Know My Name
Hungerstrike
Say Hello to Heaven
Fell on Black Days
Rusty Cage
Sunshower
Can't Change Me (akustik)
I Am the Highway (akustik)
Call Me a Dog (akustik)
Doesn't Remind Me (akustik)
Cochise
Your Soul Today
Billy Jean
Like a Stone
Loud Love
Jesus Christ Pose

First encore:
My Wave
Seasons
Black Hole Sun

+++

Foto-foto dari dokumentasi pribadi Danny. Setlist sedikit disesuaikan (warna merah) dengan catatan fans lain di forum Audioslave.

Great Gig for Maniacs

2007-06-06T16:31:00.000+07:00

Apa yang disuguhkan dari sebuah konser tribute? Yang paling utama adalah untuk "menyalurkan" hasrat sembari berharap band yang di-tribute mengadakan actual show. Dan seberapa besar hasrat itu bisa dilihat dari antusiasme penampil dan penonton yang terangkum dalam satu kata: maniak!

SELEPAS penyelenggaraan Pearl Jam Nite 2, Desember tahun lalu, muncul banyak pertanyaan mengenai event ketiga. Biasanya seputar konsep acara yang dalam dua kali penyelenggaraan hampir dalam konteks yang sama: 5 atau lebih band membawakan lagu-lagu Pearl Jam. Banyak kritik yang masuk ke panitia pada waktu itu, bahwa dengan banyaknya lineup, maka mood penonton yang sudah terlanjur "tune" dengan salah satu band bisa menurun ketika band berikut kurang mampu menampilkan performa terbaiknya.

Untuk penyelenggaraan ketiga, cukup tiga band yang didaulat membawakan lagu-lagu sakral dari Pearl Jam. Dua band asal kota kembang, Bandung - yang menjadi kota tuan rumah acara - , Zu dan Junkhead mendapat mandat. Ditambah dengan alumnus hajatan pertama di 2005, Dua Sisi, yang mengisi jatah seleksi panitia. Zu adalah band independen asal Bandung yang tengah bergairah meniti karir di dunia musik Indonesia selepas launching mini album mereka. Sementara Junkhead melegenda di kancah lokal sebagai pengibar bendera "Seattle Sound", meski vakum 2 tahun dan reuni khusus untuk acara Pearl Jam Nite 3. Dua Sisi sendiri masih bergulat dengan demo album mereka, selepas mini album mereka launching di akhir 2005 lalu.

So, the set is up and the event is running. Sebelum hari H, panitia menyebar brosur tentang acara ini ke penjuru Bandung dan lewat bombardir internet. Sayang, publikasi yang sudah berjalan bagus justru menjadi bumerang. Venue awal, JB's Fun Bar, Hyatt Bandung tiba-tiba membatalkan kesepakatan menjadi tuan rumah 3 hari menjelang event! Terlanjur sebar, panitia membuat arrangement mendadak dengan Classic Rock, sebuah bar di bilangan Braga Bandung. Pemberitahuan hanya disusulkan melalui notifikasi sms dan imel dua hari menjelang. Sangat terlambat, apalagi dari pengamatan lebih dari separuh brosur yang disebar di distro-distro dan spot komuniti lain di Bandung ludes. Logisnya, harapan akan membludaknya antusiasme barudak ke event menjadi makin jauh, dan yang paling mungkin adalah membuat acara yang berkenan bagi siapapun yang membaca perubahan venue dan datang ke Classic Rock.

Venue Classic Rock, sempit tetapi malah menjadi keuntungan akibat hilangnya potensial audiens yang tidak tahu perubahan venue. (photo: AWANG)

Beruntung, Classic Rock adalah sebuah bar yang tidak terlalu besar. Di bangunan yang didominasi imej dan memorabilia musisi almarhum Jim Morisson dan Jimi Hendrix ini hanya mempunya space sekitar 6 x 3 meter persegi untuk stage ditengah flow ruang menuju bar dan lantai atasnya. Di depan stage, terpisah jalan selebar satu setengah meter, berderet bangku pub yang menempel ke dinding. So small, yet so intimate. Jarak panggung dengan audiens sangat dekat, membawa ke show "personal". Mirip dengan pub-pub di Seattle yang menjadi setting lahirnya gelombang musik alternatif di akhir 80-an.

Pukul 19.30, massa mulai berdatangan. Rata-rata adalah wajah-wajah familiar dari komunitas PJ.Id yang melek dengan perubahan venue. Usut punya usut, pihak JB's Fun ternyata menolak mem-forward (atau sekedar menempel informasi perubahan venue) calon audiens yang terlanjur ke sana. But the show must go on. Tepat di angka 8, jam berdentang seiring dengan gemuruh audiens menyambut Zu membuka acara dengan deru bas dan ritem yang mengiringi lagu Animal. Ini adalah kali pertama mereka membawakan lagu-lagu Pearl Jam. Jadi, vokalis Zu harus membagi konsentrasinya dengan bermain bass sekaligus sesekali melirik catatan lirik lagu yang terpampang di depannya. Amazingly, so smooth dan mampu menciptakan euforia kecil di kalangan audiens yang mulai beranjak ke angka 30-an kepala. Lagu berikut, Rearviewmirror dan Wishlist mengawal ke sebuah intro yang familiar dengan audiens...

Vokalis-bassis Zu, membuka acara dengan performans perdana mereka membawakan lagu Pearl Jam. (photo: ADE RIDWAN)

World Wide Suicide dari album terbaru dinyanyikan dan memicu apresiasi penonton. Di hajatan PJ Nite 2 lalu, lagu ini jadi satu-satunya wakil "Avocado" dan dibawakan di awal acara. Tetapi di sini, penonton jauh lebih aware untuk menyanyikan bait demi bait lagu yang mengecam kebijakan George W. Bush tersebut bersama vokalis Zu.

It's the same everyday in a hell man-made What can be saved, and who will be left to hold her? The whole world...world over. It's a world wide suicide

Bunuh diri massal itu akhirnya ditutup dengan riff lagu Even Flow. Nomor klasik dari album epik Ten yang menjadi debut awal Pearl Jam di blantika musik internasional. Applaus layak diberikan kepada Zu atas pilihan setlist unik mereka (2 album Versus, dan masing-masing satu Yield, Ten dan Pearl Jam). Mereka menandai debut membawakan Pearl Jam dengan apik dan harapan kian membumbung menyambut band kedua, Dua Sisi.

Dua Sisi mempersiapkan pertunjukan mereka dengan setting serius. Andra, vokalis dan gitaris band asal Jakarta ini membuka dengan dialog ke audiens sembari keyboard dipersiapkan. Keyboard menjadi instrumen wajib Pearl Jam akhir-akhir ini setelah "klik" antara Kenneth "Boom" Gaspar dan Vedder cs. Dua album terakhir memiliki warna dominan di instrumen kembangan piano ini. Hal itu memicu asumsi penonton jika Dua Sisi mungkin akan memilih setlist yang banyak memuat lagu dari dua album terakhir.

Dua Sisi, veteran PJ Nite 1, kali ini menjadi headliner dengan 8 lagu sekaligus dalam satu show. (photo: ADE RIDWAN)

Pendapat itu ada benarnya ketika 3 nomer sekaligus, yang membuka show mereka, dicomot dari dua album terakhir. Severed Hand membuka dengan efek suara kibor yang disahut oleh deru drum dan ritem gitar. Lagu kedua adalah Life Wasted yang notabene merupakan nomor pembuka album terakhir Pearl Jam (rilis tahun 2006 lalu). Lagu itu disusul dengan Save You yang merupakan gacoan dari album Riot Act (rilis 2003). Setelah berselang balada Black yang dinyanyikan secara koor oleh audiens (mungkin sudah mulai mencapai 50-an pengunjung), kibor kembali beraksi dengan "rarity" Army Reserves. Lagu ini sontak mendapatkan apresiasi lebih dari die-hard fans. Bisa dihitung jari pengunjung yang turut bernyanyi. Setelah "terasing" dengan balada keluarga prajurit Irak tersebut, getaran intro dari lagu pembuka album Yield bergaung di ruangan yang relatif kecil. Brain of J turun dengan power full yang dibawakan Andra cs. sambil terselip riff reggae di interlude lagu.

and by name the name they gave me the name i'm letting go...

Deru drum segera menimpali teriakan Andra. Drummer Dua Sisi, Iit, bermain sangat prima dengan memberi energi dibalik ketukan-ketukannya. Hal itu kentara ketika membuka lagu Insignificance dengan deret riff drum sebagai wakil dari album keenam, Binaural (rilis 2000). Selain di Brain of J, Iit memberi ketukan-ketukan ala Jack Irons di lagu-lagu yang justru mulai identik dengan Matt Cameron. I Got Shit menutup sesi Dua Sisi, meski mendapatkan request untuk membawakan Jeremy, tetapi patuh pada rundown panitia yang memang hanya dibatasi sampai jam 22.00 sebelum band reguler Classic Rock tampil.

Headliner dipersiapkan di akhir acara. Junkhead yang tenar di Bandung dengan imej Seattle Sound-nya membuka dengan Grievance. Disusul dengan Breath yang ternyata mendapatkan banyak respon positif dari penonton. Lagu-lagu era lama memang selalu melekat di hati pecinta rock pada umumnya, sehingga lagu seperti Breath yang berada di kompilasi legendaris OST Single tersebut sangat populer. Selepas Breath yang menuntut oktaf tinggi, Junkhead reses sejenak untuk mengantar Indifference sebagai lanjutan. Lagu ini adalah salah satu lagu paling kalem dari Pearl Jam, sehingga penonton larut dalam suasana dengan bernyanyi bersama. Terutama pada bagian:

I swallowed poison until I grow immune I will scream my lungs out, till it fills this room

Ruang sempit Classic Rock memang seperti penuh dengan ceceran paru-paru audiens yang meneriakkan bait tersebut sekuat tenaga.

Selepas lagu itu, suasana mosh-pit menghangat ketika intro Porch membahana. "Riot act" akhirnya pecah mengiringi lagu dari album perdana Pearl Jam. Slam dance menjadi pemandangan umum di bibir stage yang mungkin hanya menyisakan lebar semeter bagi pengunjung yang ingin "aman". Umumnya mereka beringsut ke tepi panggung. Junkhead terus memanaskan mosh-pit ketika Why Go mengikuti Porch. Gitaris Junkhead bermain sangat prima untuk menghantarkan melodi ala Mike McCready, bahkan sampai ke karakteristik sound-nya! Mungkin karena terlalu prima juga, sehingga jelang lagu berikut, ampli gitarnya feedback dan terpaksa direparasi sejenak. Tanpa memberi kesempatan crowd beristirahat, Junkhead lanjut dengan sesi minus lead dalam lagu State of Love and Trust yang dibantu oleh Yana "Marvell". Di pertengahan lagu, lead kembali muncul untuk mengiringi koor "nanananana" yang menjadi trademark nomor dari soundtrack film Single ini.

Yana "Marvell" dan Junkhead, menutup sesi Junkhead dan membuka sesi Jam-Session. (photo: AWANG)

Di tengah request untuk terus melanjutkan setlist, Junkhead memberi bocoran bahwa lagu berikut merupakan lagu terakhir. Meski disambut dengan teriakan kecewa audiens, tetapi intro Alive mengalun dan membuai penonton untuk sejenak lupa bahwa show itu akan segera berakhir. Koor terjadi kembali layaknya konser Pearl Jam betulan dengan teriakan dan kepalan di riff akhir Alive. Sayang memang, waktu yang dibatasi membuat penonton yang notabene tengah berada di klimaks mood menjadi kecewa. Guna mengobati kekecewaan tersebut, jam session diadakan. Drummer dan bassist Junkhead tetap di stage, sementara lead gitar dipegang oleh Olit, personel band Alien Sick (Jakarta) sementara vokal dirangkap oleh Andra dan Yana yang juga membantu ritem. Betterman mengalun menuntun pada koor audiens. Usai berdendang lagu gubahan Vedder sebelum di Pearl Jam tersebut, request penjaga tiket akhirnya dikabulkan. Lagu yang bercerita tentang bunuh diri remaja bernama Jeremy segera terlantun menutup show singkat bertajuk Pearl Jam Nite 3. Lantun bersama lagu yang menjadi videoklip perdana Pearl Jam tersebut menjadi resume dimana show yang penuh kebersamaan dan kekeluargaan ini berakhir.

Total durasi sekitar 2 jam sharp! Sayang memang, tetapi itu juga sudah maksimal dengan adanya pembatalan venue awal dan sebagainya. Secara positif, justru jika acara dibawakan di Hyatt, intimacy dari show malah tidak akan terjadi. Dan dengan venue yang kecil, 80-an pengunjung yang hadir akan merasa familiar dan bisa lepas ketika mereka ber-slam dance ria di atas moshpit yang sekaligus merupakan ruang satu-satunya tersisa dari Classic Rock. Seperti biasa, di akhir acara komunitas kecil ini selalu berkumpul sejenak sambil menguapkan pertanyaan yang klise: acara selanjutnya dimana dan kapan?

Yang jelas, dua jawaban terbuka sudah. Satu, jika di Bandung, dengan preparasi yang lebih baik tentu akan menjadi lebih "meriah" mengingat hegemoni Seattle Sound masih lekat di kota Kembang tersebut. Dan dua, melihat antusiasme audiens, Pearl Jam Nite 4 tentu akan diadakan kembali! Atau justru akan disela oleh konser dari the real deal, Pearl Jam? Well, keep our fingers crossed, karena kompilasi video dari trilogi Pearl Jam Nite tengah meluncur ke TenClub Management Headquarter di Seattle sana. Bukan tidak mungkin, atmosfer kerinduan terhadap survivor satu-satunya dari scene yang beken dengan nama grunge ini akan menjadi dorongan kuat bagi manajemen Pearl Jam untuk konser di Indonesia. Geliatnya sudah ditunjukkan barudak Bandung, menimpali sukses dua show sebelumnya di Jakarta.

Zu, Dua Sisi dan Junkhead rasanya menjadi mediator yang pas bagi semua yang menyaksikan malam itu bahwa yang berkumpul di Classic Rock, 2 Juni 2007 adalah sekumpulan maniak. Dalam arti positif, mereka membawa energi positif untuk menarik kuintet asal Seattle yang mereka gilai, Pearl Jam. It's such a positive effort.

Brosur design by Windo. For more photos, please visit: Ade Ridwan and Awang website.

Pearl Jam Nite 2 - 1 Desember 2006

2006-12-15T11:21:00.000+07:00

The waiting drove us mad...
Lebih dari setahun yang lalu, hajatan malam tribute untuk band Seattle yang merupakan survivor musik rock 90-an, Pearl Jam, digelar disebuah kafe di bilangan Kemang Jakarta Selatan. Acara yang mungkin merupakan acara pertama bertajuk Pearl Jam Nite (PJN) itu mengusung misi untuk mendatangkan the real deal-nya, yaitu memanggungkan band yang terdiri dari Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament dan Matt Cameron tersebut ke Indonesia. Berangkat dari sebuah komunitas online (Pearl Jam Indonesia: tenclub_indonesia@yahoogroups.com), keinginan untuk makin menyatukan suara penggemar Pearl Jam tersebut makin meluas dengan adanya acara PJN tersebut. Terbukti dengan melesatnya sebuah petisi online dengan ratusan pengisi yang meminta Pearl Jam meluangkan waktu mereka untuk manggung di Indonesia.

Satu tahun berlalu, belum ada tanda-tanda jika band yang Mei 2006 lalu mengeluarkan album kedelapan tersebut akan mampir ke Indonesia meski di jadwal tur mereka tertera nama kota yang berjarak seseberangan laut dengan pulau Flores, yaitu di Darwin, ujung utara Australia. Didorong rasa penasaran menunggu, maka muncul insiatif untuk kembali memutar kembali rekaman 4 September 2005 guna menggelar hajatan Pearl Jam Nite 2. Kali ini dalam rangka rolling acara Forever Grunge yang rutin digelar oleh komunitas Pearl Jam Indonesia (PJ.Id) sejak launching album kompilasi mereka, yang berjudul "Not For You", Juli 2006 lalu. Maka dipanggungkanlah Pearl Jam Nite 2, sebagai seri ketiga rangkaian Forever Grunge, di Front Row Sports Grill Senayan pada tanggal 1 Desember 2006 lalu.

It's finally here and we're all mess...
Konsep acara direncanakan sebagai runut balik perjalanan Pearl Jam, mulai dari kesuksesan album baru mereka yang critically-acclaimed oleh media, setelah selama puluhan tahun menjadi musuh yang diperangi Vedder cs. Band Footsteps mengawali repertoir runut balik dengan melantunkan "World Wide Suicide" setelah membuka show dengan nomor klasik Neil Young (identik juga dengan Pearl Jam dengan show legendaris Neil dan PJ di MTV VMA 1992) berjudul "Rockin in the Free World". Rangkaian lagu yang berasal dari album kompilasi yang keluar tahun 2004, Lost Dogs, mengalun dari pentas kecil di sudut Front Row. Di antaranya adalah "Yellowledbetter" yang dicatat sebagai nomor klasik PJ karena kentalnya pengaruh dewa blues-rock asal Seattle, Jimi Hendrix, dalam barisan riff yang ditulis Mike McCready. Donny, gitaris Footsteps sejenak keluar dari alam ragawi dengan balutan melodi blues-nya mengiringi berakhirnya setlist band tersebut dan membuka rangkaian PJN 2.

It's a riot act...
Menurut pakem yang ditulis, band kedua akan membawakan lagu-lagu dari album Pearl Jam yang dikeluarkan pada tahun 2003, Riot Act. Simplementhol terdaftar pada itinerari acara untuk menghajar crowd dengan "Get Right", "Save You", "Half Full" dan setlist dari Lost Dogs. Akan tetapi, karena berhalangan maka Freasbe yang sebelumnya terkena jatah band pembuka dengan hanya 3 lagu "naik pangkat" menjadi band headliner dengan ekstensi 3 buah lagu adisional. Konsep runut balik sedikit "berputar" ketika Freasbe yang dimotori Jaiz pada vokal membawakan random setlist dari album Live on Two Legs (1999) yang dibuka dengan "Hail Hail". Dua buah nomor keren dari album Yield (1998) menyusul dengan membuncahnya suara Jaiz, yang notabene merupakan adik kandung Ipang BIP, dalam lagu "MFC" dan "In Hiding". Setlist kembali berputar maju menyusul "I Am Mine" dari album Riot Act yang dilantunkan sebagai kompensasi absennya Simplementhol. Kemudian lagu 'Do the Evolution" yang menyulut massa untuk bergerak ke bibir panggung menjadi awal dari berubahnya party yang manis menjadi konser rock yang liar seperti era-era 90-an awal ketika Pearl Jam bersama Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney dan Nirvana merajai mainstream rock di Amerika Serikat dan dunia.

Mesiu yang disulut Freasbe dengan "Evolution" segera disambut oleh massa penonton yang kemudian menciptakan mosh pit menyambut "Even Flow" dan "Porch" dalam repertoir berikut. Tak puas dengan lagu-lagu tersebut, penonton menuntut encore yang ditimpali "Rearviewmirror" sebagai lagu pamungkas Freasbe, band yang sejatinya sudah bubar bertahun-tahun yang lalu tersebut.

We got memories, and got sh*t...
Lord Mahila dijadwalkan untuk mengisi setlist lanjutan dengan membawa repertoir dari album Binaural (2000) dan Yield. Tetapi karena mereka menjanjikan suprise act yang baru bisa dilakukan malam harinya, jadilah Got ID mengisi setlist lebih awal dengan membawakan lagu-lagu dari album No Code (1996) dan Vitalogy (1994). Membuka dengan "In My Tree", sebuah nomer kontemplatif yang ditulis Vedder, Got ID menurunkan tempo yang telah dipanaskan Freasbe sebelumnya. Sayang, kondisi vokalis mereka, Arief, yang kurang fit membuat beberapa nomor terasa "dingin". Padahal mereka membawakan lagu-lagu wajib fans Pearl Jam semacam "Not For You" dan "Corduroy". Beruntung lagu punk-hardcorish Pearl Jam seperti "Spin the Black Circle" serta "Lukin" tetap berhasil menjaga bibir panggung tetap hangat dengan kembali membawa massa untuk ber-slam dance dan moshing. Bahkan aksi Ridha, gitaris Got ID, membawa atmosfer yang makin menembus waktu ke era 90-an ketika dia bercrowd-surf sambil memainkan melodi lagu "I Got Sh*t". Dan aksi Ridha itu juga sekaligus menjadi klimaks penutup band beranggotakan 5 orang tersebut.

Tattooing everyone...
Band "dadakan" Stick Figure yang beranggotakan musisi-musisi dari band grunge Bolong, Alien Sick, The Others dan Stigmata mengisi panggung dan menyambut dengan "Black", nomor balada dari album perdana Pearl Jam, Ten (1991). Penonton duduk memenuhi bibir panggung dan hanyut dalam melodi yang diciptakan duo gitaris, Egy dan Olit membius dalam atmosfer hitam sesuai dengan balada "gone-wrong relatinship" paling terkenal dalam katalog Pearl Jam. Membuka lagu kedua adalah "Go" dengan hentakan drum Ader dan beat rimatis bass Joshua membawa angin segar penonton untuk kembali membantai moshpit. Suara Irfan, vokalis Stick Figure, dieksploitasi dalam lagu berikut yang merupakan simbol perlawanan Vedder terhadap media: "...spin me round, roll me over. Fuckin' circuuuuus!". "Blood" dari album kedua (Vs - 1993) mengaliri adrenalin penonton untuk terus bergerak mengiringi irama hardcore dari geru instrumen yang keluar dari ampli di seputaran panggung.

Pada susunan berikutnya, mulai terjadi bongkar pasang personel band jam-session ini. Ditandai dengan masuknya Erwin, gitaris band papan atas Cokelat, menggiring penonton ke sebuah intro paling terkenal dalam sejarah Pearl Jam yang dulu ditulis Stone Gossard, gitaris PJ, sebagai "Dollar Short". Lagu yang kemudian dikenal berjudul "Alive" tersebut menjadi rangkaian lagu klasik yang dibawakan setelah sebelumnya "Jeremy" mengakhiri kiprah Egy di sisi gitar Stick Figure. Erwin mendapat sambutan dari penonton dengan mengangkatnya ke crowd-surf sambil meneruskan melodi gitar Alive yang konon "dicuri" McCready dari Stevie Ray Vaughan. Menyusul Erwin, Dendi dari band Kunci menggantikan Irfan untuk menghajar "Animal". Kunci dijadwalkan tampil sebagai headliner. Tetapi karena berhalangan, maka Dendi membayarnya dengan melebur bersama Stick Figure membesut lagu-lagu PJ. Penonton semakin liar meski malam semakin larut.

A human being that was given to...
Lord Mahila tampil sebagai band berikut yang mengisi. Dibuka dengan "Light Years", Lord Mahila yang dimotori eks bassist ALV band, Alex, mendinginkan Front Row degan repertoir ballad-nya. "Off the Girl" menyusul kemudian, dengan komposisi harmoni bass dan gitar tunggal. Nostalgia album keenam, Binaural, berlanjut dengan "Evacuation", yang memaksa vokalis Mahila sampai ke oktaf tertinggi meneriakkan "...evacuaaaatioooooon". Amazingly, dia bisa bersaing dengan Vedder mencapai titik tersebut. "Faithful" menutup sesi "standar" menyusul ketidaksabaran penonton untuk pengen segera masuk ke bibir panggung. Aksi kejutan dimulai dengan Alex yang memanggil eks personel ALV lain, yaitu Nito (gitar) dan Nugie. Penonton segera memenuhi area moshpit, ketika Nugie mulai melancarkan jurus-jurus showmanship-nya dengan provokasi kaitan lagu PJ dengan Led Zeppelin. Intro "Given to Fly" mengalun yang menuntun ke meriahnya sambutan penonton. Riff yang mirip dengan "Going to California"-nya Plant dkk ini disambut dengan koor membahana dari puluhan mulut yang dipimpin Nugie dari atas ampli. Tidak mau kehilangan momen nostalgia, pada klimaks lagu Nugie melemparkan dirinya ke penonton yang disambut dengan arakan crowd surfing ke seputaran mosh pit, sambil tetap melantunkan reffrain "...arms wide open with the sea as his floor...oh now...now...hoooooo". Nugie pun terbang di atas puluhan tangan yang membawanya ke angkasa. Kemudian dia kembali lagi untuk memprovokasi penonton ber-slam dance di lagu "Brain of J". Mungkin disaat inilah momen berubah seratus persen menjadi sharing-gig, ketimbang sebuah show. Terjadi interaksi luar biasa antara performer dan penonton yang melebur menjadi satu berupa kerinduan terhadap momen yang dibawa Pearl Jam selama rentang waktu 15 tahun lebih ini.

Hold on to the thrill...
Sekitar satu dekade yang lalu, di Indonesia tengah mewabah virus musik alternatif 90-an yang juga digawangi oleh Pearl Jam. Beberapa band bermunculan ke jalur mainstream yang lekat dengan identitas kultur generasi X tersebut. Dua di antaranya adalah Nugie dan ALV Band serta Plastik yang memunculkan Ipang sebagai talenta berkarakter suara "vedderesque" (jauh sebelum Scott Stapp dan The Calling).

Nostalgia masa tersebut coba dimunculkan di Front Row, 1 Desember 2006 malam lalu ketika sesi terakhir dari gelaran Pearl Jam Nite 2 menampilkan free jam session. Sejumlah musisi lokal papan atas bergabung untuk merayakan masa lalu yang turut menjadi bagian dari referensi musikal mereka. Nugie, Alex dan Nito dari ALV, Erwin dari Cokelat, Adhit dari Element, Dendi vokalis band Kunci, Chandra alias Che dari band Cupumanik, serta Ipang, mantan ikon Plastik yang kini menjadi frontman BIP. Khusus untuk Che dan Ipang, ini adalah kali kedua penampilan mereka di gelaran Pearl Jam Nite, setelah pada PJN pertama di Kemang mereka turut menjadi bintang tamu.

Can't find a betterband...
Jam session pertama mengangkat kembali lagu klasik 90-an yang pernah booming gara-gara video Mark Pellington untuk lagu yang turut memenangkan Pearl Jam di kancah MTV Video Music Award 92. Lagu berjudul "Jeremy" yang bercerita tentang alienasi keluarga dan sosial ini dibawakan secara serempak oleh Ipang, Che serta Dendi dengan iringan Erwin dan Olit (gitaris Alien Sick/Stick Figure) serta Alex (bassis Lord Mahila/eks ALV) dan Ader (drummer Stigmata). Berlanjut ke lagu paling populer dari Pearl Jam, "Betterman", yang justru ditulis Vedder jauh sebelum dia bergabung dengan band yang sebelumnya bernama Mookie Blaylock tersebut. Lagu kedua ini disambut dengan koor penonton yang sepertinya sudah mengendap di bibir panggung, menyisakan spot-spot kosong dari penjuru Front Row. Konsepnya menjadi murni share antara penonton dan performer karena saling mengisi, mengingatkan bait-bait yang lupa dan memberi tambahan energi oktaf untuk menambah kesenangan malam itu.

Setelah lagu kedua, Che mengambil alih jam-session dengan melantunkan lagu yang telah muncul sebelumnya oleh Freasbe, yaitu "Rearviewmirror". Energi vokal Che yang besar memang cocok untuk lagu-lagu Pearl Jam dari album kedua yang memang banyak didominasi tinggi vokal Ed Vedder. Di PJN 1 lalu, Che juga banyak mengambil setlist dari album kedua Pearl Jam sampai ke model "Rats" dan "Glorified G" yang notabene sudah sangat jarang dibawakan Vedder sendiri saat ini.

I don't mind stealing bread for a show like this...
Karena konsepnya jam-session, maka performer harus siap dengan request-request yang muncul dari penonton. "Hungerstrike"-pun berkumandang...
Lagu yang sebetulnya bukan lagu Pearl Jam tersebut termasuk "rarity", karena secara awam jarang yang tahu tentang lagu dari band Temple of the Dog tersebut. Lagu kolaborasi personel Pearl Jam dan Soundgarden tersebut memunculkan duet vokal Vedder dan Chris Cornell dengan suara satu-duanya yang menjadi signature. Nito (gitaris ALV) menunjukkan kapasitasnya sebagai penggemar Pearl Jam dengan mengambil alih posisi gitar dari Erwin dan segera melantunkan lick intro Hungerstrike. Arief, vokalis Got ID, juga siap mem-backup Che untuk berduet dalam lagu dahsyat tersebut. Penonton juga siap mengambil alih nada-nada oktaf tinggi yang dimunculkan Cornell dalam versi aslinya.

Can you see them? Round the porch, and they don't wave...
Dua lagu selanjutnya menjadi penutup rangkaian repertoir PJN 2. Adhit, gitaris band Element menjadi gitaris kedua menggantikan Olit untuk berduet dengan Nito melantunkan riff legendaris lagu "State of Love and Trust" yang diambil dari soundtrack film Singles. Dan seperti halnya konser Pearl Jam, lagu "Yellowledbetter" menjadi penutup rangkaian konser yang membawa kembali mesin waktu ke masa kini. Nito menutup rangkaian konser antar-fans Pearl Jam tersebut dengan sayatan sedih pada gitarnya yang menyadarkan penonton bahwa acara usai sudah. Wajah-wajah lelah dan puas karena bisa share dengan sesama fans Pearl Jam bermunculan. Tidak terbatas oleh status selebritas pada performer, karena yang ada di situ semuanya adalah mereka yang menggemari lagu-lagu dari band asal Seattle tersebut. Membawa kembali ke alam memori masa muda bagi sebagai penonton yang berusia late-20 atau early 30. Masa di mana Pearl Jam bersama band-band 90-an merajai kancah mainstream musik rock. Sementara satu dekade berselang, Pearl Jam membuktikan bahwa tribute semacam ini sangat layak mereka dapatkan karena eksistensi mereka yang masih menerpa penggemar di seluruh dunia menyusul tuntasnya tur keliling dunia mereka yang sukses dari Mei sampai akhir November lalu.

Oh, I'm still alive...

SETLIST
FOOTSTEPS
Rockin in the Free World, World Wide Suicide, Yellow Led Better

FREASBE
Hail Hail, MFC, I Am Mine, Do the Evolution, Even FLow, Porch, Rearviewmirror

GOT ID
In My Tree, Spin the Black Circle, Not For You, Lukin, Corduroy, I Got Id

STICK FIGURE (+Erwin COKELAT and Dendi KUNCI)
Black, Go, Blood, Jeremy, Alive, Animal

LORD MAHILA (+Nugie and Nito ALV)
Light Years, Off the Girl, Faithful, Evacuation, Given to Fly, Brain of J

JAM SESSION (feat. Ipang BIP, Che CUPUMANIK and Adhit ELEMENT)
Daughter, Jeremy, Betterman, Rearviewmirror, HUngerstrike, State of Love and Trust, Yellow Led Better

Corduroy, Vitalogy dan Fans Pearl Jam

2006-04-30T11:40:00.000+07:00

Hola, another song-geek-note from me...sorry kalo kepanjangan ya.

Kali ini pengen sharing sedikit tentang "Corduroy". Lagu favorit gue sih. Dan sampe sekarang menjadi lagu paling "wajib" di setlist Pearl Jam (the most played), dan make sense sih. Majalah SPIN bilang ini lagu yang paling bagus yang pernah dibikin Pearl Jam. Cannot more agree than...musically (kalo lirik, gw masih merasa direpresentasikan oleh "I Got ID"). Kira-kira tentang apa ya "Corduroy"?

Situs The Sky I Scrape (www.theskyiscrape.com) yang memuat beberapa spekulasi intepretasi lagu dari penggemarnya rata-rata mengemukakan kalo lagu "Corduroy" ini bercerita tentang hubungan dua orang (mungkin kekasih?) yang memburuk dan (lagu ini) menjadi semacam statement perpisahan. Di satu sisi, Eddie Vedder pernah mengemukakan bahwa lagu ini indeed adalah lagu tentang hubungan (relationship), tapi bukan hubungan dua orang, melainkan satu orang ke orang banyak. Berikut quote-nya, yang gue ambil dari Two Feet Thick (www.twofeetthick.com):

"It is about a relationship but not between two people. It's more one person's relationship with a million people. In fact, that song's almost a little too obvious for me. That's why instead of a lyric sheet we put in an X-ray of my teeth from last January and they are all in very bad shape, which was analogous to my head at the time." -Eddie Vedder (Los Angeles Times, November 20, 1994)

Kata-kata Vedder emang selalu "dual". Di situ, I believe, tersimpan "misteri" dari lagu "Corduroy" ini. So, gue tertarik untuk "membedah"-nya. Di mulai dari unsur ekstrinsik-nya.

"Corduroy" ini ada di album Vitalogy. Jika Ten (album pertama) banyak dipengaruhi unsur ekstrinsik berupa tahapan (atau pengalaman) Vedder selama pre-Pearl Jam (coba lihat ke Mamasan Trilogy, dan tentunya "Release"). Serta Versus (album kedua) lebih banyak mengungkap realita-realita sosial pada saat itu (di mana beberapa kejadian seperti kasus rasialisme ("WMA"), kekerasan senjata ("Glorified G"), youth ('Leash") dan sebagainya mendapat ekspos dalam lagu-lagu VS). Vitalogy lebih bercerita tentang "introspeksi" yang melanda personel Pearl Jam. Vitalogy adalah album yang mengubah konsep total Pearl Jam dalam industri musik. Tahun 1990-1994 adalah masa di mana musik alternatif tengah dalam peak-nya, dan menjadikan hype di mana-mana (korelatif dengan artikel TIME yang baru aja selesai gue translate kemaren). Pearl Jam (terutama Eddie Vedder), seperti halnya Nirvana dan musisi-musisi Seattle lain, justru merasa risih dengan kondisi semacam ini. Pemecatan Dave Abruzzesse mungkin jadi salah satu hints, mengingat si Dave Ab ini punya kecenderungan suka dengan "stardom" (dating celebs and model, party-ing, etc). Pendek kata, Pearl jam tengah berusaha "play down the hype" saat itu.

So, album Vitalogy ini banyak dipengaruhi oleh kondisi tersebut. "Not For You", yang "lahir" lebih dulu dibanding "Corduroy" secara jelas bisa dibilang sebagai statement awal idealisme Pearl Jam. Bahwa mereka membuat musik yang pure, dipengaruhi jiwa idealis mereka dan ngga akan berkompromi (this is not for you!). Kemudian "Immortality", juga bercerita dalam korelasi yang kurang lebih sama. "Immortality" (kemungkinan "plesetan" dari kata immorality) mengungkapkan tentang ekspolitasi industri hiburan (showbiz) dari perspektif korban-nya. Oleh karena itu, "Immortality" sering sekali dikaitkan dengan almarhum Kurt Cobain yang notabene "korban" juga dari tekanan showbiz. "Immortality" juga "lahir" sebelum "Corduroy" (sebelum Vitalogy keluar, dua lagu di atas sudah sering dibawakan Pearl Jam dalam konser). Dua lagu itu bisa menjelaskan unsur ekstrinsik album Vitalogy, karena kebetulan berada di awal dan akhir setlist album (meski kesela "Last Exit" dan ketumpuk "Stupid Mop").

How about "Corduroy"? Kembali ke "Corduroy", lagu ini ada di tengah-tengah album. Dan spekulasi gue, lagu ini adalah link dari "Not For You" dan "Immortality", dalam arti mempunyai arti yang mendukung keduanya. Gue berangkat dari statement Vedder di atas yang mengungkapkan bahwa "Corduroy" adalah lagu hubungan (Vedder) dengan banyak orang (dalam kata lain: komunitas, kumpulan orang, penggemar, dan sebagainya). Secara simpel, gue mengartikannya itu adalah hubungan Vedder dengan konsekuensi status popularitas dan selebritas-nya (being famous) yang mengakibatkan dia disanjung, dipuja dan sebagainya. Let see...

The waiting drove me mad

"Fame" itu sebetulnya diinginkan juga oleh Vedder pada awalnya. Digambarkan di lirik tersebut, dia sudah menunggu sangat lama. Kalo dilihat dari riwayatnya, Vedder baru join ke PJ di usianya yang ke 24. Sementara puncak tenarnya adalah ketika dia berusia 28 tahun-an. Waktu-waktu sebelumnya banyak diisi Vedder di scene San Diego bersama band-nya Bad Radio, serta berusaha dekat ke dunia showbiz (referensi gue dari artikel kontroversial RS, kalo emang bener). Dan ketika akhirnya Vedder mendapatkan popularitas-nya, di usia 28-an, tahun 1993/1994, ternyata hal itu justru berlawanan dengan bayangannya (you're finally here and I'm a mess...next).

you're finally here and I'm a mess
I take your entrance back
can't let you roam inside my head
I don't want to take what you can give...
I would rather starve than eat your bread...
I would rather run but I can't walk...
Guess I'll lie alone just like before...

Vedder lebih memilih untuk kembali seperti semula (I take your entrance back), menikmati kehidupan dan privasi-nya seperti semula, dan even siap menanggung segala konsekuensinya. Gue inget quote dari Vedder: "The highest point of your popularity, it's also the lowest point of your personality."

I don't want to hear from those who know...
They can buy, but can't put on my clothes...
I don't want to limp for them to walk...
Never would have known of me before...

Dan di sini adalah keypoint tentang "hubungan Vedder dengan banyak orang" seperti yang disebutkan di atas. Pertama adalah muaknya Vedder sama media dan publisitas, di mana dia sering membaca, mendengar atau melihat imej dirinya di media (mungkin korelatif juga dengan artikel TIME yang diprotesnya). Kemudian munculnya fans-fans yang me-rip off gayanya melalui bentuk pakaian. Saat itu, saking hype-nya, tiba-tiba aja baju flanel, sepatu boot dan jaket corduroy menjadi tren fashion (current hype - boot: Doc Mart, flanel: Mark Jacob's). Padahal baju flanel itu adalah 'pakaian tradisional' kultur logger (penebang pohon) yang mayoritas menghuni kawasan northwest Amerika (where Seattle lies). Dan juga corduroy yang menjadi judul lagu, sebuah mitos terkenal menyebutkan ketika Vedder dikasih jaket corduroy dari Stone Gossard (yang dibeli dari flea market) tapi lantas jadi simbol fashion dia yang ditiru (ripped off) sama fans-fans-nya. Vedder ngga mau jadi idol yang bisa ditiru segalanya, atau membuat statement tren baru (I don't want to limp for them to walk). Dan baris itu bisa diartiin juga mengacu ke pemberitaan media (dual intepret), Vedder membuat statement bahwa kisah masa lalunya yang "nggak sedap" itu bukan sebuah kepura-puraan atau "komoditas" untuk karirnya. Pada intinya, mereka (fans yang ripping off dan media-media) ngga tahu siapa sebenarnya Vedder. Inget quote terkenalnya? "You don't love me, you only love who you think I am. And donâ€™t pretend that you know me." (dari blog teh Tarlen - dan witnessed by myself ternyata quote ini dari rangkaian konser 1994 - makin pas dengan unsur ekstrinsiknya).

Everything has chains...absolutely nothing's changed

Dan Vedder-pun mencoba bijak untuk menegaskan bahwa hal ini adalah "resiko"-nya juga (everything has chains). "Fame" akan datang juga pada akhirnya, meski juga ditegaskan olehnya bahwa hal itu ngga akan pernah merubahnya (absolutely nothing's changed).

Sebuah statement yang terus dipegang, seperti dalam artikel SPIN, pasca Ten, sebetulnya bisa saja Pearl jam membuat materi lagu yang rocking seperti di Ten. Tapi justru hal kaya gitu ngga akan dilakukan Vedder cs. karena ketika masa mereka sudah habis nantinya, maka musik mereka akan habis juga. Kasarnya, ketika alternatif sudah nggak hype lagi, begitu juga musik mereka akan mati. Hal ini juga jadi kekuatiran Cobain, berdasarkan suicide note-nya: "better to be burnt out than fade away". So sejak Vitalogy ini Pearl Jam merubah drastis haluan bermusiknya, membuat musik sebagai sebuah "state of the art". Meski dengan segala konsekuensi, termasuk menurunnya jumlah penjualan dan jumlah fans. "Not For You" mengawali Vitalogy dengan statement bahwa mereka akan membuat musik mereka sendiri. "Corduroy" bercerita tentang kefrutrasian mereka ditekan untuk "menyenangkan" media dan fans yang bukan menghargai mereka, tapi mengeksploitasi mereka. Sementara "Immortality" menutup Vitalogy dengan memberikan gambaran casualties (korban) dari eksploitasi tersebut.

Sebuah rangkuman dari album paling monumental, menurut gue, dari Pearl Jam. Karena mengubah haluan (melalui Vitalogy) ini, mungkin juga Pearl Jam masih tetap alive and kickin' sampai saat ini. Jumlah fans? Mungkin hanya 10 persen dari fans Ten, tapi fans Pearl Jam saat ini adalah fans paling loyal dari sebuah band manapun (mungkin lebih tepat disebut 'cult'). Lihatlah Nothing Music (multimedia sharing, dalam kapasitas lebih dahsyat), The Sky I Scrape (dokumenter Pearl Jam dalam wujud short facts), (the legendary) Five Horizons (geek-nya Pearl Jam...membidani lahirnya PJ-mology dan segala macam archives collection yang dahsyat), Two Feet Thick (penerus Five Horizons...jika pengen bikin essay tentang Pearl Jam, lihatlah site ini!), Pearl Jam Reference (quote by quote Vedder cs., serta testimonial musisi lain ke Pearl Jam...inspiring), PJ's Vault (kalkulasi dan summary lagu yang pernah dinyanyiin Pearl Jam? Dari mana gue tahu "Corduroy" adalah lagu yang paling banyak dimaenin?) dan fanbase-fanbase regional.

Bandingkan dengan band-band lain yang website-nya mungkin banyak tapi isinya standar (discography, lyric, links, bio) -meski ada juga band lain yang punya loyal fans seperti PJ.

Dan secara nggak langsung, sebuah album seperti Vitalogy ternyata sangat decisive menentukan kelangsungan/eksistensi sebuah band. Kadang langkah drastis harus diambil. Kadang sebuah statement harus disampaikan. Dan pesan itu terus didengungkan Pearl Jam, karena "Corduroy" adalah materi wajib yang selalu dibawa di setiap setlist konser. Seolah ngga henti-hentinya Vedder berucap: "Love our music. Appreciate our creation. Don't ripped me off. Don't love me for what you want me to be." Lagu "Corduroy" adalah bagaimana Vedder menginginkan hubungannya dengan fans terjalin.

Regards - Hilman

PS: Didedikasikan kepada komunitas (milis) Pearl Jam Indonesia. Bahkan ketika gue "nemu" milis ini dengan member yang cuman 5 orang-an, cannot describe any happier moments..cannot say. Kapan nih bikin website kita sendiri?

Polling Logo Pearl Jam Indonesia

2006-04-12T10:53:00.000+07:00

Please vote our new logo at: here!

Songtherapy: Long Road

2006-01-30T14:41:00.000+07:00

Long Road
written by: Eddie Vedder

and i wished for so long, cannot stay
all the precious moments, cannot stay
it's not like wings have fallen, cannot stay
but still something's missing, i cannot say (yeah)

holding hands are daughters and sons
and their faiths are falling down down down down
i have wished for so long
how i wish for you today

will i walk the long road (the long road)
cannot stay (the long road)
there's no need to say goodbye (say goodbye)

all the friends and family
all the memories going round round round
i have wished for so long
how i wish for you today

and the wind keeps roarin'
and the sky keeps turning grey
and the sun is setting
the sun will rise another day

i have wished for so long
how i wish for you today

will i walk the long road
we all walk the long road

Lagu ini (awalnya) tergolong rarity. Mungkin hanya fans Pearl Jam saja yang tahu tentang lagu ini, karena tidak pernah masuk ke dalam album dan sebagainya, kecuali sebuah EP berjudul Merkinball. Tetapi karena "karisma"-nya, lagu ini berhasil muncul dalam soundtrack untuk film Dead Man Walking. Bahkan di tahun 2001, Long Road menjadi lagu yang dipilih Eddie Vedder dan Mike McCready (bersama Neil Young di piano) untuk disumbangkan kepada usaha recovery tragedi 11 September 2001. Long Road adalah lagu paling spiritual tentang makna kehidupan yang ditulis Vedder.

Intepretasi
Pada dasarnya Long Road adalah lagu tentang kerinduan yang sangat mendalam (secara ekstrinsik). Long Road adalah metafora untuk bentang hidup (dan jalan hidup) seseorang. Banyak kejadian yang mengiringi bentang hidup kita, meninggalkan banyak cerita meski banyak juga yang telah berlalu, seperti termuat dalam bait awal:

and i wished for so long, cannot stay
all the precious moments, cannot stay

Ada juga keinginan kuat (atau lebih tepatnya komitmen) dari seorang yang menjadikan orang lain (bisa jadi keluarga, kekasih, pasangan, orang tua dan sebagainya) sebagai motivasinya dalam menjalani hidupnya (long road). Seperti termaktub dalam perumpamaan yang ditulis Vedder di bait-bait selanjutnya:

all the friends and family
all the memories going round round round
i have wished for so long
how i wish for you today

Kita semua (normally) berbuat demikian untuk memberi arti dan motivasi jalan panjang kita mengarungi kehidupan. Membuat kita bertahan di satu titik meski banyak halangan yang merintangi.

and the wind keeps roarin'
and the sky keeps turning grey
and the sun is setting
the sun will rise another day

Apapun yang terjadi dalam hidup, kita tetap harus menjalaninya...

will i walk the long road
we all walk the long road

Gathering di Surabaya

2005-11-22T18:10:00.000+07:00

All-round peserta gathering...at Daily Bread, Tunjungan Plasa I Surabaya, 20 Nov 2005

Gathering, atau acara berkumpul bareng fans Pearl Jam yang tergabung dalam wadah Pearl Jam Indonesia (PJ.Id) sudah beberapa kali diadakan. Tidak membatasi diri dengan agenda atau atau jumlah peserta, tetapi tujuan utama dari kegiatan ini adalah sebagai bentuk sosialisasi dan silaturahmi antar-anggota. Sedikit menengok ke belakang, gathering atau "kopi darat" pertama kali diadakan di Jakarta lebih dari setahun yang lalu. Setelah itu beberapa kali diadakan di Jakarta dan dua kali di luar Jakarta, yaitu di Bandung dan di Bogor. Gathering Pearl Jam Indonesia yang terakhir diadakan di daerah timur, yaitu di Surabaya, pada Minggu 20 November 2005 lalu.

Duo Daily Bread "insider" yang berbaik hati memutarkan lagu-lagu Pearl Jam sebagai "soundtrack" setting, meski sehari-hari diputar musik jazz.

Acara kumpul khusus penggemar Pearl Jam dari daerah Surabaya dan sekitarnya (Malang dan Sidoarjo) ini digagas secara mendadak karena menyesuaikan dengan kegiatan masing-masing peserta gathering. Selain juga handicap wilayah yang membuat penyesuaian-penyesuaian sangat sulit dilakukan. Setelah disepakati pada dua hari sebelumnya, gathering diadakan pada hari Minggu pagi sebelum jam 12 siang, karena Alex harus bekerja pada jam tersebut. Jadilah acara gathering mini ini disepakati untuk diadakan dengan peserta minimal penulis, Awang (Malang) dan Alex, bertempat di "Daily Bread", cafe dan bakery di Tunjungan Plaza I, Surabaya.

Awang (kiri) menjelaskan sesuatu kepada Alex (tengah) dan penulis (kanan) tentang Pearl Jam.

Pada hari-H, waktu yang disepakati adalah sepagi mungkin venue buka, yaitu sekitar jam 10.30. Karena Awang berangkat dari luar kota, acara mundur sampai jam 10.00. Tetapi sesuai dengan ciri khas Indonesia, jam karet, semua peserta gathering baru berkumpul semuanya pada pukul setengah sebelas siang. Gathering diikuti oleh penulis, Awang dengan empat rekannya, dua dari Malang (Ifmi dan Hendra), serta dua dari Sidoarjo, meski bukan Jammers tetapi rela menunggu pertemuan dari freakazoids ini. Alex, sebagai "tuan rumah" membawa rekannya yang bekerja di Daily Bread untuk ikut bergabung, rendezvous, sambil ngobrol tentang Pearl Jam dan macem-macem lainnya.

Awang dan Hendra, salah seorang rekan yang "dicomot" Awang dari Malang, di-infiltrasi dengan banyak pengaruh Pearl Jam. Terutama meyakinkan bahwa kultur PJ di masa Ten tidak berubah sampai dengan Riot Act.

Secara spesial, Daily Bread sengaja memutar lagu-lagu Pearl Jam dalam "jukebox"-nya. Biasanya, kafe tersebut hanya memutar lagu-lagu yang jazzy sesuai dengan suasana lounge. Dengan latar lagu-lagu PJ tersebut, gathering makin seru membahas segala sesuatu tentang Pearl Jam. Mulai dari intepretasi "Not for You" yang selalu menjadi tema sensitif, scene "grunge" dan Seattle-Sound di Surabaya, influence-influence Pearl Jam sampai obrolan tentang Led Zeppelin. Tidak ketinggalan tentunya, acara sharing material antar-peserta. Awang membawa mp3 official bootlegs North America 2005-nya untuk di-share, dan penulis membawa kopi video Pearl Jam Unplugged 1993 serta PinkPop 1992. Sayang tidak ada yang membawa laptop sehingga bisa streaming di lokasi tersebut. Tetapi background musik dari jukebox kafe lumayan mengibur suasana.

Obrolan kadang berlangsung serius, dengan beberapa topik yang cukup mendapatkan atensi seperti masalah kata "Mohammad" di lagu Not For You.

Karena waktu yang terbatas, pada tengah hari gathering diakhiri. Bonus khusus dari Daily Bread sangat spesial dengan menggratiskan aneka kopi yang telah menemani acara gathering. Dengan semangat untuk kembali mengadakan gathering, serta membuat acara yang berhubungan dengan Pearl Jam di Surabaya, di masa yang akan datang, masa depan dari kegiatan ini sangat besar kemungkinannya untuk kembali diadakan. Tentunya dengan harapan penggemar PJ di Surabaya sudah makin bertambah. Bukti bahwa program share the Jam mulai berjalan dengan baik.

Ifmi (kanan), jammer dari kota Malang yang datang bersama Awang bersama salah seorang lagi rekannya yang berasal dari kota Sidoarjo. Koran bisa menyibukkan pikirannya dari obrolan peserta lain yang Pearl Jam-minded.

PS: Terima kasih sebesar-besarnya untuk seluruh peserta, dan sebagai catatan juga terima kasih khusus untuk Daily Bread sebagai "tempat bersejarah", yang telah menyediakan venue spesial.

Resensi: Rough Demo got.ID

2005-11-18T22:09:00.000+07:00

Seberapa jauh sebuah inspirasi mempengaruhi karya dalam bermusik? Creed pernah disebut sebagai nu-Pearl Jam, atau Seether dianggap sebagai Nirvana baru. tetapi apa yang dinilai dari Creed adalah karakter suara Scott Stapp yang mengikuti jejak bariton Eddie Vedder. Sementara latar musik mereka tidaklah seperti justifikasi sebagai nu-Pearl Jam. Begitu juga dengan model vokal Cobain pada lagu-lagu Seether. Secara keseluruhan, mereka tidak pernah berhasil menciptakan musik Pearl Jam atau Nirvana. Karena musik itu adalah masalah sound and soul.

Hal itulah yang dipahami oleh got.ID. Band asal Jakarta yang sangat terinspirasi oleh Pearl Jam ini tetap tidak berusaha untuk mengkopi Pearl Jam, atau untuk menjadi Pearl Jam-nya Indonesia hanya dengan sekedar memirip-miripkan salah satu bagian. Personil got.ID yang terdiri dari Arief (gitar, vokal), Ridha (gitar), Yosa (bas) dan Mayo (drum) ini membawa pengaruh masing-masing ke dalam karakter musik yang dihasilkan sebagai sebuah grup. Arief yang tumbuh dengan musik-musik Metallica membawa layer ritem dan kord yang cukup dominan untuk dilapis dengan komposisi hard rock-ish dari Ridha, seperti yang terdapat pada nomor instrumental "Koboy". Meski proses pendewasaan bermusik Ridha dimulai dari kecintaannya terhadap masa-masa grunge dahulu, tetapi root yang ditularkan Ridha ke dalam musik got.ID adalah vintage root, misalnya dalam melodi-melodi klasik pada track "Orang Tua Itu". Atau melapisi permainan ritem dalam "Fajar" yang dibentuk dari race antara beat drum Mayo dan dual kord dari Ridha yang menjadikan track ini terdengar seperti musik The Ramones. Sedangkan di dalam "Indah" Ridha menambah kesan "gelap" dari warna vokal bariton Arief dengan melodi-melodi panjang ala Binaural-nya Pearl Jam. Warna musik funky yang banyak masuk melaui Yosa bisa didengarkan pada "Terlalu", yang bergabung dengan komposisi kord punk ala musik grunge. Menghasilkan unifikasi dalam bentuk musik yang mirip dengan Pas Band pada masa rilis Indie[V]Duality.

Secara keseluruhan, got.ID bisa merangkum seperti apa influens mereka. Track-track dari demo yang total berisi 8 lagu tersebut menjelaskan root karakter musik Pearl Jam dari era Ten sampai Binaural. Musik yang keluar dari kerucut pengaruh musik masing-masing personal, sangat berisi dan jujur tanpa harus berusaha mirip dengan Pearl Jam. Meski pada akhirnya secara tidak langsung justru mereka menjadi bentukan band yang paling mirip dengan band yang lagunya masih sering mereka bawakan ketika konser tersebut. Tidak dalam versi mentahnya memang, tetapi landasan dan hasil yang keluar membuat mereka menjadi lebih progres dibanding band yang hanya menjiplak karakter suara Vedder dan mengklaim sebagai nu-Pearl Jam. Got.ID menghasilkan komposisi musik mereka sendiri. Secara sound dan soul musik mereka adalah hasil dari root mereka. Hal yang membuat pecinta musik "jujur" ala "grunge" pada awal 90-an bisa menjadi fans instan mereka. Highly recommended bagi pecinta musik alternatif berkualitas!

Tracks:
01. Orang Tua Itu 3:35
02. Terlalu 3:45
03. Fajar 4:02
04. Kosong 3:48
05. Indah 6:04
06. Terlanjur 2:11
07. Koboy (instrumental demo) 4:54
08. Lelah 4:11

Highlight:
Orang Tua Itu - Kombinasi antara gitar dengan vokal yang menjadikan musik ini lebih tebal melalui harmonisasi keduanya.
Fajar - Komposisi hirarkis antar-instrumen yang paten ditambah editing yang bagus menjadikan empat menit track ini sempurna.
Indah - Tak secerah judulnya, durasi enam menit menjadi berlipat ganda dengan alunan vokal yang gelap serta melodi panjang. Mike McCready berduet dengan Eddie Vedder di Nothing as it Seems? Atau Pink Floyd? Track yang paling apresiatif.
Lelah - Pearl Jam back in Ten era. Enuff said!

Overall:
I can't believe this record hasn't made out the label yet! What the fuck happened with our music industry?

*Berminat mencicipi demo mereka? Gw berencana bagi sampel-nya. Kirim email ke hilman_t@yahoo.com, kasi tau kemana gw musti kirim! Gratis...

Ten Essential Live

2005-11-17T22:44:00.000+07:00

Ngelanjutin intro to Pearl Jam kemaren, berikut gw coba translate artikel dari fivehorizons, tentang sepuluh konser terbaik Pearl Jam sampai tahun 2000. Dari era gila sampai tragedi Roskilde yang hampir membunuh rentang perjalanan grup musik yang diisi oleh Ed Vedder, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament dan Mike McCready. Serta drummers mereka, respectively. Beberapa dokumentasi dari konser-konser di sini kebetulan gw punya kopinya (video atau mp3), dan sangat ngga keberatan untuk men-share dengan yang berminat. Gratis tentunya, hanya modal sabar sajalah...apalagi yang berbeda lokasi domisili. Yang jelas rangkaian konser ini menggaris bawahi Pearl Jam sebagai band yang besar dari live-act mereka, dibanding blow up media. Dikenal bukan dari promo tapi sisi "legendaris" mereka sebagai band indie yang tetap bersahaja walaupun sudah ada dalam jalur industri musik.

THE OFF RAMP, SEATTLE, OCTOBER 22, 1990 ...Show pertama Pearl Jam di sebuah klub. Masih bernama Mookie Blaylock, jelang launching album perdana dan berganti menjadi Pearl Jam. Dengan suara bariton khas Vedder, langsung bikin kagum pengunjung klub. Introduksi Pearl Jam to the community? Lebih tepatnya intro Ed ke komunitas, since Jeff dan Stone adalah "seleb" juga di Seattle (Mother Love Bone).

COW PALACE, SAN FRANCISCO, DECEMBER 31, 1991 Pearl Jam membuka konser Nirvana dan Red Hot Chilli Pepers. How they dealt with it? Aksi gila! Jeff melompati ampli, Ed memanjat tower yang tinggi dan stage-dive ke penonton. Ber-crowd surf sejenak, dan "berenang" kembali ke panggung tanpa sepatu..hehe.

notes: Ed berkomentar, "If I wasn't in this band, I would still make sure I was here tonight." Flea, bassis RHCP jadi vokalis pendukung dengan suara cempreng-nya di 'Leash.' Stone Gossard sempet maenin riff-nya "Smell Like Teen Spirit" dan nyanyi juga actually...mayan lama dan dengan enteng ngomong, "Just remember, we played it first." Hohohoho...

MTV UNPLUGGED, MARCH 16, 1992 Show Unplugged yang paling ngga' MTV mungkin. Tetep ngebawa sisi liar personel Pearl Jam, especially Jeff dan Ed. Di tengah-tengah jammin' Porch, Ed naek kursi, dan nulis "PRO CHOICE" di lengan kirinya. Sementara Jeff play wildly...teteup! Show yang memicu "jealous"-nya Kurt Cobain sebagai "tindakan yang direncana"...ah apalah itu namanya. Yang jelas emang lebih ngejual "Unplugged in New York"-nya Nirvana dibanding Pearl Jam. Tapi bagi fans Pearl Jam, yang tampil di Astoria malam itu adalah Pearl Jam yang mereka kenal.

ALPINE VALLEY, EAST TROY, WISCONSIN, AUGUST 29 1992 Aksi liar seperti biasa, Jeff yang kesurupan, "duck-walk"-nya Gossard, serta polah reguler Vedder. Manjat sampe atap amphitheater, trus jadi "tarzan" dengan berayun make tali ke arah mosh-pit.

MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, SEPTEMBER 3, 1993 Sebulan sebelum launching "Versus", setelah maen Animal, Pearl Jam ngundang "surprise guest" yang ngga make "announcement" atau basa-basi (langsung hajar bleh)...Neil Young, yang maenin lagu dia sendiri, Rockin in the Free World. Nuthin special, kecuali Ed yang mabok berat (sepanjang lagu cuman nunduk berat, jauh dari kesan rockstar), Mike yang banting gitar sama Jeff yang nendang ampli. Apakah ini show MTV? Hehehehe...tetep tampil seperti adanya mereka. Oya, sebelum manggung, Ed sama Kurt Cobain "dansa" di bawah panggung pas Eric Clapton ngebawain Tears in Heaven. All of sudden, rumor yang diblow up media soal konfrontasi Nirvana-Pearl Jam langsung basi!

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE , APRIL 16, 1994 Di akhir lagu, Ed naruh tangan di dadanya, di atas tulisan "K" yang ada di kaos-nya. Buat info, ini show dilakukan beberapa saat setelah Kurt Cobain meninggal dunia, dan seluruh member band masih shock dengan kondisi itu. Dan lagu "Not For You" paling indah yang bisa didenger dengan luapan emosi paling meluap sepanjang sejarah show Pearl Jam. Still, over-popularity adalah jalan pintas ke kematian. And this is the way Pearl Jam blame the corporate media for their best friend' death.

SOLDIER FIELD, CHICAGO, JULY 11, 1995 Empat puluh tujuh ribu fans bersorak "Ticketmaster sucks!" tanpa dikomando. Sebuah penghormatan bagi Pearl Jam yang di-ban dari tur konser gara-gara memperjuangkan tiket murah untuk fans-nya. Kemenangan untuk dedikasi dan loyalitas terhadap fans, dan anti-komersialisme. Ini adalah satu diantara sekian konser yang diadakan pada masa pencekalan konser Pearl Jam. Biasanya Pearl Jam ngga kebagian venue untuk konser karena dimonopoli Ticketmaster. Dan untuk "demo" dari fans di Chicago ini, Pearl Jam menghadiahi 3 jam penuh konser. Hampir semua lagu dari katalog Pearl Jam, ditambah lagu covers dan juga improvisasi-improvisasi dikeluarkan untuk menjadi salah satu konser "indie" terbesar sepanjang masa.

RANDALL'S ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY SEPTEMBER 29, 1996 Tur "Indie" kedua, masih dalam rangka pencekalan oleh Ticketmaster. Ed Vedder melakukan "demo"-nya sendiri. Mata ditutup pake gabus dan "membungkus" diri memakai lakban. Oya ada juga quote terkenal-nya Ved:

"If you trust me at all, if you want to listen to me at all..but you certainly don't have to...speaking from experience, I can tell you that things change. You can believe me, you don't have to. They probably won't change unless you make them. The best way to change something that's around you, something you don't like, is to change yourself. And I don't think you want other people changing you, I think the only person that can change you is yourself. So if you ain't happy, if you're reading magazines about generation x-ers and thinking 'yeah, I'm one of them', well fuck that. Don't let anyone tell you who you are. No, no. No one can tell me who I am. I can tell you who I am, but that would be a long story. I could tell you who I am and it wouldn't fit in a Rolling Stone. If wouldn't fit in a video...it's my life, it's your life. You're the only one who knows who you are. I hope you know who you are, figure it out. Cause you are somebody. And I'm probably stating the obvious, but I just thought I'd do it anyway. So if you feel like you've got a piece of duct tape on your mouth, if you feel like you can't speak, take it off, speak up, speak your mind, shout it out,let em hear, shout it out."

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY SEPTEMBER 11, 1998 Breath pertama kali dimaenin, setelah ribuan fans "menuntut". 20.000 fans berdiri dan ikut bernyanyi. Dalam show ini juga, duet melankolis antara Pearl Jam dan Ben Harper pertama kali terjadi dalam lagu "Indifference". Versi "kopi"-nya bisa dilihat di video Live at the Garden, 5 tahun menjelang, meski beberapa kali diulang dalam Bridge School Benefit-nya Neil Young.

KEY ARENA, SEATTLE, NOVEMBER 6, 2000 Setelah tragedi Roskilde (9 orang fans meninggal dunia tergencet), Pearl Jam memutuskan untuk tetep maju terus, meski sebelumnya sempet memutuskan pensiun dari dunia musik. Tur Amrik kemudian dilanjutkan dalam suasana duka. Di show pertama, barisan depan (front row) fans mengibarkan spanduk "How are you doing? Hope you're okay!". Ed bilang itu memberi kekuatan pada band untuk menyelesaikan tur mereka. Dan di akhir, di Seattle, barisan komunitas 90-s Seattle datang untuk memberikan dukungan. Personel Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Mudhoney, Neil Young, Pete Townshend dan sebagainya datang dalam show penutup ini. Seolah menjadi "kemenangan" psikologis Pearl Jam setelah beratnya duka setelah targedi Roskilde. Show yang digeber sampe jam 1:30. Tanpa melupakan 9 jiwa yang melayang dalam tragedi, untuk dua tahun ke depan diabadikan dalam repertoar "Love Boat Captain".

Sampai sekarang Pearl Jam teteup eksis, mengibarkan semangat 90's yang memudar. Semangat untuk DIY, tidak tergantung sama korporat dan ekspresif. Puluhan konser legendaris masih dicatat setelah tahun 2000 itu. Tur Riot Act tahun 2003 mencatat banyak peristiwa kontroversial sehubungan dengan hujatan Pearl Jam atas George W. Bush. Ngga tanggung-tanggung, di Aussie bahkan Ed mengatakan kalo PM Aussie mem-blow job George W. make mulut-mulut mereka (rakyat Aussie). The same old Ed...The same old band...The same spirit.

Stone Featuring at Meganut Solo Album

2005-11-15T21:27:00.000+07:00

Gitaris Pearl Jam, Stone Gossard terlibat dalam pembuatan album MegaNut, "That Would be Dope". Stoney ikut memproduserin satu lagu, sekaligus bermain gitar di salah satu track side project band-nya Lonnie "Meganut" Marshall, bassis Weapon of Choice. Album ini digambarkan sebagai album yang "furiously funky", sesuai dengan kapasitas si Lonnie "Meganut" Marshall sebagai bassis funk legendaris. Stone sendiri, selain dengan Pearl Jam juga telah mengeluarkan tiga buah album side project bersama grup-nya "Brad".

MegaNut available at tenclub store.

Pearl Jam Nite Report

2005-09-06T23:24:00.000+07:00

Pemuas dahaga para jammers Indonesia

PEARL JAM NITE
Jakarta, September 4th 2005

Acara ini, seperti udah dibahas sebelomnya via media
release, jadi semacam "tribut-like" to Pearl Jam
sodaraku! Gokil...hehehehe, masi happening sama Ryan
si MC.

Sodaraku, seperti yang udah dibilang kalo tanggal 4
September di D'87 Cafe bakal ada event semacam Pearl
Jam Nite. Pengisinya Cupumanik (which previously
mistery to me), Ipang BIP, dan beberapa band hasil
seleksi.

Acara dimulai sekitar jam 8, menyusul beberapa materi
yang masi dipersiapin karena ada hal yang mendadak
(DVD macet-macet, am I right?). Sebelum itu, warga
milis yang hadir jadi kaya ngadain gathering sendiri
di lounge, saling kenalan dan sebagainya. Gw, bareng
anggota-anggota yang ikutan gathering JatiPadang,
dateng duluan sekitar jam setengah enam. Trus menyusul
mas Gede, Gatot dan kru-nya yang jualan kaos, makin
banyaak lagi...tau-tau udah jadi kopi darat bagian
besar member milis.

Stigmata ngebuka sama "adzan"-nya Pearl Jam (kata mBa
Dinar...refer ke "Arc"). Hehehehe....trus lanjut ke
"Go". Cukup membuat semangat anak-anak yang "ndlosor"
di depan stage...Aldo, gw, Ian, Faizal, Mas Rez, Mas
Tito, mBa Dinar, Ridho sama band member-nya (Got ID):
Arif sama Mayo (dan cewe-nya). Respon crowd juga
mantebh...Di lagu kedua, "Animal" tangan-tangan pada
ngacung, gesturing "five against one". Sebelum
diakhirin sama RVM. Stigmata bisa manasin suasana
(congratz Josh cs.).

Yang kedua, seperti udah ditulis mas Reza, adalah
band-band hasil seleksi. Dua Sisi (band-nya Andra ya?)
bawain "Once", "Black", "LightYears", "Why Go".

Trus Frank (band-nya Amienz sama Clitoray bukan?) bawain "I
Got Id" (my fave, sayang tempo-nya agak keburu ya
bro?), "Red Mosquito" (salut...gitaris lo keren,
bersih banget efeknya, sayang volumen-nya kurang
digeber), "Evenflow". Sementara band ketiga-nya,
Freasbe (band-nya Pronky?)yang bawain "I Am Mine",
"Wishlist", "Breath", sama "Elderly Woman". Semuanya
keren-keren!

Then, band-nya Tenclub. Band-nya Hendra sama band-nya
JC. Gitaris-nya Hendra ditereakin mulu sama cewe-cewe
(setlist-nya lupa). Hehehehe...ko bukan lo 'nDra?

Meanwhile band-nya JC surprisingly bawain duo Vitalogy
"Not For You" sama "Nothingman" disela sama "Animal"
(lagi!).

Disela mas Reza ngomongin soal nama baru milis kita
(Pearl Jam Indonesia aka PJ.Id), Cupumanik bersiap
jadi headliner.

Begitu geber distorsi, dan masuk ke
intro "Given to Fly", Ridho dan temen-temennya
langsung berdiri ke depan, trus diikuti sama crowd
laen, terutama si Aldo tuh yang badannya nyesekin
mata...hehehehe. So, the moshing scene begin. Acara
senam-nya mulai, dan semua jadi kembali ke masa ABG
masing-masing (karena pas ABG-nya ngga kena konser
PJ-like).

Pas lagu kedua, "Betterman" si Ridho malah
ngisi gitar Stoney-nya Cupumanik. Jadilah Ridho
nge-jam bareng Cupumanik di lagu itu. Keren Dha'!
Hehehehe. Menyusul "reses" goyang diisi sama
"Release". Kalo lagunya down gini, vokal si Chandra
bisa dapet sama vokal Ed. Mirip. Baru drop satu lagi,
crowd angkat lagi mosh-pit ngga keruan di lagu "Porch"
sama terakhir "State of Love Trust" sebelom Chandra
ngenalin Ipang sebagai lead vokal berikutnya.

Sodaraku, sesi Ipang jadi semacam Ed Vedder...gokil,
hehehe, dimulai dengan duet sama Chandra di "Alone".

Dilanjut sama "Corduroy"...wah gw trance nih di sini.
Udah kesurupan dan mo gebuk tu monitor ampli...hehehe.
Abis ni lagu, secara musik ato lirik nohok banget di
pikiran gw. Arif (temennya Ridho...lo udah ikut milis
belom si Rif?) trus duet sama Ipang di "Glorified G"
(lagu fave-nya Ipang kayaknya), apes bgt lo
Rip...dapet yang susah diapalin...hehehe. Abis itu,
barru "Alive" setelah sebelum lagu Fadli-Padi
dikenalis sebagai guest vocal. Meski ngga keras-keras
amat, tapi mayan udah bikin crowd belingsatan.
"Daughter" kemudian, supposed to be Fadli, tapi
beliau-nya malah sering ngasi crowd yang nyanyi. Huhu.

Abis itu Chandra naek lagi maenin "Jeremy" yang sempet
mancing acungan jari tengah...hehehe, tradisinya gitu
kan?. Acara kemudian ditutup sama "Spin the Black
Circle" yang featuring allstar, Fadli, Ipang sama
Chandra...termasuk si Arip yang naek lagi ke panggung.

Dan kelarlah acara...ditutup sama nyanyian Dufan oleh
si MC...Rian...hehehe. Gokil!

Abis acara sempet dibahas beberapa issue seperti mo
ngadain PJ Nite lagi di Bandung (kapan Surabaya,
euy!). Just cross ur finger aja, kali kalo udah tiga
kali dapet piring....hehehe, maksutnya semacam Pearl
Jam dateng ke Indonesia, sodaraku.

Setlists:
Stigmata:
Arc (intro)
Go
Animal
Rearviewmirror

Dua Sisi:
Once
Black
Lightyears
Why Go

Frank:
I got Id
Red Mosquito
Evenflow

Freasbe:
I am Mine
Wishlist
Breath
Elderly Woman

Tenclub Band 1 (Hendra's):
Garden
Leash
Why Go

Tenclub Band 2 (JC's):
Not For You
Animal
Nothingman

Cupumanik:
Given to Fly
Rats
Betterman (Ridho at Rhytm Section)
Release
Porch
State of Love Trust

Ipank dan Cupumanik :
Alone (with Che)
Corduroy
Glorified G (with Arip)
Alive (with Fadli)
Daughter (with Fadli)
Jeremy (with Che)
Spin the black circle (with Fadli, vokalisnya
Stigmata, Che, and (sempet) Arip...hehe)

Foto-foto yang lain bisa dilihat di:
http://photobucket.com/albums/v330/pije/Selai%20Mutiara/Pearl%20Jam%20Nite%202005/

Polling Pearl Jam Nite

2005-08-04T17:09:00.000+07:00

Sehubungan dengan akan diadakannya acara Pearl Jam Nite pada tanggal 4 September 2005 di Jakarta, maka kami ingin mengetahui animo penggemar/non-penggemar Pearl Jam untuk hadir di acara ini, Untuk itu mohon luangkan waktunya sejenak untuk mengisi polling berikut ini:

Info lebih jauh:

TENCLUB_INDONESIA PROUDLY PRESENT:

PEARL JAM NITE - STOP THE WAR, LOVE THE EARTH...!!

September 4th, 2005
7 PM
at d'87 Cafe - Kemang

Featuring: - Ipang (BIP)
- CUPUMANIK
- etc.

For further information please contact:
Dinar : 08121927107
Joshua : 08170892274 / 08164843472

Vitalogy Health Club

2005-07-12T18:01:00.000+07:00

APA YANG MEMBUAT KAMU SUKA SAMA PEARL JAM?
Band hebat tapi tetep low profile, gw suka itu. Ga cuma PJ aja semua band yg udah terkenal tapi tetep low profile, gw suka
(keukeuh) - faisal

pearljam membuka hati dan ide-ide tentang arti kesederhanaan dan konsistensi diri dalam bersikap dan utamanya bermusik..tak ada yang lebih "wah-wah bluesy" dibanding pj.. jessi 'jc' pramandhana

prinsip mereka dalam bermusik dan konsistensinya terhadap banyak hal. proses pencarian identitas mereka sangat inspiratif queen of stoney G

kombinasi vokal vedder, gitar stone & mike, bass jeff en drumnya dave (waktu itu). Citra Jaya

awalnya gara2 gw denger intro golk**ledbetter oops :) (masih lum ngerti apa arti liriknya.. help mi plis) lum sempet edved nyanyi dah kepotong jadi sepintas gw penasaran sapa sih yg ngebawain? tambah penasaran lagi pas gw main game vietcong di intro soundnya mirip bgt. pernah juga denger john petrucci main solo ada yg mirip soundnya gitarnya. ooo pearl jam toh.!! trus vocalnya kok bisa "nggeter" gitu yak?? :D *big grin*i love it, i love them delostdog

waduh buanyak...!lagunya kental, punya ciri khas sendiri dan jadi mainstreamnya band baru di dunia (apalagi vokalnya), -liriknya bagus (gak bosan untuk dibaca, didengar dan dinyanyikan), -vokalnya eddie yang super keren, cool, panggung konser yang super simpel. suka bikin konser dadakan. -dekat sama fans, nggak terlalu suka jadi "celebirty", jadi jarang terekspos dn lain..lain......-terakhir punya fans hebat..pearl jam dan fans adalah kesatuan..nggak salah vote pj for the greatest band ever awang

saya dicerdaskan lirik2nya. saya masih sangat badung ketika mengenal Pearl Jam. Sambil ngeg***a denger Black ama Jeremy di mobil temen, gua nangis. band yg lagu2nya bisa bikin saya nangis jarang bgt (gua sentimentil) hahaa. jaman2 pencarian jatidiri kaya gitu, sosok patron memang dicari. dan, Eddie Vedder seperti melengkapi masa-masa badung gua. selanjutnya, pilihan saya memang ngga salah. Band ini layak, dan ed with less or more-nya...tetap jadi idola saya. wisnu rieca

Suara dan matanya edved (fisik sekale yak), musiknya, stylenya (sampe bela2in nyari jaket coklat gaya edved), eksistensinya, low profilenya... dinar

lyrics yang amazing, suara vedder yang keren, sikap dan prinsip mereka yang merendah, dan perhatian pada para fans (the jammer) yang pantes ditiru band lain. henda

lirik dan kepribadiannya yang sependek ku tau ga ngartis tediskhara

Mula-mula tentunya musik mereka. Baru kemudian saya menyadari jika banyak pemikiran dan semangat dari member of the band yang juga merupakan representasi semangat dan pemikiran saya. hilman_t

APA ARTI PEARL JAM BUAT KAMU?

buat musik sih ngaruh banget, jadi seneng sama musik yg semodel PJ tapi buat hidup..... ga tau - faisal

pearljam?
pearljam..
pearljam!!!!!
segelap cahaya hati gw tentang hidup...seindah desir rasa sakit yang mengintai di keseharian..pearljam bagi gw adalah kata kerja..dan khayal gw ttg mereka menginspirasi gw dalam berpikir dan bertindak (anjritt..siga nu enya weh siah jess!!!hehe)
jessi 'jc' pramandhana

Pj adalah salah satu buku wajib dalam mengkaji vitarlenology :D queen of stoney G

pearl jam adalah wakil emosi saya via musik. bisa didenger pas sedih, seneng, semangat, kecewa, depresi, bangga, dll. jadi denger PJ kayak mendengar kisah hidup sendiri... (ujung kalimat pake titik-titik biar terkesan dramatis, hehehe) Citra Jaya

artinya selai mutiara :D !?
salah satu band favorit gw delostdog

pearl jam bukan sekedar musik bagiku. tanpa dibuat2, "ada" banyak hal yang cocok dengan yang apa dipikirkan dan diperbuat oleh pearl jam dalam lirik lagunya, musiknya dan idealisnya, kecuali aborsi dan kumpul kebonya eddie vedder! awang

pearl jam, bbukan sekedar band. sikap hormatnya sama band tua patut dicontoh. sikap rendah dirinya patut dicontoh.sebuah popularitas memang semu.terpenting adalah berkarya yg terbaik buat fans.ini menginspirasi saya pribadi untuk lebih menonjolkan karya ketimbang omongan.dan hal ini bikin sya sadar bahwa "jangan mau deh populer" wisnu rieca

Hidup menjadi lebih hidup. dinar

band yang 99.99999% SEMPURNA (yang sempurna 100% cuma TUHAN, aih garing!!!). dan mengajarkan gw agar tetap GROUNDED!!!. henda

memberi banyak inspirasi dalam alur hidup gue (perasaan edan banget gitu lhokszzvcxsxsbsth) tediskhara

Menjadi warna dan bagian dari identitas diri yang dengan bangga bisa dikenakan: "I'm a Pearl Jam fans..." di mana nggak banyak orang Indonesia masuk dalam kelompok kecil tersebut (banyak orang saya temui malah tidak tahu menahu apa itu Pearl Jam). Sementara semangat dan pemikiran mereka membuat respek yang besar kepada mereka. hilman_t

APA LAGU ATAU ALBUM YANG PALING BERPENGARUH BUAT KAMU DAN TOLONG CERITAIN ALASANNYA..

Lagu "Black" pengaruh banget..... apalagi pas patah hati, nyanyinya menjiwai banget deh gw - faisal

vitalogy..nothingman..born with nothing..and we'll die with nothing!..and it's remind of someone... that's me. jessi 'jc' pramandhana

Semua di album No Code, karena album itu menurutku sangat spiritual dalam sejarah pejalanan karirnya PJ queen of stoney G
Ten. itu album pertama yang saya punya, yang saya beli dari temen seharga 5000 perak tanpa bungkus kasetnya
sampe sekarang saya ngga punya bungkus kaset ten lho) dan dari lagu2 itulah saya denger lagu2 ajaib PJ en menyulap selera musik saya, dan bisa kenalan sama temen2 semua di milis ten_club ini. Citra Jaya

last kiss. masa berbuat baik krn mau ketemu my baby di sana? :)) mungkin kl my baby-nya go to hell kudu nakal biar ketemu kekeke.. *joke*nah itu dia, jadi ngingetin tujuan idup gw... *ikutan pake titik2 juga* delostdog

semua album berpengaruh, cuman paling berkesan pertama kali denger album vitalogy trus ke belakang (ten dan versus). krn dengar pertama kali, vokal dan musiknya PJ keras dan ngajak kita untuk ikut teriak. sejak di no code sampai album terakhir, pearl jam lebih kuat pengaruhnya....lebih komplek, rumit dan....aku sadar kalo aku falling in love dengan PJ!! lagu yang "paling" berpengaruh: hailhail, wash, smile, in hiding, althoseyesterday, arc, soon forget dan iam mine. karena liriknya aja yang sering jadi motivasi dan "menyegarkan"!!!! awang

ten album jelas berpengaruh banyak. namun adalah vitalogy dan No Code yang benar-benar ngaruh. dari sisi musikalitas dua album itu jadi momen lompatan yg sangat cemerlang. PJ berani mengambil resiko (satu lagi yg patut dicontoh)! soal lagu: betterman sangat berkesan karna gua pernah nyanyiin di depan seorang cewek saat kencan. nyanyi minus one sambil tutup mata di depan dia. abis nyanyi, cewek (yg kini jd mantan) bengong. lalu dia bilang, " lu gila..."// ya Tuhan, kapan lagi bisa nyanyiin lagu PJ di depan cewek yg kita cintai???? wisnu rieca

Album TEN, karna album ini paling enak buat didenger dan dinyanyiin sambil nyetir mobil sendirian keliling kota dalam suasana gerimis sore-sore, macet juga gak berasa macet.... rasanya seperti eddie duduk disamping gue..... aaaaahhhh....memang lagu-lagu pearl jam seperti menghipnotis gue.... dinar

VITALOGY...BETTERMAN.... itu album dan lagu yang pertama gw kenal waktu masih kelas 1` SMP!!! (ampe dateng lagsung ke studio radio cuma bwt request lagu itu). meskipun akhirnya gw juga suka album TEN karena ada BLACK, juga lagu I'am mine! henda

album Ten dan Vs. kalo diceritain kayaknya kepanjangan euy...tapi yang jelas semua lagu pearl jam gue suka karena lirik-liriknya memiliki kekuatan siritual yang...maklum dari kampung. aku suka banget lagu garden...its naiceeeeeee wae (maaf dari kampung) tediskhara

"Given to Fly", sebagai lagu yang mengantarkan fase pemahaman kepada musik Pearl Jam, kemudian "Garden" yang membuat saya mulai menyadari eksistensi Pearl Jam dan warna unik vokalis mereka. hilman_t

Gathering 5.5

2005-06-17T06:45:00.000+07:00

Gathering Mini tapi Maxi

One "BIG" Happy Familiy

Short report dari gathering kemarin:
Dengan segala keterbatasan, keterdadakan, kesempitan, kelambatan akhirnya mini gathering atau gathering 5,5 jadi juga dilakukan di Pia Apple Pie Bogor kemarin 5 Juni 2005 bertepatan dengan hari lingkungan hidup (apa hubungannya?)....

Gathering ini memang mini, dilihat dari acara, waktu yang tersedia, tempat sekedarnya, sarana yg minim dan peserta yang sedikit. Dibilang maxi dilihat dari sisi konsumsi makanannya, karena yang datang pada doyan makan semua :)

Saya sendiri datang agak telat (jam 10.30), waktu sampe di pia apple pie bogor sudah ada budhy, dinar dan keluarganya (suami dan anak)....saya lihat budhy sudah mulai menyantap nasi goreng seafood kayaknya, sedangkan dinar masih malu-malu atau lagi ambil ancang-ancang pesen makanan. Setelah kenalan dngn Mr. Dinar, doi pamit mau ke rumah sodaranya, sdgkan sang istri dan sikecil alif di tinggal sama om om ganteng fans PJ....

Dinar & sons

Mulai deh kita ngobrol2 seputar PJ dan Ten Club Indonesia....sambil ngbrol kita juga puterin beberapa video Pearl Jam karena si Budhy ternyata belum banyak lihat video klip PJ. Berhubung terbatasnya sarana, maka nonton video kali ini cuma pake laptop aja, si budhy bantuin bawa extension kabel listrik krn laptop saya baterenya cepet drop....
(Si budi ini kayaknya ada koneksi deh dgn apple pie ini, kalau ada apa2 disana ngomong aja temennya Budy pasti deh beres..ha ha...)

Budhy merkynball

Sambil nonton dan ngobrol, makanan mulai dipesen dan disantap, saya langsung pesen chicken pie dan dinar pembukaan dengan pudding. Sementara itu palupi kirim sms kalo dia masih naik bis di Priok (buset jam berapa sampe di bogornya ya??)
CJ sendiri kirim kabar kalo datang agak siang krn harus ke undangan dulu, iya deh pak....
Sempet juga di puter, rekaman audio waktu nyanyi bareng2 di gathering 5 kemarin, wah asik nih nostalgianya...kapan lagi guys????

Budhy lagi asik ngebajak

Puas nonton, mulai deh kegiatan burning dimulai...budhy udah siap dengan cd blanknya....yg lain dapat subsidi dari saya....sementara dinar sudah order apple pie sekarang...
Sekitar jam 12.30 si Palupi nongol dengan lesung pipitnya...abis pada kenalan si Pal langsung order makanan (kan makan terus kegiatannya...)....Sementarsa si CJ yg katanya udha di terminal 30 menit lalu belum muncul2 (ternyata kejebak macet...ada ultah kota Bogor). Acara nonton dan burning terus berjalan sambil diiringi pesan makanan, saya sih cuma order tambahan coca cola, tapi si dinar (katanya sih anaknya yg lapar, padahal.....) masih laper akhirnya order bakmi bakso ke toko depan (again budhy dengan gaya humasnya melancarkan segala transaksi antar toko ini...).

eksennya palupi....

Sekitar jam 1 lewat si CJ muncul juga dengan wajah segar abis kenyang makan di kondangan :)....si Palupi sempat tanya, "CJ namanya siapa sih?" ....eh si CJ protes kenapa di milis pada pake nama samaran sih nggak kayak dia yang bangga dengan menggunakan nama aslinya Citra Jaya...saya masih geli ingat kalo dia ngomong banyak yg pake nama vedder atau eddie tp kalo disuruh nyanyi pada diem...nah lho sapa tuh???
Setelah lengkap dgn datangnya CJ, obrolan beralih serius tentang rencana gathering 6, yang pengennya sehari penuh terus lokasinya yg terisolir agar gak ada yang pamit atau permisi sebelum acara selesai dan nggak ngaret datangnya. Akhirnya coba di tawarkan tempat Villa di Puncak (Action: Palupi penjajakan tempat) tanggalnya sekitar 5 September (wah lama amat ya, any idea??), Action : CJ dan Budhy akan bantu persiapan tempat dan lokasi karena mereka ber-KTP Bogor. Action : Saya sendiri bantu dengan doa dari jarak jauh...Dinar bantu apa ya? wah lupa belum dikasi tugas nih ibu satu ini...gimana kalo ngatur konsumsi aja nanti ya....
Seiring dengan berjalannya waktu, maka gathering harus berakhir sekitar jam 14.00 karena saya sudah di tunggu anak istri tercinta di Palembang. Setelah membayar pesenan makanan masing-masing (DInar paling banyak..."berapa juta gw nih?") kita pamitan sama yg punya toko setelah Budhy kasi tip 5 ribu perak buat bayar listrik dan "uang keamanan". Karena pada pengen numpang ke jalan besar, 5 mahluk besar2 tadi ikut masuk ke mobil saya yg seuprit spacenya. Walhasil si Budhy harus rela jongkok.

Makan dan makan...lagi....

Budhy, Dinar dan Alif turun di jalan Padjadjaran, si Pal kasi comment waktu liat mereka bertiga "wah pas tu bertiga kayak Bapak, Ibu dan Anak". Palupi dan CJ turun di terminal Baranangsiang, nggak tau deh berdua pada kemana, biar masing2 pada cerita sendiri deh :) Saya sendiri langsung tancap gas ke Cengkareng mengejar pesawat sore....

Di atas senja ibukota dlm pesawat wings air, diiringi dengan Off he goes di mp3 player portable saya, saya ucapin selamat tinggal Jawa, see u in September...or sooner...

PS: berhubung gatheringnya mini, maka kameranya juga terbatas pake hp, tp not bad lah....

Reza aka Pije
np: Ed Vedder & School of Rock kids - I wanne be sedated.

The Doors: "Morrison and Vedder share the same space"
Personal Homepage: www.geocities.com/reza_home/

Milist fans Pearl Jam Indonesia:
selai_mutiara@yahoogroups.com

tenclub_id@yahoogroups.com

Petisi datangin Pearl Jam !

2005-05-03T09:19:00.000+07:00

http://www.petitiononline.com/pjindo05/petition.html

Teman-teman, saya menyampaikan amanat rekan Manggala untuk membantu menyebarluaskan informasi ini. So, tunggu apa lagi? cepat lah sign dan sebar luaskan petisi ini. Kalo perlu bisa di print dan ngider keliling kampung minta tanda tangan (sama e-mail tentunya, kalo belum punya bikinin aja :)

Reza

Halo semua,
Gimana kalo pd ngisi petisi online utk PJ...ini niru usaha fans PJ Brazil yg bikin petisi agar PJ datang ke negaranya, aku bikin juga petisi untuk PJ agar datang ke Indonesia sbg bagian dr tournya (misalkan belum ada rencana).

Linknya ada disini http://www.petitiononline.com/pjindo05/petition.html

Misalkan udah banyak yg sign...nanti kita bisa kirim link tersebut ke Ten Club atau Adrie Subono...;) Selain itu, kalo dapet banyak...asik juga kayaknya.. lebih seru dari testinya friendster kali..mudah2an aja linknya bisa bertahan lama :))

Oh ya misalkan sudah ada petisi serupa...yg ini aku batalin aja, ntar gabung aja ama yg udah ada biar cepet banyaknya.

Viva la pearl jam,
D. Manggala

Ps. Ini bunyi petisinya:

To: Pearl Jam, their management/representatives, Ten Club, and Indonesian concert organizers

It's been about 14 years since Ten album was released, a time which is enough to accumulate a big number of PJ fans in Indonesia from different locations and ages. Many Indonesians are not only moved by Pearl Jam's songs, singing and dancing thousands times because of the songs, but also inspired by the band's idealism and most of all, because of the way Pearl
Jam's members treat their fans.

Based on the chats and discussions through tenclub_indonesia@yahoogroups.com, we have been connected each other and we are now know that all of us the fans in Indonesia are waiting for Pearl Jam to play in Indonesia.

Therefore, we make this Petition and we ask that Pearl Jam should include Indonesia in their next tour(s). No matter how long it takes, we will be waiting for you here. Lastly, we'd like to say this: Jeff, Stone, Ed, Mike, Matt (and Boom). please come and play for us here in Indonesia.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Jeff Ament

2005-03-10T12:02:00.000+07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMENT!!!!!!!!!

AKA Jeffrey Allen Ament

Born: 10-Mar-1963
Birthplace: Big Sandy, MT

Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Musician

Level of fame: Niche
Executive summary: Pearl Jam
He is proprietor, together with brother, of Ames Bros., responsible company for posters of the PJ
He like Basket, suport Seattle Supersonics
He wrot the biography of the band

Green River Bassist
Mother Love Bone Bassist
Pearl Jam Bassist
Temple of the Dog Bassist

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Dogtown and Z-Boys (19-Jan-2001) Himself
Singles (18-Sep-1992) Himself

Al Weisel

Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam
By Al Weisel
Rolling Stone, August 8, 1996, p. 28

Jeff Ament seems to have discovered soul asylum. After several years under the pop microscope as Pearl Jam’s chapeau-lovin’ bassist, the 33-year-old California resident has taken refuge in Three Fish, a side project with friends Robbi Robb, formerly of Tribe After Tribe, and Richard Sturverud. Borrowing their name from a poem about three fish of varying intelligence by Rumi, a 13th-century mystic, the band recently recorded a debut of free-form spiritual melodies that owes more to 70s prog rock than to Pearl jam’s late ’70s arena-rock inspiration. A reinvigorated Ament stopped by New York recently on his way to Turkey and Egypt to see local musicians. (Three Fish are currently on tour. Needless to say, they’re not using Ticketmaster.)

Which fish are you: the intelligent fish, the half-intelligent fish or the stupid fish?
I’m probably the stupid fish. Sometimes I feel lucky to be one. I get lost in my right brain, especially in creative things. When I moved to Seattle, I was the epitome of one because I came from Montana. I was hanging out with kids who were five or six years younger who knew much more about living in the city. They had done drugs, had sex a million times. I look at them now and realize their childhood was taken away. I wasn’t pressured to be an adult - even though at the time I was pissed at my parents because they made me grow up in Bumfuck, Montana.

Why did you pick Seattle to move to?
I had a friend who moved there. I went to visit him, and I was like, “I have to go someplace where I can soak myself in a creative atmosphere.” There were shows that had huge impacts: Black Flag, Bad Brains, X, Dead Kennedys. We opened for Black Flag, and none of the bands had dressing rooms, but Henry Rollins had his own. He had struck me as different from that.

So you’re saying he was a punk diva?
[Laughs] You said that. He’s an interesting guy. I don’t relate to him necessarily.

How’d you get involved with Three Fish?
Tom Petty gave me a tape of Tribe After Tribe. Pearl Jam was out touring, so we asked Tribe After Tribe to come out. Robbi and I hit it off: He grew up in a Tibetan Buddhist community, and I grew up in a hard-core Catholic one. It’s interesting how similar the experiences were: sheltered, quiet and introspective. Then when I was in Cairo and Turkey last year, I saw dervishes and incredible musicians performing rituals. It was one of the most captivating experiences I’ve ever had.

What do you get to do with Three Fish that you don’t get to do with Pearl Jam?
I played djembe, percussion, keyboards and I sang. With Pearl Jam, everybody is so good at what they do, it’s hard to get up the courage to say, “Can I sing this part,” or, “I want to play guitar.” I feel like I have more courage to do that.

When did you first play with Robb?
We went to Big Sur about three years ago and hung out at the Esalen Institute. Neil Young had invited Pearl Jam to his place for a barbecue. I said to Robb, “We can go if you want.” Everybody picked up instruments and started playing.

Who was there?
Eddie [Vedder], Dave [Abbruzzese], Robbi, Neil, managers and family. Robbi had some of the same qualities as Neil. I was watching these two musicians being completely uninhibited There was no fear, so the rest of us just fell in. At that point I knew I wanted to play music with Robbi. When did Pearl Jam last get together? Two weeks ago. We just finished making a record I imagine it’ll come out in late summer or early fall: Everybody wants to play shows so we’re going to after that.

What is the new record like?
The fact that everybody got away from what Pearl Jam are supposed to be brought a new feeling. Mike [McCready] did things with Mad Season that allowed him to bring back some confidence. Stone [Gossard] brought back hip-hop elements. Jack [Irons] went into the studio and created these drum songs, and he wrote based on that. Eddie did things with Mike Watt and with Nusrat [Fateh Ali Khan]. Not that this record is going to be a drastic left turn, ‘cause we’re still a rock band, but it’s been allowed to wander a bit.

Did you win anything in your fight over service charges with Ticketmaster?
Yeah. People understand better where their money is going. And we’ve gotten incredible support from fans. A lot of bands said after the fact, “We totally support you.” The only people who really supported us were Tim Collins and Bertis Downs, who are Aerosmith’s and RE.M.’s respective managers.

Do you feel like you were left in the lurch?
To an extent, but nobody had the power we had or the support from our record company. We’ve always been a band that stood up for what we thought was right.

Some thought Pearl Jam were ungrateful in their acceptance speech at the Grammys this year.
Every few years I’ll party way too much to remind myself what an idiot I am, and going to the Grammys was a little like that. It was all these high-society people coming up to us and acting like they were related to us. I think Eddie explained himself really well. It was like, “C’mon, people, wake the fuck up.” Maybe one of us should have expanded on that. The reason we’re there is to hang out with our peers. This little award saying we’re better than somebody else is ridiculous.

You get the impression Vedder’s not very happy. Do you ever feel like telling him, “Hey, lighten up a little”?
Oh, sure. But there’s probably times when he says, “Jeff, lighten up.” He’s a really sensitive guy. I can’t say you’re a jerk because you’re too sensitive. People see him for 20 seconds at the Grammys and think, “Goddamn, he must be like this all the time. I feel sorry for his friends.” I’ve been out in the middle of the ocean with him just being ecstatic on a surfboard. So, you know he has his moments.■

Q & A With Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament
Aidin Vaziri
Sanfransisco Cronicle, Sunday, October 29, 2000

Last month, stalwart Seattle grunge band Pearl Jam flooded record stores with 25 unedited two- CD live sets documenting the band's entire 2000 European tour (minus their tragic festival appearance in Roskilde, Denmark, where nine people were crushed to death when fans rushed the stage). The official bootlegs, as they're called, set an unusual challenge for the group's die-hard fans, who gobbled up so many copies that the band became the first in history to have more than one live album on the charts at once. It also set a record by debuting five albums on the charts in the same week. We spoke with band founder and bassist Jeff Ament, 36, about this unusual circumstance. Pearl Jam plays the Shoreline Amphitheatre on Tuesday.

Q: Have you sat down and listened to all these recordings?
A: Oh, no. No way.

Q: Would your head explode?
A: I don't know. One reviewer was actually going to review all the records over one weekend, but he only got through six or seven of them. I guess the review was a little diary, and he started out being a huge fan, then he got a little frustrated and, by the end, hated us.

Q: At what point did he want to kill Eddie Vedder?
A: I don't know.

Q: Do you think someone who listens to all these has to be kind of crazy?
A: A little bit, but I guess when I was a kid and if I would have seen the Who or Aerosmith or the Beatles at a live show, I would have bought a few of their bootlegs.

Q: You think you could make it through 25 double- sided live albums by your favorite band?
A: I guess if I was a collector, I could imagine it.

Q: Just how many versions of ``Even Flow'' does the average person need?
A: Well, I don't think we expected anybody to buy all of the CDs. It was more like, ``Let's just do this. The bootlegs are out there anyway, and they're all crappy quality. Let's just put this out there and charge the least amount we can and have them be of consistent quality.''

Q: A lot of people think you're just ripping off the kids.
A: If you're a collector and you bought seven or eight normal bootlegs, it would be the same as buying all 25 of ours. It's almost a three-for-one deal.

Q: But even if some kid buys five of these things, he's making you rich.
A: We didn't set out to make money. I remember walking into Tower Records in New York and these two guys were talking about it. One of them was saying what corporate money-grubbers we were, and the other guy was like, ``Yeah, but you're getting two CDs for only 13 bucks.'' So it was almost like an argument with our conscience in front of us. They were arguing about all the stuff we talked about before we put them out. It was pretty weird.

Q: Why didn't you just put them all in one cheap box set?
A: I don't think there's any way you can release 50 discs for $150. At the end of the day, we're making a lot less on this than we do on a normal

Q: Is Pearl Jam a greedy band?
A: I know how much this band has grossed and I know the net is a very small figure compared to what we've grossed. I know all the different ways we haven't been greedy. Merchandising companies tell us we can charge 30 bucks for a T-shirt, and we choose to charge 18 bucks. We always try to undercut whatever a comparable band is doing. I know in our own hearts we haven't been as greedy as we could have.

Q: Is Pearl Jam an arrogant band?
A: I don't think we've ever been the critics' darling, so there's a part of that that's always been a motivating factor. There are some things early on that Kurt Cobain and some other local people said about us that pigeonholed us as being rock stars or whatever. For some reason, that stuff never left my craw. The fact of the matter is, I was born in a pretty poor family and I've always had to have a day job up until 10 years ago. Maybe some of that drive that people see is maybe me not wanting to work in a restaurant for the rest of my life.

Q: Do you sometimes wish Pearl Jam were more of a fun type band like Sugar Ray, so you could have spent the past 10 years partying and hanging out with young girls?
A: You know, I think the primate in me sometimes wishes that, but when you really think about your growth as a human being, I'm completely satisfied with who we are as a band. Even the mistakes that we made and the failures that we endured, which have been many, we learned so much from those things. Whether it's trying to not use Ticketmaster, the drummers, or whatever, we've made tons of mistakes. But those have all been great mistakes. They've allowed us to know better the next time.

Don't call me "Rock Star"
by Mike Keefe-Feldman

Missoulian Pearl Jammer Jeff Ament sounds off on music, politics and the art of aging gracefully

For a few days leading up to my interview with Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, I got a small taste of what it might be like playing in a band with a media darling like Eddie Vedder.

“I’m going to interview one of the Pearl Jam guys,” I’d say.

“Eddie Vedder?” would be the common response, eyes aglow.

“No. Jeff Ament.”

“Oh. That’s cool.”

The “That’s cool” part was always intoned with a poorly-veiled tinge of disappointment.

But, if Vedder gets all the attention, that’s just fine with part-time Missoulian Jeff Ament.

“More than anything, I feel bad for him,” says Ament. “With the good aspect of being the face of the band or the voice of the band, there’s a lot more negative stuff that goes with that. He can’t go anywhere and be anonymous. I don’t have that big of a problem with that.”

Indeed, Ament obviously didn’t choose to live in Missoula to be adored by fans on the street—it’s clearly in opposition to the unwritten Montana credo of “let thy neighbor do his own thing.” In truth, Ament almost shudders at the mention of the term “rock star.”

“I associate ‘rock star’ with driving around in limos and doing drugs and that’s never really been my deal,” Ament says. “But in terms of a town where you might be a little bit recognizable, it’s fine. I have my little routine and I think the places that I go people are kind of bored with my face, so it’s not really that big a deal.”

A little bit recognizable? Not that big a deal? Okay, Mr. Modest Guy, I guess I’ll have to do your bragging for you like the parents of a shy valedictorian.

Even if Ament had become a comatose vegetable in 1992, he would still have been remembered as the young man who’d written the music to the song “Jeremy,” which ranks right up there with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Under the Bridge” as one of the most influential songs of ’90s rock music. It also marks the last time MTV put a video into heavy rotation that was challenging enough to possibly cause the conservative viewer to—gasp!—change the channel. Ament still has a soft spot for the song in his heart, but he and the band are careful not to wear the old favorites out.

“That’s one of those ‘once every five shows’ songs. The only way it’s fun to play some of those older songs is if you give them a break for a while.”

After over a decade of touring, one might think that Pearl Jam has experienced all there is to encounter at a live show. One would be wrong. In fact, the band just received its first significant round of boos on the initial leg of its North American Riot Act tour. The press picked up on a Denver show in which Vedder impaled a mask of George W. Bush on a microphone stand and then stepped on the plastic Bush face (upping the ante on the Dixie Chicks considerably!) after singing the song “Bush Leaguer,” which contains Mark Twain-style social commentary: “He’s not a leader/He’s a Texas Leaguer/Drilling for fear makes the job simple/Born on third/Thinks he hit a triple.” However, says Ament, “It was a total non-event that the media kind of took and ran with.”

What was an event, and what caused the boos, according to Ament, was a Nassau show in which Vedder got into a political discussion with the audience after singing “Bush Leaguer.”

“About twenty or thirty percent of the people were booing loudly,” Ament says, “So it was definitely something that none of us had experienced before.”

Ament says that he was not troubled by the boos, particularly since he is in line with Vedder’s politics of being against the Iraq war and most other aspects of the Bush administration.

Plus, Ament notes, he was vindicated the following night. “I went to see Bright Eyes and Arab Strap at this little theater in New York and between bands I went to the bathroom and there were six young men, 18 to 22, and they were like, ‘Hey dude, great show last night.’ I was like, ‘Really? It got a little bit testy there at the end.’ And they were like, ‘Fuck those Long Island guys. That’s why we like you guys.’”

Not everyone in the band was as comfortable with Vedder’s statements.

“I know [guitarist] Mike [McCreedy] was pretty upset about it and said some things about not wanting to play [‘Bush Leaguer’] again. I think the booing kind of got to him a little bit harder. And maybe he isn’t totally in line with the way that Ed thinks and the way I think, and that’s all part of being in a band or a relationship: communicating your differences. But I’m ready to play that song every night.”

The political poses Pearl Jam strikes on its latest release, Riot Act, are nothing new to the band, but it has been several albums since politics showed up on the Jammers’ tablet.

“I think that had to do with everyone going through more personal shit at that time,” Ament says. “You write what you know.”

Over the years, Ament has put his money where his mouth is with contributions to Ralph Nader and Missoula’s Blue Mountain Clinic, to name a few beneficiaries, but the band’s next likely charitable gift to the Garden City will avoid the political realm. Ament, an avid skateboarder, wants to build a world-class skate park in Missoula. He’s worked with the Redevelopment Council and Parks and Rec to secure a piece of land between the Orange St. Bridge and McCormick Park. If the city agrees to use quality builders and designers, Ament says Pearl Jam plans to donate a considerable amount of money to the project.

“I think kids kind of get the shaft when the government decides that they’re going to spend all the tax money on bombs instead of education. Any little thing we can do to give kids and young adults things to do that are positive is good.”

Clearly the shutterbug of the Pearl Jam crew, Ament’s photography adorns most of the band’s seven major studio releases. The bassist explains that his shooting began as a cost-saving measure. These days, Pearl Jam can afford a whole corps of photographers, but Ament, who took photo classes at the University of Montana in the early ‘80s, continues to be a main source for album art. Still, for a guy into photography, Ament is remarkably unconcerned with posterity.

“Maybe after we’re all dead, some of our music will have a little bit of a life, but I can’t imagine people, other than my family, really giving a shit. I think how you live and the things that you do that help preserve the Earth or preserve a good way of living, those are the things that you want to be remembered for. And the music is part of that, too. But I don’t get too hung up on the immortality thing. It’s weird when you hear people who are alive talking about wanting to secure their place in history.”

Ament and Pearl Jam have already secured their place in history. And unlike so much of the rock and roll that has been played on MTV over the course of the last twenty years, this band has staying power. When Seven Mary Three and Creed and Bush and a thousand other bands pitched themselves to labels saying, “We sound sort of like Pearl Jam, but with a (insert your minor variation here) twist,” Pearl Jam continued to evolve, constantly fighting static cling.

On the past two albums, Pearl Jam has burgeoned not only as musicians, but as a team. Lyric-writing responsibilities, once residing solely with Vedder, are now dispersed throughout the band. Ament penned lyrics for two of the tracks on Riot Act and views writing words for another person to sing as something of an “art project.”

“It makes it more fun for us, too,” Ament says. “It’s always exciting when you’re writing a song wondering, ‘I wonder how Ed will sing this or how Mike will play guitar on this.’”

Congealing as a team, Pearl Jam shows no signs of degenerating any time soon, which is agreeable to Ament, who points to a few artists who provide Pearl Jam with a road map to aging with style.

“I think there’s older guys that are doing it right,” he says. “Anybody who loves music doesn’t get down on Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash or Neil Young. I think where people start to have problems is with Aerosmith or maybe a certain aspect of the Rolling Stones. If you can do it gracefully that’s great, but if you’re 50 years old and you’re talking about screwing a girl in an elevator, that gets tough, you know? So, I can look at those [latter] examples and say, ‘Okay. Don’t go there.’”

With the magnitude of the arena-rock shows Ament is accustomed to playing, it’s a forward task to imagine the transition of a sick-of-school young man picking up his first bass at UM in the early ’80s inside of “Jesse Hall, room six-o-something” and playing Ramones and Sex Pistols covers at the Top Hat. Yet from these meager beginnings, Ament has realized his dream. But he worries that record labels are making it difficult for other creative musicians to reach similar goals.

“[The major labels] were looking for the next Nirvana…and then for the next ten years all you got was copies. They weren’t looking for bands that were doing new things. So we kind of got locked into what Ed calls ‘karaoke bands.’ People say there’s not great music out there and I disagree, but I don’t think there’s great music being pushed into the mainstream right now. And that’s the sad thing. There is really great music out there but nobody knows about it.”

Fortunately for people such as myself, who thought Amy Grant was about as good as it got in sixth grade, Pearl Jam was pushed into the mainstream. Since that Seattle boom, mainstream rock has experienced a considerable drought of challenging, daring newcomers. Yet, with any luck, Pearl Jam will carry the torch until rock labels finally give up on the hopeless expedition of finding “the next Pearl Jam.” With the seldom-predictable evolution of this band, it’s already clear where to find “the next Pearl Jam” anyhow: on Pearl Jam’s own next album.

Five Against One: The Pearl Jam Story

2005-03-06T15:20:00.000+07:00

Teman-teman, Five Against One sejauh ini adalah biografi Pearl Jam yang cukup komprehensif. Ditulis oleh Kim Neely, wartawan senior Rollingstones yang mengikuti perjalanan karir Pearl Jam selama 10 tahun. Seru juga kalau kita omongin ini buku, sebagai jammers pasti punya pendapat lain setelah baca buku ini.

___________

dari akmal:
seperti yg sudah saya ceritakan sebelumnya, blum lama ini saya membeli buku "5 Against 1" yg merupakan semacam biografi tentang Pearl Jam, dari awal karir sampai kira2 album vitalogy... nama "5 Against 1" diambil dari sebaris lirik pada lagu "Animal" di Album Vs... tadinya album ini juga akan dikasi nama "5 Against 1", tapi akhirnya diubah
jadi Vs...

Salah satu bab dalam buku tsb mengungkap masa lalunya Eddie Vedder (nama aslinya adalah Edward Jerome Mueller, Vedder adalah nama keluarga ibunya)... kenapa perlu diceritakan? karena masa lalu si Ed ini rupanya begitu sering "muncul" dalam lirik2 lagu PJ... wajar, karena memang dia lah yg bertanggung jawab menangani lirik dari 90%
lagu PJ...

ternyata memang sedikit sekali yg saya pahami dari hidup si Ed ini (sebelum membaca buku ini)... setelah membaca 5 Against 1, kesimpulan saya adalah : "Ed Ved juga manusia"

betul sekali... akhirnya fanatisme saya langsung berkurang drastis, meskipun sejak awal juga gak fanatik2 amat sih... memang beliau ini cuma manusia biasa, gak lebih dan gak kurang dari orang lain... dia juga punya sisi2 buruk yg gak perlu lah ditiru-tiru oleh orang lain... dia punya sisi2 gelap yg jangan sampe deh kita mencicipinya!

memang selama ini kita liat dia sebagai figur yg care sama isu2 sosial, dan mungkin dlm hal itu kita harus menirunya, bahkan kalo bisa lebih baik dari dia... tapi ada hal2 lain yg mesti kita tolak, bahkan jangan sampe deh menirunya...

apakah saya jadi benci si Ed? gak juga sih... seperti saya bilang tadi, dia cuma manusia... jadi wajar lah punya sisi2 buruk...
namanya juga manusia... sekali2 bikin kesalahan juga kan? yg jelas, kita gak perlu fanatik sama pribadi para personel PJ... kagum sama musiknya itu satu hal, sedangkan fanatik sama pribadi mereka adalah hal yg lain lagi...

so, buat temen2 yg merasa fanatik... mending proporsional aja deh, daripada kecewa berat nantinya...

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dari tarlen:
setelah baca 5 against 1, kita emang jadi dapat gambaran vedder pun manusia biasa yang kebeneran jadi vokalis band gede kaya pearl jam. yang menarik di buku itu sebenernya, sepak terjang mereka dalam meniti karir sebagai band besar. gimana cara mereka menyelesaikan konflik dan terutama giman vedder menyelesaikan persoalan-persoalan kehidupannya yang
memberi warna pada pearl jam. Ga tau ya... saya emang ga suka sama sesuatu yang sempurna. makanya setelah baca 5 against 1, saya justru makin suka sama pearl jam, karena mereka ga sempurna, mereka manusia biasa yang juga punya banyak kesalahan dan sisi gelap. tapi yang perlu di catat, sebenernya bagaiamana mereka kemudian terus menerus berproses untuk menjadapatkan pemahaman yang lebih baik tentang kehidupan dan prinsip yang mereka jalani dalam meniti karir. saya pribadi banyak banget belajar dari mereka. bagaimana mereka bernegosiasi antara idelisme dan realita.. saya pikir point itulah yang kemudian membedakan pj dengan band lain. karena ga semua band yang kemudian jadi besar, bisa tetap enjoy dengan apa yang mereka jalani dan bisa bertahan dengan idealisme yang diyakininya.

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akmal lagi:
up memang benar kata mbak tarlen... setelah mbaca buku 5 against 1, saya melihat mereka dari kacamata empati... terus terang saya gak ngeliat mrk sebagai super band atau gimana gitu, tapi justru jadi kasihan juga...

kasihan karena mereka cuma manusia yg terbatas kemampuannya, tapi punya mimpi yg begitu canggih sehingga sangat sulit diwujudkan... di sisi lain, ketenaran membawa mereka pada level tertinggi dimana mrk bisa menjumpai banyak fans yg begitu histeris melihat mereka seolah melihat manusia 1/2 dewa... ini pun jadi penderitaan tersendiri buat mereka (dan terutama, eddie vedder himself!), karena, berbeda dgn sebagian selebritis lainnya, mrk benar-benar sadar bahwa mereka cuma manusia... mereka merasa berjalan di atas sebuah kontradiksi.. di satu sisi mereka ingin menghibur banyak org, di sisi lain mrk tdk bisa menghindar dari pandangan para fans thd mrk yg suka berlebihan...

antara album Ten dan Vs., di buku 5 against 1, jelas terlihat bahwa mereka benar2 menghadapi tekanan semacam itu... tentu aneh rasanya jika ada org yg mengelu-elukan mereka begitu hebatnya sementara mereka sendiri merasa tidak sebegitu hebatnya... jadi sebagai seorang fans PJ, i feel deeply sorry for them... and i hope they can handle it well, or at least, better than before...

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dari awang
fenomena penokohan ini ada dimana aja, nggak cuman di bidang musik, tetapi apa saja, dan dimana aja. dengan
berbagai alasan dan pembenaran kita pasti kita bilang kita akan suka ini dan itu.dan tentunya ada kecenderungan tiap manusia akan melakukan keberpihakan terhadap orang lain.dan itupun tidak dapat disalahkan.artinya kalo sesuatu ada yang cocok, ada kencerungan kita suka. so wajar lelaki naksir perempuan karena dia cantik, baik, perhatian dan ini cocok dianggap sebagai kriteria cewek idaman untuk dinikahi; wajar juga laki laki "menyukai" laki2 lain karena dia sabar, tegas, penuh kasih sayang sesama, suka menolong penuh kedamaian dan ini pun dianggap cocok karena selama ini itulah lelaki sejati.---jangan mikir macem2 ya---

sama halnya dengan pearl jam. dari sekian banyak penggemar pearl jam pastilah banyak alasan2 yang dimiliki penggemarnya. pasti ada saja alsannya: suka karena denger musiknya/ liriknya,suka karena eddie vedder cakep, suka denger solo gitar mccready, suka liat gaya gitarnya stone, suka, handwritingnya eddie, suka matt..suka jeff..dan..blah...blah....artinya tiap orang punya imajinasi sendiri2 dalam pikirannya, apa aja yang dianggap suka.dan itu sah saja, "tanpa ada batasan". karna aku beranggap apa yang kita tangkap ini adalah visual dan audio...jadi masih bersyukur kita bisa merasakan keindahan dari imajinasi kita sndiri2,apa yang kita liat dan kita dengar. yang menurut saya jadi masalah hanyalah penyikapannya. penyikapannya seperti apa yang dianggap prporsional?, saya pikir tiap manusia bisa berfikir dengan keyakinan yang ada:apa yang bisa dan boleh, dan apa saja juga yang tidak boleh.....kita mesti trus belajar dan yakin....

"hail..hail...the lucky ones. I refer to those in love."
jadi kalo kita suka sama seseorang karena kelebihannya dan itu dianggap kebaikannya..itu adalah nilai kewajiban,

tapi kalau kita membenci seseorang karena sedikit keterbatasaanya/kekeurangannya walaupun kelebihannya lebih bermaafaat, sehingga mengalahkan rasa cinta daripada bencinya, itu saya anggap "naif"...sehingga keberpihakan/ kecocokan tidak "harus" berdasar pada agama, suku, bangsa dan gender.

bagi saya PJ bukanlah sekedar musik. saya rasa akan banyak alasan2 yang saya miliki seperti halnya jammers lainnya.walaupun kita tahu PJ sendiri yang terdiri dari kumpulan manusia...bukan setengah dewa..bahkan bukan setengah nabi.....

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(aduhhhh gantengnya stoneyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

dari Gede Manggala
Hai semua...saya anggota milis yg agak pasif nih...:)Tapi untuk 5 against 1'nya Kim Neely..saya ikut komentar...sori di depan,ini pasti jadi panjang....pertama tentu saja krn pertanyaan saya "ini cerita ttg pearl jam" atautentang "ed vedder?" Walaupun saya juga suka banget dengan Ed Vedder, tapisebuah buku tentang PJ yang mengulas hidup Ed sedetil-detilnya (dipilih ygjelek2 lagi) tanpa proporsi yang sama untuk Stone, Jeff, Mike dan Matt(serta Dave & Jack) tentu mengurangi bobot buku itu sendiri. Yang kedua, adalah timeline buku ini sendiri adalah sampai pre Yield album;padahal kita tahu semua, Yield adalah sebuah "kebangkitan kembali" dari PJ,thanks to Jack Irons. Saya membaca "5 Against One" ini sekitar tahun 2000(bela-belain order khusus lewat QB), dan mungkin merasakan "kekalutan" yangsama dengan Akmal kemarin (hehehe...) dan memang jujur aja cukup terpukul.Tapi di lain pihak, seperti juga yang disebutkan Akmal dan Tarlen, ada tokenlain yang saya dapatkan dari buku ini (jadi tetap terima kasih juga sih utkKim Neely), karena saya malah bisa menerima PJ apa adanya, seperti yangmemang mereka inginkan, toh mereka juga ingin diterima sbg org biasa(Mengutip kata Ed, "I am not your fucking messiah").

Sebuah relieve besar saya dapatkan setelah seorang teman memberikanoleh-oleh VCD "Single Video Theory" sekitaran 2001 dan saya jadi tahu betapabesar arti album Yield ini buat PJ sebagai sebuah band, yg sejak itu sepertimenemukan lagi spirit mereka , atau seperti kata Jeff Ament di video itu "Ithink we should change our name". Menyaksikan "Single Video Theory" serta dvd2 konser PJ "Touring Band 2000",dan "Live in the Garden" saya akhirnya, dalam retrospective, menyimpulkanbahwa "PJ is PJ, whatever they are", dan Kim Neely is wrong about so manythings (hahaha...). Mendengarkan beberapa bootleg konser tahun 2000 dan2002/3 (termasuk menonton sebuah konser di 2003) membuat saya yakin, bahwaanggota PJ "menikmati" momen mereka sebagai band; itu sudah lebih dari cukupbuat saya, dan tentu saja...heyyy..the music is great!

Kembali ke "5 Against One" sebagai buku untuk dikoleksi lumayanlah (tapimending beli bekas, pinjem atau kopi aja sih...), punya kronologis yanglengkap pada saat awal-awal PJ, pertama tour dengan Red Hot ChilliPepper,dll serta detail yang lengkap utk stori tiap lagu di album Ten.Selain itu buku ini membuat cerita cukup lengkap sekitar PJ vs.Ticketmaster...Yang paling saya kurang sukai dari buku ini adalah krn Kim Neely merupakanwartawan Rollingstones (sekarang mantan?) yang kita tahu majalah ini punyahubungan buruk dengan Ed sejak RS memuat cerita yang menurut Ed di pelintirberat (saya pernah baca bahwa Corduroy, adalah related ttg cerita ini.."takemy hand, not my picture, spill my tincture" katanya ungkapan protes Edterhadap wartawan Rollingstone..bener ga?)Di luar itu Kim sepertinya punya obsesi tersendiri terhadap Ed (ge er?) yangkalau ngebaca cerita dia, seakan-akan Ed suka ama doi...lihat bagaimanadetailnya Kim menceritakan sesi interview mereka...yang di akhir cerita Kimmendapat kiriman bola lampu (diambil dr Space Needle, ini nama stadion?)yang isinya surat dr EV: "Miss Neely, I've currently a vision of your face,and you are smiling...bla bla bla... diakhiri love, Eddie."I mean, why in the world she wrote this thing so details..compare to thefriendship between Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard which only slightlymentioned? Padahal PJ berhutang banyak atas Jeff-Stone friendship...ya kan?

So, my opinion (like many PJ fans agreed) Kim's observation about Ed ishighly biased...mungkin Kim nulisnya antara cinta tapi benci..karena pernahdibikin ge er tapi ternyata dicuekin..(baca juga gimana Kim mendeskripsikanBeth, pacar Ed waktu itu). Terus kenapa juga untuk mencari keterangan ttgEd, dia meluangkan banyak detail dari cerita Shari(pacarnya Dave) yg jelasaja pasti banyak ga enaknya dibanding yg baik2...Kalau baca buku ini mungkinkesimpulan kita bahwa Ed is the evil in the band...banyak org yang di tahun1999-2000 wishfully said "time will tell"...dan sekarang kita lihat sendiribagaimana PJ is getting better and bolder with ages. Again, Kim is wrongabout Ed...big times! (ini opini masih ada faktor fanatik mati ke PJyah...hahaha). Tapi bener lho...di akhir buku Kim menulis "Maybe they would peddlethemselves silly this year, and tour with Ticketmaster, and shower MTV withvideos"...bla bla...

Kita liat semua sekarang (hope Kim SEES too): PJsurvives without MTV...mungkin mereka berdamai dengan Ticketmaster, tapiraksasa pertunjukan ini juga sudah menyerah krn di tiketnya sudah menuliskanlebih detail berapa charge yg diambil ticketmaster utk setiap tiket, sepertiyg dituntut PJ... dan harga tiket PJ hampir 50% dibanding tiket band touryang sama lakunya seperti Dave Matthews Band...dan PJ hampir selalu bayarcurfew penalty tiap malam tour krn main lewat jam yg ditentukan... dari sinikita lihat, mungkin utk periode pre Yield, bukunya Kim Neely lumayanlahterutama bagian terbentuknya PJ...utk update jmn sekarang mungkin versionline kayak posting di fivehorizon.com dan theskyiscrape.com lebihmewakili..

Ok gitu aja..maaf kalau kepanjangan nih...tapi mungkin bisa dilihat betapabesar PJ bagi saya (truly, guys)..dan betapa senang akhirnya saya menemukankomunitas besar di Indonesia dengan true fans seperti Reza, Tarlen, dan yangmengejutkan banyak member yang di tahun 90-an ternyata masih sd..(wow!).Saya mah di jaman itu "lagi jaya2nya" kemana2 pake jeans robek2..bajuflannel..en rambut guondrong...tapi sayang ngga bisa nyanyi en ga bisa mainmusik satupun (keciaaan deh...heheh)...tapi lewat milis ini kita penggemarPJ bisa ngumpul segala umur & dr berbagai lokasi (termasuk yg jauh kayaksaya)...semoga saya bisa gabung pada salah satu gathering...viva la pearljam..!!

Ps. Thx for listening me blabbering this far

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dari tarlen lagi
saya sepakat tuh kalo PJ berhutang pada persahabatan jeff-stone (heheheh bukan karena saya lebih ngefans sama stoney dan ament ya...). Bukan cuma di 5 against 1 hal itu ga disinggung, tapi hampir di semua buku yang mengulas tentang PJ (kebeneran saya udah baca 3 buku tentang PJ), selalu dan selalu jika menyangkut jeff-stone hanya sebatas green river, ga pernah sedalam kalo mereka (para penulis itu) mengulas kehidupan eddie. informasi tentang jeff hanya sepotong-sepotong, dan kalo search di google, kayanya site tentang jeff ament paling sedikit diantara anggota yang lain.

Tapi begitulah media. yang jadi sorotan selalu front man, vokalis. padahal semua punya jasa besar. Dan seolah posisi vokalis menentukan seluruh kehidupan band. Kalo saya perhatiin sepak terjang PJ dan bagaiman masing-masing personil berinteraksi dan saling mempengaruhi (dari potongan-potongan informasi yang saya dapet), mastermindnya pj tetaplah stone gossard. ament pernah merasa inferior dihadapan vedder (bayangkan padahal kalo bisa dibilang ament kan 'yang punya' band), mc cready cenderung mengikuti apa yang diputuskan (mengingat sebelum yield dia bermasalah dengan ketergantungan terhadap heroin) dan vedder sendiri punya masalah dengan 'hype' (publikasi yang berlebihan) atas dirinya. sampai sebelum yield, stoney punya posisi yang menentukan. dia menjadi jembatan antar personil yang pada bermasalah itu.

saya ngeliat, kalo media emang sengaja mengekspos masa lalu vedder sedemikian rupa, setelah kurt cobain mati, media butuh ikon lain dan saat itu siapa lagi yang paling cocok, selain vedder. Karena grunge diidentik dengan kegetiran hidup (setidaknya lewat lirik-lirik lagu, penampilan dan kisah hidup para pelakunya), otomatis strategi yang paling tepat bagi media adalah dengan mengangkat sisi vedder yagn paling gelap. ibaratnya buat media kan semakin gelap semakin menjual. itu sebabnya kalo kita ikutin berita-berita disemua media internasional tentang vedder di masa (ten-vs-vitalogy) selalu kisah tentang masa lalu vedder yagn menjadi inspirasi bagi sebagian besar lirik pj.

Setelah vitalogy, vedder dan pj memutuskan untuk menutup diri dari media, setau saya hampir ga ada media yagn membuat ulasan kritis tentang mereka. dalam arti, kenapa mereka kemudian mengambil sikap seperti itu? kenapa album no code minim publiksi? kenapa lirik-liriknya bisa jadi seperti itu? jg musiknya? ga ada yang bikin ulasan mendalam tentang itu. jadi saya kira cerita tentang pj, seolah-olah terpotong sampai masa vitalogy.

Jika Pj ga bikin home video STV (Single Video Theory) saya pikir orang juga ga bakal dapet informasi dari sumber primer mengenai apa yang telah terjadi dan bagaimana perkembangan setelah album no code. buat saya STV jadi semacam pernyataan yang dibuat PJ, untuk menyatakan diri setelah mereka menarik diri dari media dan menyelesaikan persoalan diantara mereka sendiri.

balik lagi ke 5 against 1, kalo kemudian vedder yagn dapet porsi lebih banyak, kaya yang saya bilang tadi, di mata media vedder jauh lebih menjual.. jadi ya kasian vedder.. kehidupan pribadinya kemudian di eksploitasi oleh media...

belakangan dari berita-berita yang saya dapet, ament dan stoney malah masih bisa menikmati kehidupan layaknya orang biasa. bersepeda kemana- mana, jalan-jalan dan nongkrong-nongkrong di cafe (mungkin juga karena ament tinggal di montana, kotanya tidak sebesar seattle dan stoney antara santa monica dan seattle). ya selalu ada konsekuensi dari setiap pencapaian.. tentunya vedder ga akan pernah bisa menjalani kehidupan dia yang dulu.

tapi terlepas dari itu semua, saya kira mereka sekarang terlihat menikmati kehidupan yang mereka pilih. Dan salutnya, mereka justru memilih untuk jauh-jauh meninggalkan kehidupan rockstar yang glamour.

heheheheh sori ya... jadi panjang lebar gini tanggepannya...

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dari mas tito
Tidak ada manusia yang sempurna.... saya kagum dengan ed dari segi kepekaan sosialnya, bagaimana dia meramu cerita
dan kehiduapan sosial disekelilingnya menjadi lirik yangkeren dan menyentuh, bagaimana dia menumpahkan emosinya dipanggung, bagaimana kesederhanaannya, sampai ngetop kaya sekarang masih pakai mobil bututnya.

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dari mas reza
untuk menambah polemik 5VS1, saya mau bilang I LUV PJ krn:

eddie is so sexy ! :) matanya, rambutnya, kulitnya, bulunya....gak tahan...apalagi suaranya
stone kayak bebek baris !
jeff si kolektor topi
mike yg always happy
boom yg kayak org purba
matt yg bikin bengong kalo udah main drum

Sori gak bisa balas panjang lebar, lagi banyak kerjaan...sok lah sing rame

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dari CJ
Nambahin dikit, emang dari awal saya ngga tertarik sama kehidupan PJ. Sama sekali. Saya jauh lebih tertarik sama musik mereka. Mau mereka alim kek, mau teroris kek, apapun, I just love the music. Dan kayaknya inilah bentuk nge-fans yang paling obyektif (hihihihi, egois dikit ah...) mungkin pemikiran ini timbul karena dari awal saya suka mereka dari sound. Jujur aja, waktu pertama denger lagu mereka (Go) saya sampe merinding, semangat banget soalnya! Padahal tampang mereka ngga pernah saya tau. Alhasil saya menggemari sebuah band yang saya ngga tau siapa mereka. Dari sanalah kenapa saya berpendapat seperti di atas. So, just turn on the volume, close your eyes and listen to their music..!! Rasakan sensasinya..!!

untuk poin 10, ed ama mike juga ndut...!!! hihihihihi....

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dari akmal lagi
SPIN ME 'ROUND... ROLL ME OVER... FUCKIN' SIRCUS...STAB IT DOWN... ONE WAY NEEDLE... PULL SO SLOWLY...DAMN!

i really love that song! haha akhir2 ini saya lagi banyak rejeki fellas, jadi saya beliberturut-turut dlm waktu singkat CD rearviewmirror, CD Ten dan CDVs... sayang sekali di rearviewmirror gak ada lagu Blood danIndifference, padahal menurut saya yg dua itu salah satu karyaterbagus mereka... tapi ya itu sih hak mereka lah... hak ciptanyakan punya mereka hehehe...soal 5 against 1 yang dianggap kurang objektif....

1. lalu yg mana yg objektif? apakah dgn menonton sebuah VCD lalu kitalebih objektif? sebenarnya tidak ada yg objektif, karena kita menilaipun sudah pasti subjektif... si Kim Neely juga jelas subjektifdonk... dia kan manusia juga... eddie vedder juga subjektif... semua org juga subjektif lah...

2. paling tidak, biografi ini bisa dianggap lebih objektif karenatidak ditulis oleh para personel PJ sendiri... kalau mereka membuatautobiografi, justru itu yg lebih gak objektif...

3. ok memang benar rolling stones punya hubungan jelek sama pearljam... paling tidak dgn adanya 5 against 1, kita bisa dpt view dariangle para 'musuh PJ'... itu juga kalo asumsi kita benar, yaitu bahwarolling stones memang musuhan sama PJ...

4. melalui tulisan2 saya sebelumnya, saya gak ngajak utk membenci PJya... krn saya pun gak jadi benci... saya cuma ngajak kita semua utkobjektif, bahwa mereka juga manusia... suka mabok, kadang2 marah,kadang2 emosi, kadang2 kelepasan, kadang2 salah omong... wajar kan...dan para personil PJ sendiri lebih suka diperlakukan sbg teman, bukansbg pujaan... jadi supaya mereka gak tambah stres dgn ketenarannya,marilah kita perlakukan mrk sbg seorang manusia... OK?

5. I still think that Dave Abbruzzese is the best drummer ever playedin Pearl Jam... hahahahhahahahahahahha ngotot nih... namanya jugaselera...

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dari wisnu
pearl jam memang sebuah gambaran band yang...they know them self..more than we know our self!

susah tuh punya band yang punya kedalaman berpikir dan mengaktualisasikan ke-human being-nya itu. mana ada band jaman sekarang yang nolak untuk jadi rockstar!!!!

tapi pearl jam bisa membuktikan itu...dan sikap kaya gini yang mesti dicerna oleh para fans-nya...

pearl jam juga manusia...memang bener banget. memperlakukan sebuah band secara manusiawi..juga adalah kebenaran yang lain lagi.hehehehe

Gathering PJ V, Bandung

2005-03-06T13:34:00.000+07:00

Commonroom,12-02-2005

Siang yang teduh di Kyai Gede Utama no.8.Seorang lelaki bertubuh besar tengah tekun membaca koran. Tak terganggu hingga saya datang mengagetkannya. "CJ!!!" sapa saya. Senyumannya menandakan putusnya penantiannya."Gila baru gua aja
sendirian,"kata CJ. Dia memang datang paling awal dibanding siapapun juga.

Bahkan lebih awal dari Tarlen sendiri!hahaha.Sekitar pukul satu kurang Tarlen muncul dengan banyak tentengan.Proyektor salah satunya. Beres Tarlen, Akmal--yang aktivis Salman ITB itu muncul (hahahaha).Akmal tampak senang bersua dengan CJ sang teman lama. Tak lama, si Taft kuning datang.Uh,bos kita. "Selamat datang mas Reza!!!" Senyuman mas reza masih sama dengan senyuman G IV(senyuman lepas dari rutinitas tea geuning hehehe)

Bawaan di tangannya tak kalah banyak.Harta karun para jammer tuh.Akmal sempat berseloroh, "gimana kalau mas reza kita rampok di jalan?" hahaha.anak salman kok ngomongnya kayak gitu. (becanda bos hehehe).Berturut-turut setelah itu muncul Amin,Ian (tampangnya makin grunge lho) dan Kriz (+cewek manis berkaus putih) "Kirain Jammer!" kata Amin."Kalo jammer memang mau apain min?" hahaha. Amien merasa segar melihatnya, terlebih dia belum cukup tidur siang itu.

Jammernya hanya itu? tunggu dulu. Setelah masuk Commonroom, ternyata ada beberapa temen baru yang hadir.
Maklum mbak Tarlen mengumumkan acara G V ini di radio!!!!!keren kan??? jadinya acara dibuka oleh Mas Rez dengan memperkenalkan Tenclub_Indonesia. Mas Rez semangat sekali. Teman-teman baru kita pun antusias menanggapinya.

Selepas cuap-cuap dan sedikit perkenalan diri, matapun dialihkan ke tembok di depan. Nonton bigscreen man!!!!
Menu pertama PJ Cronicles dari tahun 92-2000-an.lezat semua mata terpukau ketika eddie dengan bengal loncat dari tower!
Semua terpingkal-pingkal saat Eddie berkelakuan aneh saat diwawancara TV. Semua merasa baru ngeh ketika:Ternyata Eddie itu pendek!!!! wuahahahahahaha.

Seru!Selagi nonton, tuan rumah menydiakan sirup jeruk!Udara yang aga panas langsung cair. sruuuuuuppppp....!!!!!Yang datang makin banyak aja. Kesempatan ini dipakai temen Tarlen untuk jualan badge pearljam!laris manis tuh! Sekitar pukul tiga,acara nonton bareng break sejenak.Ada suguhan yang lebih menarik lagi;Accoustic Sesions.Un Exotica Noise!!!! Trio gitaris ini dengan segala keramahannya (yang membuat CJ pengen nangis karena keseringan minta maaf!) bermain dengan rancak.

Mereka buka suguhan dengan Jeremy!lalu Black!And then..Betterman! terus Immoertality,lalu ada Alive!Puuhhhh keren jack!!!
Tak ada lagu yang tak diberi tepuk tangan. sayang Jammer malu-malu buat ikut nyanyi (mas reza sampe kesel hahaha).Mungkin jammer itu pemalu pada dasarnya!hihihiii.

sayang juga UEN hanya ngasih kita lima lagu.uh sedih...padahal kan kami belum panas(CJ juga termasuk geregetan pengen ikut nge-jembreng gitar hahaha) !BTW Salut buat UEN!

Waktu terus merangkak.nonton bareng mulai lagi.Meski kini harus berganti tivi.

Mas Reza juga masih sudi meluangkan waktu lagi buat cuap-cuap soal milis.Ian dengan kesadaran yang demikian tinggi membawa gitar kopong. buat nge-jam!!!!!maka selepas adzan maghrinb,malam itu, Commonroom malah bertambah riuh. temen-temen kang vedder_stap asik menggenjreng gitar.suasana jamming mulai terasa.

Temen-temen mulai berkumpul di ruang depan. Kriz dengan kesadaran yang sangat tinggi, segera mengambil alih satu gitar. ajakannya untuk memainkan lagu-lagu PJ ditanggapi dengan semangat oleh kami (yang asik memperhatikan),tapi kurang ditanggapi balik oleh teman-teman lain yang pegang gitar.Hahahaha. solusinya, lagu-lagu lama PJ lah yang sukses digeber.Wow..semua ikut bernyanyi. " Jadi juga kita manggung," kata Akmal dengan tampang
bahagia. Semua memang ikut bernyanyi.larut.larut.larut bernyanyi.

Sampai lupa waktu. Tepat pukul sembilan selepas lagu Breath digeber, acara pun usai. Malam yang menyenangkan. Kami pun bersalaman (sori buat amin, tampaknya kamu belum berkesempatan memeluk ian!)hahahaha. (wisnu)

SAMPAI JUMPA DI G VI!! !!!!!

thanks to:
Tarlen with Tobucil dan Commonroom, UEN, Proyektor owner, Mas Reza, Akmal, CJ, Amin, Kriz, Ian, Bille (jauh-jauh dari papua!!), JajaVedder aka Reza (hehehe), Hendra aka Vedder_stap, Aswin Rase FM,Ergi,Erlin,Abe, Jaya,AB,MAruly,Dede,Dodi,Asep Ristian, Abdee,Jessi,Budi,Tedhy,Bayu,dan sekitar puluhan lagi yang tak
tercatat,Tukang nasi goreng Kyai Gede Utama, Supir angkot, Milis Tenclub_indonesia dan selai_mutiara, terakhir, saya sendiri (sori telat reportnya euy!!!)

_________________

dari awang:
halooooo!!! jammers tanpa mengurangi rasa hormat, awang hanya bisa terimakasih buat semuanya.
thanks wisnu udah buat liputannya!!

thanks buat mbak tarlen dan jammers bandung yang udah susah pesiapkn acaranya. acara rutinitas gahtering tetap bisa dilangsungkan. thanks buat jammer semuanya yang tetap setia ikutan gathering. semoga akan terus ada acara gathering 6 s/d setrusnya nggak terbatas, dengan terus memperbaiki format acara. tentunya dengan menambah terus jumlah peserta gatering. thanks juga buan UEN, istilahnya keren, cuman kenapa lagunya cuman ada di album lawas aja?. sayang aku nggk
bisa ikutan disana. aku belum pernah nonton band yang nyanyiin khusus lagu pearl jam. pasti keren!!!!coooo...l!

salam
awang_vedder

_________

dari akmal:
menurut info dari mbak tarlen... UEN itu spesialisasinya bukan Pearl Jam, tapi Radiohead... tapi kemaren itu emang mrk gak tanggung2 mainnya... secara musikal keren deh, hanya sayang vokal agak keteteran, tapi itu pun sangat wajar, karena vokalis sebenernya emang berhalangan datang... well, dengan keterbatasan begitu, mrk dah TOP BGT lah!

woooi kata siapa gw aktifis Salman? gw aktifis PKS tau! hahahahhaha

Gathering IV, Jakarta

2004-12-01T20:49:00.000+07:00

kata wisnu tentang gathering IV, Jakarta

mepet. kata itu mungkin yang bisa menggambarkan proses Gathering IV. bagaimana tidak? semua orang tengah sibuk, asyik, dengan suasana libur lebaran, hmm anak-anak milis PJ maksa gathering dengan waktu yang bersamaan dengan: ARUS BALIK!sungguh kurang ajar! hahahaha.

sebenarnya acara ini sudah diobrolkan sudah lumayan lama dan serius oleh rekan-rekan,ditanggapi juga dengan suka cita oleh rekan-rekan yang lain. intinya, terbayang gathering IV bakal "dibanjiri" PJ fans.terlalu hiperbolis memang kalau dibilang banjir, tapi paling tidak dari obrolan di Chatting akbar dan penitipan nomer HP, memperlihatkan...kesungguhan itu.

hahahhaha...tapi ya namanya juga manusia,ada saja kendalanya jika berkehendak. faktanya yang kita temui di gathering IV adalah: saya masih berada di kampung halaman saat hari sabtu meng-SMS mas Reza perihal G IV."ada perubahan tempat wis. Dewi masih di Bali," katanya. tapi ada janji bahwa,G IV masih bisa berlangsung di rumah Dewi.tapi karena niat sudah bulat (malu ama awang yg jauh2 datang dari malang),aku tetep berangkat ke Bandung, sore itu juga.

sampai di Bandung malam, mas reza telepon ada perubahan tempat. gila, mepet bener ya? malam itu juga saya menyempatkan untuk sms temen2 yang lain,saya juga sms Tarlen sebagai ketua delegasi Bandung, perihal tumpangan :) untuk lebih fix lagi, kita sepakat melakukan chat malam itu, intinya konsolidasi.kalau saya tidak salah rekam, malam itu yang chatting adalah mas reza,tarlen, ian,jajavedder,amin...

kita ngobrolin tempat ketemuan di kafe de paris blok m plaza,sampai materi yang akan dibawa. Saya berjanji bawa mangga
Pantura,hehee.Tarlen mengabarkan ada tiga jok kosong dari mobil rekannya. Saya,ian, dan seorang temennya yang katanya ngebet banget ikut mendapat jatah kursi. tarlen pun berpesan pada rombongan Bandung untuk datang jam 5 di Tobucil."Toleransi sampai jam enam!" kata Tarlen. Siap!Lagi-lagi terbayang,anak bandung akan menyemarakan Jakarta. chating berakhir mendekati pukul 2 pagi.

pagi,saya sengaja tidak tidur agar tak terlambat.setengah enam saya udah nongkrong di tobucil,tarlen juga mengaku tidak tidur penuh semalem. setengah jam kemudian, Ian muncul dengan muka yang tak kalah kusutnya. Ia pun mengatakan tidak tidur semaleman.Mengenaskan buat Ian,dengan wajah yang sudah kusut masai, ia hendak diterkam anjingnya Tarlen.Ian langsung loncat!panik!

kepanikan Ian makin bertambah saat temennya tak juga nongol di Tobucil.Ian mencoba telepon,"tapi nggak aktif," keluhnya.waktu terus bergerak.setelah cukup lama menunggu,jam enam lebih kami berangkat.setelah mampir ke rumah temennya tarlen,jam tujuh kami berangkat menuju Jakarta.Wooi...Ian,saya,dan Tarlen langsung meluncur ke awan.alias zzzzzz.

betapa kagetnya kami saat terbangun,jam delapan sudah ada di Jonggol! gila...setengah sembilan kita udah nyampe cibubur!gila...ngebut abis man!!!!!karena bekum sarapan,kami memutuskan untuk menghantam bubur ayam di pinggir jalan cibubur!sedap juga...

jam sepuluh kami sudah mencapai blok M.hujan baru saja turun.di kafe sudah menunggu wajah-wajah segar:Mas Reza, Aldo,Jey(CJ),mas Tito,Mbak Dinar(saya pikir istrinya mas reza gitu..ternyata hehehe),dan amin.Mereka menyambut kami dengan senang.mbak dinar mengedipkan matanya pada Ian (hehehe..ini gosip bow).Kita ngobrol banyak, sayang
Kafe belum buka jadi nggak bisa ngisi tenggorokan nih.Kami memutuskan pergi ke rumah Mas Tito di Jati Padang.rumahnya yang asri dan gede itu kebetulan lagi sepi, jadi fans PJ bisa leluasa.

materi pertama kami adalah menonton PJ MTV Unplugged full version (benerin ya kalau salah).Aldo,CJ,dan Mbak Dinar asik berebut keripik kentangnya amerika.ian dengan serius menatap eddie vedder (rambut kita kok sama ya?katanya dalam hati).Amin asik membuka buku-buku yang dibawa Tarlen.Mas Tito hilir mudik mengatur lalu lintas rumah.Mas Reza mengaktifkan notebook.Tarlen dibelakangnya sudah siap dengan beberapa biji CD kosong.saya mengepulkan asap sampoerna mild dengan tenang.hahahahaha. materi terus berlanjut ke PJ History.nah disini gosip mulai bertebaran.Karena penonton sudah tidak sabar,materi kembali diganti.kendati,PJ history baru setengah puter.

berturut-turut muncul:PJ At MTV Music Award (92,93),PJ Movie (ada Eddie vedder lagi nyimeng lho),lalu ah waktu ternyata sudah makin menanjak.jam dua siang sudah di depan mata."saya lapar," kata Dinar.Aldo mengangguki dengan serius, CJ sami mawon!hahahahaha.Karena mas Tito pun punya acara lagi,kami sepakat akan meneruskan acara di rumah orang tua mas Reza di Pondok gede.Sebelum minggat,kita sempatkan poto-poto dulu (potonya sudah bisa temen-temen nikmati di milis,meski cuma beberapa biji..wooi!!!yang laen isi dong!!!!)

sebelum ke Pondok Gede,di Mampang kami menghantam nasi padang terlebih dulu.cukuplah untuk menekan rasa lapar.acara berlanjut. kali ini rombongan harus rela naik taksi,dan sebagian di mobil mas reza.mereka yang naik taksi...orangnya gede-gede boww..tebak deh siapa aja,kebetulan saya jadi saksi di dalamnya hahahaha.oh ya CJ
nggak bisa ikut ke PG,karena ia harus pacaran!CJ pun turun di Pancoran.kami melepasnya dengan sumpah serapah!! (becanda Jey).

rumah orang tuanya mas reza deket yah?hehehehe.aldo ampe was-was, takut tukang taksi lupa jalan keluar!piuuh...sampe juga akhirnya setelah kita melewati tigapuluh perempatan dan menahan kencing sepanjang 20 kiloan! aha, kebetulan keluarga mas Tito pun belum datang,jadi rumahnya bisa jadi G IV part II.di sana materinya: ALice in chains,Blindmelon, dan tentu saja PJ!tarlen dari Bandung dengan sigap membakar semua materi buat oleh-oleh.Aldo kebagian dapet tugas
mensuplai jakarta.dan saya..untuk sekitar 30 menit harus tertidur dengan indah di karpet mas Reza (sori bos..ngiler dikit.

waktu terus merembet.setengah tujuh malam,kita musti pamit.kami dari Bandung musti mengejar kereta jam delapan malam.diantar mas Reza ke cawang, kami pun berpisah.aldo.Amin.dinar (yabng kecopetan di bis!),berpisah dengan kami bertiga.kami nangis lho di taksi....inginnya.

Kereta menyisakan dua tiket eksekutif saja..akhirnya Ian rela harus duduk di bisnis." Saya sih ingin tidur," kata tarlen.kareta berangkat jam setengah sembilan malam.kami makan dulu saja.tarlen menuju Hoka Hoka Bento,saya menuju toilet bersama Ian.setekah beres dari toilet,saya kehilangan Ian.Ian menghilang!saya pikir sudah bukan jamannya lagi culik menculik aktifis di negara ini.meskipun ian adalah aktifis PJ,saya pun merelakan dia hilang.hehehehehe.

di kereta saya ngobrol banyak soal PJ sama tarlen. saya merasa bersyukur bisa ikut G IV.bagi saya dengan mengenal teman sesama jammers: saya merasa menemukan banyak potongan puzzle soal PJ.terima kasih.Sampai jumpa di G V at Commonroom Bandung. See U!

Nb:mohon maaf jika ada pihak-pihak yang tersinggung.saya bermaksud lho.hahahahaha. trims

________________

kata mas reza tentang gathering IV, jakarta
Memang asli mepet, dan panik!. Gimana enggak, sampai hari Sabtu siang, tuan rumah G4 masih tersangkut di Bali krn nggak dapat tiket pulang ke Jakarta (kasian deh si Dewi udah seharian nunggu di airport gak dpt2 juga tiketnya), saya masih tunggu sampai abis magrib kali aja dia masih bs dapat pesawat. Akhirnya abis amgrib saya dapat konfirmasi dr dewi kalo dia positif gak dapat tiket hari ini dan baru bisa pulang hari senin ke jakarta...ya gimana dong g4-nya? setelah saya berkonsultasi dgn mas tito, kita putuskan utk tetap jalan acara G4 nya dengan menjalankan plan B. Apa plan B? plan B adalah plan (B)elon tau dimana:) tapi minimal kumpul dulu di cafe legendaris yaitu cafe d paris blok M....

Abis itu saya coba telpon teman2 yg udah ngasih no hp agar mengalihkan perjalanannya dari jalan ke surabaya ke daerah blok M, untung teman2 semua mau pada ngerti, repot juga nih saya pikir jadi panitia sendirian....

Besoknya minggu pagi jam 9.30 saya udah sampai di blok M plaza, tapi ternyata gerbang masih digembok, akhirnya saya parkir mobil di luar...gak lama kemudian satpam mulai buka itu gerbang, langsung saya jadi penghuni pertama (kuna penghuni terakhir lho...). Sampai di cafe ternyata belum buka juga, udah aja saya jalan2 di dalam plaza. Gak lama saya turun lagi eh udah ada si Amin di cafe, langsung kita cari kursi dan kebetulan udah ada pegawainya tapi belum lengkap pakaian alias bertelanjang dada (tapi laki2 kok, coba kalau...) gak tau deh si amin serrr nggak?!?

Kita berdua kenalan dan ngobrol2 sejenak, gak lama Godfather of Metal mas Tito datang disusul dengan Aldo yang makin subur aja badannya (bagus pupuknya ya Do). Berturut muncul CJ dan mbak Dinar....Sedangkan rombongan dari bandung menyusul paling belakang yaitu Tarlen, Wisnu dan Ian Vedder....Ketiganya dgn muka rada ngantuk tapi kelihatan kenyang (abis makan bubur ternyata, atau mabok sama aroma mangganya si wisnu ya?)....

Yg aneh, menurut Amin dan Aldo, satpam Blok M plaza gak tau dimana cafe de paris itu, dan dia mgkn bingung kenapa hari ini banyak yg nanya ya...saya bilang harusnya diajak aja tuh satpam biar tau cafe de paris dan kali aja dia doyan PJ juga...

Setelah kumpul atas kesepakatan antara mas tito dan saya, kita akan adakan nonton babak pertama di rumah mas tito sampe jam 2 selanjutnya di rumah saya sampe malamnya...Tapi sebelum brgkat para ibu2 darma wanita (termasuk aldo) belanja dulu keperluan konsumsi Gathering, asik jg ada para kaum hawa, makanan pasti terjamin, apalagi yg namanya mbak Dinar, komitmen banget kalo sama acara yg ada makan2nya :)

Rombongan di bagi 2, pake mobil saya dan mobil mas Tito, yg berbodi besar saya suruh naik mobil mas Tito...sepanjang jalan kita kayak kejar2an padahal mobil mas tito sedan sdgkan saya taft tua :( kasian aja penumpang mobil saya jd pada ajrut2an kalo jalannya gak rata krn diajak ngebut)...:))

________________

kata tarlen tentang gathering IV
nambahin cerita gathering... sebenernya ceritanya wisnu cukup mewakili delegasi bandung... jadi saya nambahin sedikit aja.
saya pengen bilang thanx to "wan abdul", temen saya yang tiba-tiba muncul di common room di jumat sore dengan menenteng chesee cake hotel nikko jakarta yang enak bangettttttttt. waktu tau ga bakalan dapet tiket karena semua tiket pada semua jam keberangkatan ke jakarta sudah penuh yang terlintas pertama kali dalam pikiran saya adalah wan abdul. malem minggu, sebelum pergi ada makan-makan di common room, seorang teman ulang tahun, lalu berpestalah kami. di situ saya melancarkan bujukan untuk numpang ke jakarta bersama wan abdul di minggu pagi. Sempat pulang ke rumah ngambil perlengkapan, trus balik lagi dan tidur di common room karena besok harus berangkat pagi-pagi. jam 5 subuh wan abdul udah siap brangkat. saya baru bangun Pk. 05.20 wib... buru-buru mandi dan siap-siap nunggu wisnu dan ian. setelah ian nongol, baru temen saya goro yang juga mau nebeng ke jakarta, dibangunin.. sambil nunggu krizz vedder yang katanya mau ikut juga. Goro siap brangkat. kami siap brangkat. Dan memberi toleransi beberapa menit pada krizz yang tak kunjung muncul dan memberi kabar. akhirnya dengan berat hati kami pergi meninggalkan krizz. melaju bersama kijang hitam wan abdul yang baunya masih bau dealer.

Niat wan abdul memberi tumpangan supaya ada yang bisa di ajak ngobrol, eh malah semua penumpang lelap tertidur. akhirnya wan abdul memacu kijangnya begitu cepat alias ngebut. jam 09.30 udah nyampe jonggol. akhirnya satu persatu bangun. wan abdul menawarkan sarapan pagi. akhirnya kami makan bubur pinggir jalan. bubur khas cianjur jelas wan abdul karena pake kuah sayur. setelah perut kenyang, perjalanan berlanjut. wan abdul, sebenarnya ga tau saya, wisnu dan
ian ke jakarta mau ngapain. tapi feeling dia cukup bagus untuk mengiringi tujuan kami dengan satu album ten yang ada di audio carnya. Mmmm... saya jadi semangat... ikut bernyanyi. wisnu berdendang pelan. ian berdendang dalam hati. dan goro teman saya fans berat peter gabriel itu, cuma menjentikan jari-jarinya di dash board. Dia sempet suka pearl jam sebentar. akhirnya sampailah kami di blok m plasa. wan abdul mengantar kami sampai tempat tujuan dengan selamat. meski jalanan becek dan langit mendung. saya begitu antusias. bertemu jammers sekalian yang sebelumnya hanya saya jumpai di chat room.

surprise, karena mas reza ga seperti yang nampak di foto. kaget ketemu 'ibu-ibu' rock n'roll kaya mba dinar...;) dan ketemu mas tito yang wah... apa ga salah nih dia jammers..:D ketemu aldo, amin, cj.. jadi ga sabar pengen ketemu lagi di gathering berikutnya.

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kata mas tito tentang gathering IV

Wah... cerita rombongan bandung ternyata rame dan ada sukavdukanya yaaa.... great, kayanya G5 di bandung bakal lebih rame lagi btw. Kenapa dengan saya mas ? Kok nggak meyakinkan kalau jammer... hehehe.... PJ mungkin bukan satu-satunya band idola gw, tapi paling tidak PJ yang telah menuntun gw ke jalan yang benar.... hahahaha :D

_______________

mas reza lagi

kenapa surprise Len? :) emang asli jauh lebih keren ya...itu emang foto 6 tahun lalu, tp mendingan deh drpd yg laen pada pake poto eddie vedder :)

TEN PAST TEN

2004-11-10T00:32:00.000+07:00

By Eric Weisbard with Jessica Letkemann, Ann Powers, Chris Norris, William Van Meter, and Will Hermes
Spin Online, August 2001

Dramatis Personae

Dave Abbruzzese: drummer, 1991-1994
Jeff Ament: bassist
Michelle Anthony: Executive Vice President Sony Music
Tim Bierman : manager of Ten Club, Pearl Jam's fan club
Bono: singer, U2
Matt Cameron: drummer, 1998-present
Chris Cornell: singer, Soundgarden
Cameron Crowe: filmmaker
Kelly Curtis: manager, Pearl Jam
Brett Eliason: sound engineer, Pearl Jam
Cathy Faulkner: music director, KISW, Seattle
Michael Goldstone: A executive, Epic, 1990-1996
Stone Gossard: guitarist
Dave Grohl : singer/guitarist, Foo Fighters former drummer, Nirvana
Karrie Keyes: sound engineer
Rick Krim: producer, MTV/VH1
Mike McCready: guitarist
Brendan O'Brien: producer
Mark Pellington: director, "Jeremy" video
Jim Rose: circus impresario
Susan Silver: manager, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains
Gloria Steinem: author; women's rights activist; Ms. co-founder
Pete Townshend: guitarist/singer, the Who
Steve Turner: guitarist, Mudhoney
Eddie Vedder: singer
Nancy Wilson: singer/guitarist, Heart

It's been a decade since Pearl Jam released Ten, which sold 11 million copies and gave hard rock a heart transplant. In an exclusive look back, the band and a host of comrades run it all down, from the censored "Jeremy" video and the interband struggles to the Roskilde tragedy and the road ahead. An oral history of a band that matters.

When Pearl Jam's Ten came out a decade ago on August 27, 1991, pretty much nobody cared. Unlike Nirvana's Nevermind, which a month later revolutionized music faster than Kurt Cobain could pull the hair from his eyes, Ten took a full year to climb the charts. "Jeremy," the third single and the band's only true video, finally unleashed the floodgates in the summer of '92.

Yet even then we had little sense what Pearl Jam represented. A few million MTV fans and some historic live shows notwithstanding, they hadn't fully arrived. Their throbbing, baritone sound was branded by some as a sellout, corporate version of grunge, and the band members themselves couldn't shake the feeling that, where it counted, they hadn't registered. Especially their lead singer—an outwardly shy but maniacally competitive surfer from San Diego who'd been plagued with identity questions long before anyone started debating the meaning of "alternative."

Eddie Vedder grew up with a man he thought was his father and wasn't; when he found out, he became what film director and good friend Cameron Crowe calls "a living Pete Townshend character," consumed with unresolved hurt. But that isn't the Pearl Jam—nor is lead guitarist Mike McCready's days in the juvenile hair metal band Shadow, nor is bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard's formative experiences in the pivotal Seattle indie-rock band Green River, which would also beget Mudhoney. Ament and Gossard left Green River to pursue mainstream rock glory in Mother Love Bone, then saw it ripped away when lead singer Andy Wood died of a heroin overdose right before their debut's release in 1990.

It's the combination that sets up the Pearl Jam story. The vocals that Vedder added to the instrumental demos he got through his friend Jack Irons (later one of the band's ever-revolving cast of drummers) resonated precisely with Gossard and Ament's sense of loss. A trip to Seattle to check the fit, and the result was a band that exploded both live and commercially before anyone had had a chance to figure out what the goals were. And then a tumultuous decade, marked by interband squabbles, contentious back-and-forths with the pop machinery, and, long after every question seemed to have been settled, a tragic concert at which nine fans died.

The group that was once accused of being synthetic grunge now seem as organic and principled a rock band as exists, continually tweaking the industry: introducing what became their biggest single ("Last Kiss") as a fan-club-only release; producing 72 live albums to document their 2000 tour. We talked with the band and their contemporaries—musicians, crew members, friends, and industry folks. Mixed in with some great stories is the answer to a paramount question: Why were Pearl Jam, virtually alone among their peers, the ones who kept the flame alive?

1990: PREHISTORY

MARCH 19: Mother Love Bone singer Andy Wood dies of a heroin overdose a month shy of the band's debut, Apple. MLB immediately disbands. SEPTEMBER: In San Diego, Eddie Vedder adds vocals to demo tapes of a nascent Seattle band, creating the first Pearl Jam recordings OCTOBER: Vedder travels to Seattle to rehearse with the band OCTOBER 22: The band, temporarily named Mookie Blaylock, play their first show at the Off Ramp. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER: Soundgarden's Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron and Mookie Blaylock's Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Vedder record Temple of the Dog.

KELLY CURTIS: With Mother Love Bone, there was this huge buzz. It was unheard of. It was such a crazy year, 1990, because it went from we're putting a record out . . . and then Andy dies. And then by the end of the year, we found Eddie.

STONE GOSSARD: I saw Mike at a party when he was really drunk playing blues guitar and he was totally amazing. I had known Mike for a long time, since I was in 7th Grade, and he went through a transformation; found his own voice.

McCREADY: He said, "do you want to jam," so we got together and we started playing upstairs in his parent's attic. Jeff was playing with other people at the time. I said, "we've got to get Jeff, because you guys together are really great." Jeff said he wanted to do it. All these songs came out of that time: Jeff had "Jeremy," Stone had "Black," "Alive." I came up with "Yellow Ledbetter." When Matt [Cameron] helped us out with [with drumming on] the demos, I knew these songs were going to be good.

JEFF AMENT: I was going through a major identity crisis at that point; I'd put my heart and soul into Mother Love Bone, gave up school, and to have it be snuffed out so quickly. All summer, Stone and I would meet up, mountain bike and just talk. We aired our grievances with one another. He told me that I needed to lighten up a bit and I told him that he needed to take it more seriously.

Dramatis Personae

Dave Abbruzzese: drummer, 1991-1994
Jeff Ament: bassist
Michelle Anthony: Executive Vice President Sony Music
Tim Bierman : manager of Ten Club, Pearl Jam's fan club
Bono : singer, U2
Matt Cameron: drummer, 1998-present
Chris Cornell: singer, Soundgarden
Cameron Crowe: filmmaker
Kelly Curtis: manager, Pearl Jam
Brett Eliason: sound engineer, Pearl Jam
Cathy Faulkner: music director, KISW, Seattle
Michael Goldstone: A executive, Epic, 1990-1996
Stone Gossard: guitarist
Dave Grohl : singer/guitarist, Foo Fighters former drummer, Nirvana
Karrie Keyes: sound engineer
Rick Krim: producer, MTV/VH1
Mike McCready: guitarist
Brendan O'Brien: producer
Mark Pellington: director, "Jeremy" video
Jim Rose: circus impresario
Susan Silver: manager, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains
Gloria Steinem: author; women's rights activist; Ms. co-founder
Pete Townshend: guitarist/singer, the Who
Steve Turner: guitarist, Mudhoney
Eddie Vedder: singer
Nancy Wilson: singer/guitarist, Heart

MICHAEL GOLDSTONE: I had bumped into Jack [Irons] at a party because I knew Jack from [the band] What Is This?. I told him [Jeff and Stone's new band] needed a drummer and was looking for a singer too. He initially turned it down, then forwarded his demo to Eddie, and then I guess Eddie called those guys direct.

CURTIS: The pivotal moment was Jeff coming by the office with the tape and saying you aren't going to believe this. We were like, "Oh my god, this is scary."

McCREADY: I'd never been in a situation where it clicks. It all happened in seven days. We had worked up all the music a month prior to that with [original drummer Dave] Krusen. When Eddie came up he had "Footsteps," "Alive," and "Black." And out of that week came so many other things. It was very punk rock. Eddie would stay there in the rehearsal studio, writing all night. We'd show up and there was another one. And then he had to get back. I remember giving him a ride back, at about five in the morning, to Sea-Tac Airport. I remember him saying "Don't be late!" He had to get back to work.

EDDIE VEDDER: I always had the kind of clip-on-tie, stocking-the-shelves-at-drugstores jobs. And for that first week of rehearsing with the band, I wasn't going to have to go to work. It was just going to be about music. We practiced in an art gallery, in the basement. And the alley that we were on was like crack-alley central. I remember having to use the restroom upstairs and going through these rooms that smelled of oil paint and sawdust and stuff. The guys would come in, and we'd practice and then maybe go play some pool and then come back and keep working, surrounded by Gatorade bottles with piss in them for those times when you didn't feel like walking up the stairs.

CURTIS: Eddie was this shy guy. It was just the opposite of [late Mother Love Bone frontman] Andy Wood, who was this flamboyant, David Lee Roth kind of guy.

AMENT: The minute we started rehearsing and Ed started singing—which was within an hour of him landing in Seattle—was the first time I was like, "Wow, this is a band that I'd play at home on my stereo." What he was writing about was the space Stone and I were in. We'd just lost one of our friends to a dark and evil addiction, and he was putting that feeling to words. I saw him as a brother. That's what pulled me back in [to making music]. It's like when you read a book and there's something describing something you've felt all your life.

STONE GOSSARD: I don't think I appreciated Eddie like I do now back then—his words and where he was coming from. Writing songs like "Release" or "Even Flow" in that basement together, I knew immediately when he was singing it felt good. But it took Ed and me a long time to get to know each other. We were very different kinds of people.

GOLDSTONE: This little experiment ended up turning into Ten within a six-week process. Ed went up to Seattle initially, came home, moved up there, and never came back [to Southern California].

CAMERON CROWE: I loved Mother Love Bone, so when I was writing the movie that would end up being [1992's] Singles, I wanted to interview Jeff and Stone to explore the whole coffee-culture, "two or three jobs, one of which is your band" lifestyle. The terrible turn of events that took place was that Andy died. And everybody just instinctively showed up at Kelly [Curtis]'s house that night. For me it was the first real feeling of what it was like to have a hometown—everybody pulling together for some people they really loved. That was a pivotal moment, I think, for a lot of people there. It made me want to do Singles as a love letter to the community that I was really moved by. Few people know this, but Stone is actually in [Crowe's 1989 film] Say Anything.... He plays a cab driver, and Ione Skye looks at him and kind of flirts with him a little bit as they're stuck in traffic on her way to graduation.

AMENT: I definitely don't talk like Matt Dillon. But I made a couple of thousand bucks loaning him my clothes. I wore shorts year round. I rode bikes everywhere, didn't have a car, and if I was going to practice I had to carry my bass on my bicycle, so I couldn't wear jeans. I'm not sure what defined what grunge was or wasn't. I never ever wore a flannel shirt. I had a few hats, for sure. That started off when I was in Green River and had a girlfriend who made hats. At the time, I don't think I looked like a rocker, I looked like a dumbass. It was partly function and partly what was laying around.

McCREADY: I really liked Stevie Ray Vaughn, so hey—I tried to look like him. At least I had gotten out of my mullet phase. Eddie just had his punk rock thing. He wore what he wore and still does. [Jeff and Stone] dressed a certain way, because that was their clique—that sarcastic, playing-like-you're-at-an-arena-to-30-people look.

GOSSARD: For a long period of time, me and Jeff would have loved to be in Get Your Wings-era Aerosmith, or Iggy Pop, or David Bowie. But there was something going on in Seattle that added a different element, a kind of garage approach.

CROWE: Eddie was painfully shy. It was weird because he was...barely there. But you couldn't take your eyes off him. There's a guy sort of sitting across from you, with his hands on his lap, and looking down, and you wanted to reach out and let him know that he didn't have to be so shy. He was and still is an amazing listener. When he locks in and he's talking about something that matters to him, the whole world disappears. Hours can go by. The first time I met him, we mostly talked about Pete Townshend. He knew every detail. I remember very clearly my feeling that Townshend could have written this guy as a character. He was a living Pete Townshend character.

CHRIS CORNELL: I first met Eddie in a waiting room [outside our common rehearsal space] the day he first got to Seattle. He was very quiet and very shy and didn't have a lot to say. He was under a lot of pressure, a lonely guy away from home in a room full of people who had a lot of experience in bands. He was by himself, just singing his words and doing his thing.

VEDDER: We were both singers. When I first came up and he [Chris Cornell] put out his hand to me early on which is so important to me it's almost undefinable. The first time we played he came to this little club and he told me that it was really good and he was thankful that I was there and that I was who I was, or something really nice, but the whole time he was saying this, he didn't realize but he was standing under a black light, and his teeth were glowing and his eyes were glowing. I remember it as my first conversation with Satan.

GOSSARD: We made a record with Chris Cornell called Temple of the Dog. I still listen to it and think that it's the best thing I've ever been involved with. Whatever that combination of people was, I'd never been in a situation where it was that easy. I've almost been looking for that ever since. The very first thing we did was a very high water mark, the way that our two bands complemented each other. And it was a bunch of songs that Chris wrote totally from the heart. He wrote these songs without any preconceived notions of where they might end up or what they were going to be. That's where the real gold is. In terms of writing music, being self-conscious is the worst place to be.

CORNELL: I had written "Say Hello to Heaven" and "Reach Down" and I had recorded them by myself at home. My initial thought was I could record them with the ex members of Mother Love Bone as a tribute single to Andy [Wood]. And I got a phone call from Jeff, saying he just thought the songs were amazing and let's make a whole record. When we started rehearsing the songs, I had pulled out "Hunger Strike" and I had this feeling it was just kind of gonna be filler, it didn't feel like a real song. Eddie was sitting there kind of waiting for a [Mookie Blaylock] rehearsal and I was singing parts, and he kind of humbly—but with some balls—walked up to the mic and started singing the low parts for me because he saw it was kind of hard. We got through a couple choruses of him doing that and suddenly the light bulb came on in my head, this guy's voice is amazing for these low parts. History wrote itself after that, that became the single. I think Temple was the first full-length album that McCready ever recorded. You almost kind of had to yell at him to get him to realize that in the five-and-a-half minute solo of "Reach Down," that was his time and that he wasn't going to be stepping on anybody else. He started recording what was eventually the solo, halfway through it he got so into it that his headphones flew off, and he played half that solo without even hearing the song.

SUSAN SILVER: [Mookie Blaylock] played their first show at the Off Ramp, a female-motorcyclist bar. It was the same club Cameron shot Soundgarden in for Singles. And everyone was nervous, wanting to see the phoenix rise. There was such an intense connection among all of them. Even though the Off Ramp show was amazing and people wanted to see Stone and Jeff win, when they opened for Alice in Chains [on December 22] at the Moore Theatre, there was still a lot of grieving about Andy. He was such a special guy, such a character, so fearless and outrageous—the whiteface and the sparkly spandex outfits. So this was the first time that a lot of fans saw Eddie, and the feeling I was picking up from the audience was "Who is this guy? Is he good enough to fill Andy's shoes?" It felt like the place wholeheartedly accepted him.

CROWE: At the Moore Theatre, the first song they did was "Release," and I remember looking over at Nancy [Wilson, Crowe's wife], and we were like, "That's the shy guy? Oh my God!" Soon he was hanging from the rafters. It was sort of like the end of Eddie as the excruciatingly shy guy.

1991: GIVEN TO FLY MARCH: The band adopts the name Pearl Jam. APRIL 16: Temple of the Dog released. MAY 25: Drummer Dave Krusen fired AUGUST 2: "Alive" single is released AUGUST 23: Drummer Dave Abbruzzese plays first show with band AUGUST 27: Ten is released OCTOBER-DECEMBER: Tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana

CORNELL: Stone and Jeff were in Green River, and Green River and Soundgarden always had a friendly rivalry. I've had discussions with Johnny Ramone about the New York scene when the Ramones were coming up, and he was very surprised at how well bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam would get along, because he said that in the New York scene, bands weren't very nice to each other.

NANCY WILSON: There was a really cool night when a whole bunch of those people came to my house, a farm near Seattle. Kelly and most of the Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains guys showed up. We pulled out guitars and had a hootenanny. It was one of those nights that you never forget, like camping out together. Some people were chemically altered and were giving champagne to my horses when I woke up the next morning. Eddie and [wife] Beth [Liebling] were just like little Eskimos in their sleeping bags.

AMENT: The first time I mentioned Pearl Jam [as a band name] was when Ed, Stone, and I were watching Sonic Youth play with Crazy Horse. In the middle of Crazy Horse I turned to Stone and said, "what about 'Pearl Jam'?" A couple of years later, the first time that we played [Neil Young's] Bridge School [benefit], I saw Neil's big black, must have been a '55 Chevy and the license plate says PEARL 10. I think I'm in a dream. I asked Neil how long he'd had those plates, and he said 15 years.

KELLY CURTIS: Jeff and Stone, they weren't released from their PolyGram contract. But now we didn't have any relationships with PolyGram and we were being ignored. So we kind of concocted a scheme. We hired the lawyer who had negotiated his contract to help us get out of it. This after six months of trying to get money out of PolyGram.

MICHAEL GOLDSTONE: The band fought hard for their release. Kelly and the band had a meeting with Rick Dobbis to basically say we want to go off and do our own thing and start over. And he benevolently granted them their freedom. Kelly then came downtown to a restaurant in Chinatown to meet me and [Sony Music exec] Michele Anthony, let us know how it went. So he's there with Stone and Jeff, waiting for us, and Dobbis walks in. And they literally feigned that they had just finished eating. They left and ran down the street, caught us just as we were getting out of the cab, and we all went running off downtown somewhere else. Small town: how many restaurants, right? It was like A Hard Day's Night. By the time Eddie was playing the shows as Mookie Blaylock, it hadn't been finalized yet, not legally, and that was a huge panic for me. But they got their release. I think there were people who tried to get it stopped within PolyGram. I'm sure they don't look back on it too fondly.

McCREADY: Recording Ten, we probably did "Even Flow" 30 times. "Yellow Ledbetter" [the B-side of "Jeremy"] was probably the second take; when we did that song, Ed just started going for it. But [Ten] was mostly Stone and Jeff; me and Eddie were along for the ride at that time.

AMENT: I'd love to remix Ten. Ed, for sure, would agree with me. Three, four years ago, I picked out a cassette, and it had the rough mixes of "Garden" and "Once," and it sounded great. It wouldn't be like changing performances; just pull some of the reverb off it.

DAVE GROHL: The first thing I remember of Pearl Jam was hearing "Alive" on the radio while I was living in Seattle. I pictured Mountain or some serious '70s throwback. The music just seemed like classic rock to me, so I pictured the singer being some husky, fuckin' bearded, leather-jacketed Tad type, big and fat and tortured and scary.

STEVE TURNER: Stone was such, and still is such a hilariously funny, sarcastic guy when he was in his full rock mode in the mid to late '80s. I kept thinking, I hope Stone becomes a rock star, just so I can see him being interviewed on MTV cause he's just fucking funny.

GOSSARD: We thought metal was pretty much a joke at that point, but we also knew that it was an area where we could get some fans. Headbangers Ball and Rip magazine, all that stuff. You're going to do whatever you can to get it going. We made an "Even Flow" video that never came out that I'm sensitive about, because it was my idea. It ended up being totally rawk: lots of big lights, out on a cliff, definitely comic to look back on now. Hopefully at some point, we'll be able to laugh at ourselves enough to show that one.

CURTIS: People didn't know what it was. Once people came and saw them live, this lightbulb would go on. Doing their first tour, you kind of knew it was happening and there was no stopping it. To play in the Midwest and be selling out these 500 seat clubs. Eddie could say he wanted to talk to Brett, the sound guy, and they'd carry him out there on their hands. You hadn't really seen that reaction from a crowd before.

GOLDSTONE: The band did such an amazing job opening the Chili Peppers tour that it opened doors at radio. You look at how long that record took to explode, and it was exactly how they would have wanted it—not having it shoved down everyone's throats the first five minutes. People got to discover Pearl Jam on their own: The kid on the street took all of his friends, and then the next time through everyone came.

MATT CAMERON: Eddie used to write everybody a lot in the early days. I used to get postcards when he was on tour with little drawings on them. One, he snuck into this locked-up ballpark that was getting condemned, and on the postcard he had a big arrow, "I am here," in the middle of the ballfield. He's up for anything. The kind of guy who'll go for it.

CATHY FAULKNER: Early on, we always made bets on where Eddie would climb to jump from.

GROHL: I didn't sit and watch them play until the show in San Diego, where Eddie climbed the fuckin' lighting rig. I swear to God he was like 250 feet up in the air. It was one of the scariest things I've ever seen live in my entire life. I've seen people cut themselves, I've seen people shit, I've seen people get beat up onstage, and I've seen people break bones, break their backs, and get concussions. Honestly, I was horrified. I was really scared that he was gonna die.

VEDDER: In San Diego we were playing with Nirvana and the Chili Peppers. I had climbed an I-beam that you could kind of wrap your hand around. So I got to the top, and I thought, "Well, how do I get down?" I either just give it up and look like an idiot, or I go for it. So I decided to try it, and it was really ridiculously high, like 100 feet, something mortal. I was thinking that my mother was there, and I didn't want her to see me die. So somehow I finally got back onstage, finished the song, and went to the side and threw up. I knew that was really stupid, beyond ridiculous. But to be honest, we were playing before Nirvana. You had to do something. Our first record was good, but their first record was better.

McCREADY: I remember after the New Year's Eve 1991 show, somebody running onto the bus and saying Nirvana had just hit No. 1. I remember thinking, "Wow; it's on now." It changed something. We had something to prove—that our band was as good as I thought it was.

1992: WHY GO HOME?

JULY 18: The Lollapalooza tour begins, including Ministry, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Jim Rose Circus (a collective who liked to lift weights with their genitals, pump their stomachs etc.) JULY 22: "Jeremy" single released SEPTEMBER 18: Cameron Crowe's Singles, based loosely on the Seattle rock scene, released

JIM ROSE: The bile-drinking contests started with [Soundgarden's ] Chris Cornell. There's an act in our show where one of my members—and it would be a different one every day, because no one can do it really twice in a row—would force seven feet of tubing into their stomach through their nose, and we would pump in beer, ketchup, and mayonnaise. Then it was sucked back out, and the result became known as bile beer. One early stop on Lollapalooza, Chris came up and drank it. The very next day, Eddie came up and did it. Then for two days after, [Ministry's] Al Jourgensen came back on and did it. He started telling Eddie and Chris that he's drank more than they have. Well, Chris bowed out. But Eddie's right there every day drinking this stuff. At the end of the tour, Eddie says, "I have drunk two quarts more than you, Al, and I've won."

VEDDER: Just looking for attention, I guess. Every city there'd be some old friend or my wife's parents, and I'd get to gross everyone out.

MICHELLE ANTHONY: I remember [the Lollapalooza stop] at Jones Beach [near New York City] standing with Kelly, watching Ed climb this huge scaffolding. He's looking down, and it looks like there's water on the side, except we knew that the water was only six inches deep. The two of us are going oh no, please don't let him jump. There were always those edge of the seat moments.

DIVING FOR PEARLS - TEN ESSENTIAL LIVE SETS
THE OFF RAMP, SEATTLE, OCTOBER 22, 1990 ...And on the seventh day, they played their first show. A diffident Eddie Vedder is rooted to his spot, but his baritone unshakily booms through the songs that will become Ten. A fan near the ad-hoc videotaper presciently mutters: "Wow. Who the fuck is this guy?"

COW PALACE, SAN FRANCISCO, DECEMBER 31, 1991 How do Pearl Jam compete when opening for Nirvana and the Chili Peppers? Ament leaps against amps, and Vedder executes a running swan dive into the pit, swimming back to the stage shoeless.

MTV UNPLUGGED, MARCH 16, 1992 Pearl Jam mastered the campfire acoustica at a small gig in Zurich a month earlier, but Unplugged captures it writ large. With Vedder standing on a stool writing PRO-CHOICE! on his arm and McCready bludgeoning his strings, this version of "Porch" is still among their best.

ALPINE VALLEY, EAST TROY, WISCONSIN, AUGUST 29 1992 Quintessential old-school Pearl Jam: Ament's a blur, Gossard's in full duck-walk groove, and a wild-eyed Vedder interrupts his howling with a climb to the amphitheater's roof, where he Tarzans into the mosh pit from a rope dangling from a pole.

MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, SEPTEMBER 3, 1993 A month before the release of Vs., an unannounced Neil Young plays sideman on a cover of his own "Rockin' in the Free World." The squall is righteous, even if Vedder looks a bit worse for rock-star wear.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE , APRIL 16, 1994 A shaken, wary group channels its grief over Kurt Cobain's death a week prior. Credits roll with Vedder placing his hand over the K written on his shirt.

SOLDIER FIELD, CHICAGO, JULY 11, 1995 Forty-seven thousand fans chant "Ticketmaster sucks!" unprompted. One of the few shows that happened after Pearl Jam canceled their first non-Ticketmaster tour midway through, this three-hour bliss-out comprises crazy covers, improvs, and damn near all of the band's catalog.

RANDALL'S ISLAND, NEW YORK CITY

SEPTEMBER 29, 1996 Non-Ticketmaster tour 2.0, and here's Pearl Jam on the art-rock tip. During an 11-minute version of "Porch," Vedder blackens his eyes with burned cork, binds himself with duct tape, and delivers his "famous" "You are somebody" soliloquy.

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY SEPTEMBER 11, 1998 Thousands of signs calling for "Breath" are held aloft. Pearl Jam play it for the first time in years, and 20,000 stand on chairs singing along. Opener Ben Harper duets in tears on "Indifference," and Vedder climbs up the mic cord he's hurled over the lighting truss during "Alive."

KEY ARENA, SEATTLE, NOVEMBER 6, 2000 After Roskilde, the band found the fortitude not to cancel their planned U.S. tour. This is their emotional homecoming and triumphant finale. Friends come from around the world, tears flow, and the band makes magic until 1:30 A.M. The most moving show of Pearl Jam's entire decade, period. J.l.

McCREADY: At Lollapalooza one show, Eddie had missed the bus we were on. I remember panicking: we're not playing today! He was at a gas station and got a ride from a passing truck driver. He ran through the audience while were starting to do like a Temple of the Dog set, he fully ran. We played "Hunger Strike," "Reach Down," and then he got up there and we did our set.

CROWE: Pearl Jam would get together in a circle before they went onstage and Eddie pulled me into the circle before one of their Lollapalooza shows. I put that in [my 2000 film] Almost Famous, even though it actually happened 20 years later.

CORNELL: There was a second stage at Lollapalooza, so Eddie and me worked up an acoustic set and got some space on the second stage for the middle of the day. We got a golf cart and drove through the crowd to the stage, and it was like the Beatles. There were, like, a hundred people running and screaming and chasing the golf cart. It was the first time I realized what was happening with his band.

BRETT ELIASON: One of the last times Ed went into the crowd was Lollapalooza—in Ontario, Canada. People were literally trying to take pieces of him. He was bloody, his shirt was torn up, somebody had him by the hair.

CURTIS: When "Jeremy" happened and they played at the MTV Video Music Awards, [Sony Music CEO Tommy] Mottola was at the Sony after-party saying, "You have to release 'Black.'" And the band was saying, "No. Enough. This is big enough."

GOLDSTONE: "Black" was kind of a sore subject; a lot of other people in the company really wanted "Black" as the next single.

CURTIS: We turned down inaugurals, TV specials, stadium tours, every kind of merchandise you could think of. I got a call from Calvin Klein, wanting Eddie to be in an ad. I learned how to say no really well. I was proud of the band, proud of their stances. We were starting to use the power for more political, more charitable type things.

McCREADY: It was at that time that Eddie took it over. Benevolent dictatorship: That's kind of the theory. Jeff and Stone running things from one angle, but with Eddie, it was all about pulling back.

AMENT: [American Music Club's] Mark Eitzel told us, "I saw the video for 'Jeremy,' and I fucking hated it." It was so shocking, this guy we'd just met. He said, "I had a totally different vision of it, and that fucked up the whole thing." And I agreed with him.

MARK PELLINGTON: Probably the greatest frustration I've ever had is that the ending [of the "Jeremy" video] is sometimes misinterpreted as that he shot his classmates. The idea is, that's his blood on them, and they're frozen at the moment of looking. I would get calls years later about it, around the time of Columbine. I think that video tapped into something that has always been around and will always be around. You're always going to have peer pressure, you're always going to have adolescent rage, you're always going to have dysfunctional families.

RICK KRIM: I have the unedited "Jeremy" video. It was too explicit. The boy sticking a gun in his mouth—it still gives me a chill to watch it. As you can imagine, the band didn't want to change it. They felt this was their statement. I got on the phone with Eddie on a couple of occasions to argue our position, like, God forbid some kid thinks that's cool and sticks a gun in his mouth. But it wasn't a pleasant experience, for me or for them. In my office, I have a poster from the first record, which actually has a picture of Kelly [Curtis]'s daughter when she's three years old, she's playing with a gun in crayons. They all signed it, and Eddie's note points to the gun and says: "the gun you wouldn't let us show. And thanks to you, I think you showed too much." Meaning, the combination of having to compromise their artistic vision and then it got so popular. That was the end of videos for Pearl Jam.

CROWE: Singles was in the can for a year before it came out. But the success of the so-called "Seattle sound" got it released. Warner Bros. said, "If you can get Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam to play the MTV party that we can use to publicize the movie, we'll put it out." So I painfully had to try and talk the bands into doing it. Pearl Jam said that they'd do it as a favor to me. So the taping happened, and it was...a disaster. It was populated mostly by studio executives and their children, who wanted to see the Seattle Sound.

KRIM: Eddie was hanging with a bunch of his surfer friends from San Diego. I remember fire marshals onstage, Eddie yelling at security guys. They had to shut it down. We had to get Eddie out before they arrested him.

CROWE: They were playing covers, and somebody got into a fight, and Chris Cornell got into it, and I think [Soundgarden's] Kim Thayil got into it. I remember Eddie yelling, "Fuuuck! What the fuck is this?' and studio executives grabbing their kids and streaming out. I was seeing this whole thing to get the movie released going down the tubes. But Singles came out, and the show aired twice, heavily edited. To anybody who taped it off the air, it's a real collectible. Later, we made up t-shirts to commemorate the party and they said on the front "Singles Premiere Party" and on the back it said, 'Nobody Died."

GROHL: We were coming from a punk rock standpoint. And Pearl Jam might have been as well. But we wore it on our sleeve a little more heavily than they did. Kurt [Cobain] had made his opinions known: "How could you consider Pearl Jam alternative?" Because their music had, like, guitar leads or whatever. It was pretty ridiculous. And the thing that was so funny to me was that it seemed Kurt and Eddie would have gotten along really well.

GOSSARD: When me and Jeff were at Sub Pop, we left in our wake a rift. That rift was what Kurt attached himself to, and it was perceived in the media as this huge line in the sand. I remember feeling blindsided by that, particularly because when I heard his record, it sounded so good and so immediate, I wanted him to like our band. That stressed everybody out. He crystallized a negative viewpoint of the band. I think all of us didn't know if we deserved the hype aspect of what was going on. Why me? I know fucking a hundred great guitar players. What am I doing that's different? There's a lot of that mindplay that starts to come into existence once we do well. And then, on the other side, some real beginnings of some overblown sense of yourself. I remember looking back on myself and how I felt destined to do something. I'd achieved my dream, so I felt like I was on some mission. It was a real mix of those two kinds of extremes: feeling blessed on one hand, and on the other hand hating myself for pulling something off that my friends hadn't been able to do.

AMENT: If a girl breaks up with you, you hate her. Mark Arm in particular was bitter about us leaving Green River. Then I heard what he was saying about us. That's kind of what started the whole "Jeff, in particular, and Stone, being careerists" thing. The fact of the matter is, in Green River I was the only guy who had a job. Those other guys, they had trust funds, were getting financial help from their parents. I was the one who was hungry to have my rent paid for. With Kurt Cobain, that's what got misconstrued. Maybe I was the one who wasn't going to get bailed out by anyone if I was 30 years old and still working in a restaurant. I was paying back student loans. Those things that Mark, or Kurt said, they hurt quite a bit initially. It was almost portrayed like at a young age I decided I was going to be a rock star. And that definitely wasn't the case. I made several attempts to talk to Kurt and he would put his head down and walk away. I'm sure some of it was based on them getting asked about us. We were getting asked about them a lot, and you get sick of it.

KRIM: I remember that at the MTV Awards in '92, Eddie and Kurt kind of made up. I almost remember them underneath the stage, grabbing each other. Clapton was playing "Tears in Heaven," I think, and they embraced under the stage. Kind of a magic moment.

GROHL: Yeah, some kind of fucking summit. It was so ridiculous; it had blown so out of proportion. I remember the two of them smiling and hugging each other—[sarcastically] and then, all of a sudden, Seattle was okay!

CURTIS: There's a funny story—well, Eddie was able to laugh about it later—where he's been in his house for months, says I think I'm going to go Christmas shopping. He goes to Pioneer Square and immediately 400 fans surround him.

VEDDER: I was already petrified to leave the house, and I finally leave the house, three days before Christmas, get in my old Plymouth and go for it. I probably hadn't been out of the house in a week, really isolating myself. And I go out and suddenly there's like people on top of the car. I tried to get out, got out and buy a couple things, and all of a sudden there's people on top of the car, and then I got in the car. I was parallel parked. I just had to sit there with people screaming in my face. I finally got out and I just ran. I ducked into a map store. Ran up the street and hid behind a globe.

CURTIS: Turns out he'd gone to an Alice in Chains video shoot.

1993-1994: LETTING BLOOD

OCTOBER 19, 1993: Vs. released; it sells 950,378 copies in the first week, a record that stands for five years. APRIL 8, 1994: Kurt Cobain found dead in Seattle JUNE 30, 1994: Gossard and Ament testify before a congressional subcommittee investigating possible antitrust practices by Ticketmaster AUGUST 1994: Drummer Dave Abbruzzese is fired DECEMBER 6, 1994: Vitalogy released DECEMBER 1994: Drummer Jack Irons—Eddie Vedder's longtime friend—joins the band

VEDDER: The second record, that was the one I enjoyed making the least. We didn't record it in Seattle, and it was just like being on tour. I just didn't feel comfortable in the place we were at because it was very comfortable. I didn't like that at all.

AMENT: Recording Vs., there was a lot more pressure on Ed. The whole follow-up. I thought we were playing so well as a band that it would take care of itself. Toward the end it got fairly intense. He was having a hard time finishing up the songs; the pressure, and not being comfortable being in such a nice place. We tried to make it as uncomfortable for him as we could. He slept in the freaking sauna.

BRENDAN O'BRIEN: There's a great song we recorded for Vs., "Better Man," which ended up on Vitalogy. One of the first rehearsals we did they played it and I said "man, that song's a hit." Eddie just went "uhhh." I immediately knew I'd just the said the wrong thing. We cut it once for Vs., he wanted to give it away to this Greenpeace benefit record, the idea was that the band was going to play and some other singer was going to sing it. I remember saying to the engineer, Nick, "this is one of their best songs and they're going to give it away! Can't happen!" And we went to record it and I'm not going to say we didn't try very hard, but it didn't end up sounding very good. I may have even sabotaged that version but I won't admit to that. It took us to the next record, recording it two more times, before he became comfortable with it because it was such a blatantly great pop song.

GOSSARD: Ed was trying to break up our formula from early on; he immediately realized that getting bigger wasn't necessarily going to make any of us any happier. The song that you thought was going to be really great for the record wouldn't necessarily be the one he'd attach himself to. It would be some sort of third riff or silly little song: All of a sudden that would be the one he'd want to work on. Looking back on it, I can appreciate it, and I sort of resent it. I came into this band writing the majority of the songs, and being in control of the music. But my flavor would have gotten really tired by this point, had it just been my lead all the time.

DAVE ABBRUZZESE: I just thought that was ridiculous. I liked where we started out, I liked the notion of going out and playing for ten bucks a show and selling shirts and doing all these things inexpensively and keeping integrity. But, you know, you don't sacrifice the fucking music that you make. When I got fired, I thought I was meeting with Stone to talk about working with [U2 producer] Daniel Lanois. I was thinking, man, we should work with somebody who'll take this band somewhere and let us be magical rather than go drag our feet and just poop out some records. We could take a shit on a piece of styrofoam and people would buy 2 million before they smelled it. So let's go make something amazing.

VEDDER: I call Stone my archenemy in the band, mainly because he's the devil's advocate. You could have the best idea that was absolutely nonquestionable, and then he'd bring something up why we can't just go do it. But it's really positive. Someone's gotta do it, and he does, unabashedly.

AMENT: The picture of the sheep on the cover of Vs. was from a farmer down by Hamilton, Montana. That picture at least semi-represented how we felt at the time. As Prince would put it, we were slaves.

TIM BIERMAN: I was there in San Francisco, on Halloween, when Kelly told the guys that they had sold a million records in a week and no one had ever done that. Instead of high fives, it was hung heads. It made for an uncomfortable situation instead of elation. What's cool is, basically everybody in the band felt the same way. They were all freaked out. It wasn't just one person pouting; it was real emotional confusion.

VEDDER: Maybe I wasn't ready for attention to be placed on me, you know? Also I think it was the practical things that I wasn't ready for, or the legal things that I wasn't ready for. I never knew that someone could put you on the cover of a magazine without asking you, that they could sell magazines and make money and you didn't have a copyright on your face or something.

WILSON: Eddie was seeking the advice of Bono a lot. After the shows you'd see Bono and Eddie over in a corner in deep discussion. And they would go off together and stay at Bono's place, and they would have stayed up and had some wine and really talked about the business and sort of argued about it.

BONO: I seem to always take the role of scolding them for not wanting to be pop stars. I think they suffer me with some grace. Anyone in their right mind would do [what Pearl Jam have done]; this is actually how to have a life, how to keep your dignity.

PETE TOWNSHEND: I met Eddie at my solo show in Berkeley [California] in 1993. I recognized him in the audience, but he looked bemused, a little lost. [Afterward] I spent an hour with him. It could have been ironic, the play I was performing—about old, worn-out stars trying to pass on their "wisdom" to younger performers. I can't remember what I said. Probably something about just accepting who he obviously was—a new rock star. I think maybe he could see the new rock'n'roll rules of his life being rewritten, and he didn't like them.

CROWE: Eddie used to have a secret DAT tape recorder. Elvis Costello came backstage to kind of hail Pearl Jam and meet Eddie and he had the DAT running the whole time, secretly under his jacket, because he wanted to save these experiences. That's how much of a fan he was.

FAULKNER: Whenever the band would come in and do station interviews, it was really hard keeping Mike McCready and Eddie Vedder in the studio, because they were huge vinyl fans and I had an incredible vinyl library up in my office. So any time a commercial break would come on in the interview I'd turn around and they were gone. I don't know if shoplifting would be the right term, but they definite added to their vinyl collections. They would spend hours sitting there, watching them go nuts over a Lou Reed twelve-inch or an extended mix of a Pete Townshend song. And after they went shopping, Eddie Vedder was the only one who sent me a thank you note. He scribbled it in pencil on a note pad. "Thank you for all the vinyl in a year when every day seemed like Xmas." That was the Vs. year.

ROSE: I get a call from Eddie; he says, "It's Roger Daltrey's 50th birthday; I got a cake for him, why don't you come with me?" So we went, and everybody was there: Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Townshend, Sinéad O'Connor. So we all met up at Carnegie Hall, we gave Roger the cake, and then Eddie and I went into his dressing room and he hands me a metal chair, and says, "You throw the opening pitch." I look around, and it's just these gorgeous chandeliers and mirrors and gold-plated lights. And I had been drinking. By the time it was through, there was nothing left. Even the toilet was broken down, just a pipe gurgling water from the floor.

VEDDER: I think I threw a wine bottle at a mirror and it exploded. At some point I cut my hand and started writing "I hope I die before I get old" in blood. Which was really good. We got a bill from Carnegie Hall for $25,000. It was maybe two grand, tops—like, a mirror and a paint job and a couple of lightbulbs. We talked them down. They also said they'd never have rock'n'roll bands in [Carnegie Hall] again. Which is only right.

TOWNSHEND: I heard about it afterward. No one thought it was particularly well executed. But after all, he's a fucking surfer!

GOSSARD: It was the most stressful and unnerving time. I was going out of my mind. The band has never been more successful, but we can't all be in a room together. Everything's dramatic and big.

McCREADY: We came up with a ten minute rule around Vs., Vitalogy time, because we'd come back and we'd totally argue, analyzing the show. It was just like let's fucking enjoy it. Sit back so we don't totally get into each other.

STEVE TURNER: The media was kind of trying to make Pearl Jam and Nirvana diametrically opposed to each other, like Nirvana's the real deal, Pearl Jam's the made-for-TV kind of band. Even Cobain was saying that. The biggest thing that really stuck out in our minds was we [Mudhoney] had a horrible time on the Nirvana tour. Cause it was just really unorganized and everybody was unhappy, crew members were being fired left and right, they were trying to tell us that we couldn't have beer backstage because they were trying to make it a dry tour. So then we were like, fuck, if that's what the Nirvana tour was like, what the hell's the Pearl Jam tour gonna be like? But we did it, and immediately it was such a better atmosphere. We were absolutely bummed for Nirvana, but God, they're having such a horrible time, everything sucks, ya know. And it shouldn't. Just watching Pearl Jam. The crew was really happy and really nice people, a lot of them are still with them today, since day one. It was just really pleasant, really fun. There were some skateboards, I remember skateboarding around with Jeff backstage. It really did change my perceptions of the whole thing. It just seemed like they'd actually worked for it and so they weren't going to pretend like they didn't want it. And they also weren't going to act like big stupid rock stars.

VEDDER: I remember tearing up my hotel room in a complete rage when I found out [that Cobain had died]. We played that night [near Washington, D.C.], and I still question that. [Fugazi's] Ian MacKaye was there, and he offered to take me in that night. So I went to get my suitcase from the hotel, but I didn't have a key, so I had to go up with the maintenance guy to let me in the room. When he opened the door, I just looked at him and said, "You have to understand what happened today."

O'BRIEN: Vitalogy was a little strained. I'm being polite—there was some imploding going on.

McCREADY: Brendan would tell us stories of Jerry Lewis. We came up with a phrase from that: Lewisian, which means to speak fondly of oneself. It was probably more about our egos at the time. Definitely a good strategy on Brendan's part.

GOSSARD: Vitalogy was the first record where Ed was the guy making the final decisions. It was a real difficult record for me to make, because I was having to give up a lot of control.

AMENT: The first record or two, Ed and I could talk. We roomed together, the whole first year and half that we toured, so we got to know each other fairly well. We were jamming on "Release," and he started to sing this thing, and after we were done he said I need to talk to you and he laid the whole thing on me, acknowledged what had gone on with him and his dad. It was a heavy moment. But now communication was at an all-time low. I responded like I've always responded: just put my head down and played. On the first record he revealed those personal things to us more than he did on the next two or three records. There were songs on Vs. and Vitalogy where I had no idea where they came from. It almost became a game, or a puzzle. Like being a fan within your own band.

ABBRUZZESE: Stone would kind of be the bridge of everyone's gap. When he stopped taking that role, the music changed, and [the band] became a less communicative, more whispery place.

JEFF AMENT: Vitalogy, Ed brought in that book, and we said man that would make a great album cover. We tried really hard, to make it like a book, kind of tipped it so it opened horizontally, which pissed off record stores: they had to put it in sideways. With the packaging, from Vs. on, we were trying to create something a bit more unique. It ended up costing us 50 cents or something, which we were so headstrong at the time on. I don't know if I'd do that again: give the record company 50 cents of my $1.50! ANTHONY: Eddie had been carrying this book around with him; a self-help book from the '20s. What to do to be healthier. He loved this. We thought great: public domain book. No problem. We sent it down to our legal department and it turns out there are two or three different versions of Vitalogy, one of which was copyrighted. Now we had, in this war room, the two different Vitalogy versions printed out, the portions that the band wanted to use versus the two original texts. Lawyers reading over all three versions.

GOSSARD: And Mike was really starting to struggle with his addictions, alcoholism and cocaine.

CURTIS: Mike was definitely not a good drinker. He'd do stupid things: taking his clothes off, passing out, pissing in the corner.

GOSSARD: Mike would get these terrible hangovers and he'd be a wreck all day long. He was aware of what was going on. Mike's always been extraordinarily self-deprecating and honest. But at the end of Vitalogy, we had some time off and he went off the deep end. Me and Jeff had gone through it with Andy, so from day one we knew that there was this chance that Mike would have to do that. But twisting his arm wouldn't have worked; Mike had to figure it out himself.

McCREADY: I bought into the whole idea of what rock stardom was and all the bullshit that goes along with it. It was definitely a rowdy time. Luckily, I didn't end up a rock and roll cliché. We were in the maelstrom of the band getting really big. But over the years, Eddie, Stone, Jeff, they saved me. That, and good parenting, keeping in touch with my parents.

GOSSARD: The Ticketmaster thing came at a perfect time for us to say you know what, we can't tour. It was perfect for us to wallow around in some controversy with Ticketmaster.

AMENT: That whole thing was a joke. The Department of Justice used us to look hip. Stone and I spent a week with this guy John Hoyt; he was drilling us with serious questions that we were [supposedly] going to get asked, and then it didn't feel like we got to utilize any of it. It made me a lot more cynical about what goes on with the government.

VEDDER: Eventually they came out with a press release that basically said, "The Department of Justice has ceased its investigation of Ticketmaster. No further investigation will take place." That was it, after a year of struggle. It was really amazing to be right up close and get absolutely stomped on by a huge corporate entity.

O'BRIEN: And Dave Abbruzzese, for whatever reason, he and Eddie didn't get along.

ABBRUZZESE: I felt like there was a time when I had a good friendship with that guy. And then all of a sudden I didn't know him. But I understand—shit, if I was freaking out about stuff and having panic attacks, I can't even begin to fathom what the hell he was going through. I give it up to him just for surviving it.

CURTIS: There was definitely a difference in philosophies. Politics, pro-choice, anti-gun, respect for women, all of that stuff. The responsibilities of being a member of PJ and what message that sends.

AMENT: Dave was a different egg for sure. There were a lot of things, personality wise, where I didn't see eye to eye with him. He was more comfortable being a rock star than the rest of us. Partying, girls, cars. I don't know if anyone was in the same space. Also, with Dave, musically, when you'd say, "I want this to sound more like the Buzzcocks," I don't think he related to that at all. He was a technical guy, and we all played by feeling, or by seeing bands.

GOSSARD: It was the nature of how the politics worked in our band: It was up to me to say, "Hey, we tried, it's not working; time to move on." On a superficial level, it was a political struggle: For whatever reason his ability to communicate with Ed and Jeff was very stifled. I certainly don't think it was all Dave Abrruzzese's fault that it was stifled.

ABRUZZESE: Stone showed up as a man, and as a good friend. I hope to one day tell him how much I appreciate [that]. I had just soured. I didn't really agree with what was going on. I didn't agree with the Ticketmaster stuff at all. But I don't blame anyone or harbor any hard feelings. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't furious and hurt for a long time. But now I just wish there was more music from the band I was a part of.

GOSSARD: Jack entered the band right at the end of making Vitalogy. Jack's a breath of fresh air, a family man. Everybody had a strong sense of friendship with him immediately. He was just there to play drums and help out.

1995: PUSH ME, PULL ME

JANUARY 8: Pearl Jam hosts Self-Pollution, a four-and-a-half hour free-form radio broadcast featuring live sets and interviews with Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, members of Nirvana and Alice in Chains, among others. FEBRUARY: Band records Mirror Ball with Neil Young FEBRUARY 21: Tour of Asia and the South Pacific begins APRIL 12: Eddie Vedder begins a tour with Mike Watt and Dave Grohl JUNE 16: A U.S. tour of alternative venues (those without Ticketmaster affiliation) begins in Casper, Wyoming JUNE 24: After being hospitalized for food poisoning, Vedder collapses midset during a show in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The tour's remaining dates are cancelled

TURNER: The first PJ pirate radio show was at this practice place that they had, it was this dilapidated house along the side of a small freeway. And it was just this boarded up house that looked like it was condemned. It was like a punk-rock house party. A million dollars worth of gear broadcasting from it. There were a few kegs outside, kind of the immediate circle of friends, the Seattle scene people were there. It was just really fun. I wish more things like that happened where I could see a lot of these people on a regular basis.

GLORIA STEINEM: I first met Pearl Jam because they were performing, with Neil Young, for the 22nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade at an annual concert that Voters for Choice does in Washington, D.C. When the issue of late-term abortion was emerging as a crucial one, they asked to have a briefing so that they would truly understand the issue. Maureen Brittel of Voters for Choice, who was one of the women whose story convinced Clinton to veto the legislation that would have outlawed late-term abortions, came, and the whole band was there. You know, it's a level of caring. Since then we've all become friends. And, of course, now I've acquired a value to my nephews that I never had before.

O'BRIEN : I got a call from Kelly. He said, "Don't be surprised, but in an hour Neil Young is going to call you and want you to produce a record with him." He calls me and says, "Can you come tomorrow, or the next day?" We did [Mirror Ball] in a week and a half. Eddie wasn't around much for it.

VEDDER: I think I was in the midst of a pretty intense stalker problem, and leaving the house wasn't the easiest thing to do. And also I don't think we had a lot of downtime and I had committed to my most significant other that that was going to be downtime.

GOSSARD: That came at a time when we needed it, that Neil thought we were a band that would be good to make a record with. He probably felt sorry for us. He made it all right for us to be who we were. He's not taking his career so seriously that he can't take chances. Suddenly, our band seemed too serious.

GROHL: My girl and I took a vacation down to Australia. And I dropped by backstage at Pearl Jam to say 'Hey,' and Jack Irons, who was playing drums with them at the time asked me to fill in for him for a few songs because he was having carpel tunnel problems with his wrists. It was hard to say no to a brother in need. I was horrified first of all, because that was the first time I'd played drums in front of anybody in a year. Also, I had never seen a crowd react like that in my life. It was just fuckin' scary. The people were out of control. They were so incredibly amped to see Pearl Jam that it looked like kids were being poured over the sides to get onto the floor. I don't go to fuckin' 'N Sync concerts, but I imagine that's probably what they're like.

AMENT: Manilla was such a wild experience. The place held 8,000 people, and there were 10,000 other people outside. It was a covered open air venue so people were creating these human ladders, trying to climb up and see. The police showed up with water cannons, sprayed everybody off the wall. And inside, too, to be in a completely different part of the world, have indigenous people all singing along, so cranked, those are the shows where I have to play with my head up the whole time. There's a whole different force motivating you to play.

GROHL: For anyone like me or Krist [Novoselic, Nirvana's bassist] or Eddie, who may have been somehow disillusioned or jaded or just numb, being around [Minutemen's] Mike Watt in the studio for just one day renewed that feeling of excitement. He started talking about putting a tour together: He wanted to have Eddie play guitar and me play the drums and he'd play the bass. For three people who were so starved for some sort of thrills, it kind of blew up. Eddie and his wife's band, Hovercraft, had this van they had spray-painted silver—it just looked like a cop magnet; it was such a bad idea. And we had this red Dodge extended van that we called Big Red Delicious. We all had CBs, and through a lot of CB conversations driving through the middle of nowhere, I realized that Eddie is a fuckin' funny motherfucker. I think that for Eddie, at that point, a lot of things had been knocked out of perspective. That tour brought a lot of it back together. We were playing three sets a night for 12 days in a row, with a ten-hour drive every night.

VEDDER: It was really great until the middle, and then I think I couldn't handle it. There were people throwing coins in Chicago—Minutemen fans who didn't want to see a corporate-rock-band guy on the same stage as Watt. And I was frustrated. I was thinking, you know, "I'm supporting your guy; he's my hero too." Goddamn. I understand where they're coming from. I might have been one to throw the coin myself.

ELIASON: The [Self-Pollution] radio show felt like pirate radio. That gave Ed the idea of setting up a broadcast van during our 1995 American tour. Up to a certain wattage you're allowed to broadcast without a license. During the show I had a feed to broadcast the show. Afterward, oftentimes Ed would jump in the van, talk about the show, up until it was time to go. Very often, he rode to the next venue in the van. I think he felt the need to be punk rock: go back to the roots. The rest of the band flew. Man, you did not want to go near that van. It was clear people had been living in that.

VEDDER: I'd just done a Watt tour in a van so I was feeling that we were about to start a big tour, it was going to get a certain amount of attention, people were kind of excited about it. I didn't relate to any of the hype. The way I was going to get through it was to stay as attached to the ground and low key as possible. [Travelling by van] would be the way I'd be centered. It worked for a while. And then I just got too fuckin' tired.

AMENT: We were so hardheaded about the 1995 [Pearl Jam] tour. Had to prove we could tour on our own, and it pretty much killed us, killed our career. Building shows from the ground up, a venue everywhere we went.

ELIASON: God bless 'em for trying, but people didn't care; they just wanted them to play. That was the first time they felt backlash from fans, which is something they weren't used to. When we left Golden Gate, what a low point. The band was really upset. Not many people realized just how sick Ed was.

VEDDER: That whole [Golden Gate Park] thing was a blur based on some bad food. It was really, really bad. Looking back at it, it doesn't seem as intense as it was, but it was horrible. I just felt not human and looking back I should have got through that show somehow, and I think the fact that Neil [Young] was there made me feel like I could get off the hook in some way and I did go out for a few songs. I just didn't feel good about the whole thing, I felt swallowed up by the whole deal. It was just a situation where you couldn't go to work. But I think now I'd probably get through that show.

CURTIS: We were afraid there'd be a riot. Neil just went down and wore em out. After that show, Neil said you know what, if it doesn't feel right, go home. And the band looked at each other and said you know what, we feel like going home. So we called it quits and went home.

KARRIE KEYES: Looking back, I'm surprised they made it through. After the '95 tour, they took some time off.

ROSE: Okay, so back to Mexican transvestite wrestling. Back in '95, Eddie turns up at a show, and he's wearing a wrestling mask, and he gives me and my circus performers masks. No one knew who Eddie was, so we could walk around in the crowd and do these little mock fuckin' wrestling matches. We started thinking, wow, let's do wrestling as part of the show. And, well, what if the rules are changed? What if they wear dildos? What if the first one who can force it into the other one's mouth for a 1-2-3 count wins? And it's Mexican transvestite wrestling. So from '96 to '98 we basically did a wrestling show with the Jim Rose Circus opening for it. And because I'd told people that Eddie had helped me come up with the idea, people decided Eddie was Billy Martinez, "The Barrio Bottom," underneath that mask. I had hundreds of kids in every city I went to asking, "Is Eddie really Billy Martinez, 'The Barrio Bottom'?" They don't even know what bottom means in gay culture or whatever. I ran into Eddie a year later—I was really dreading running into him because I knew it'd been all over the press—but he just smiles at me and goes, "I've been asked about that Mexican transvestite wrestler thing a hundred times this year." Just looked at me and rolled his eyes.

1996-1999: EVEN FLOW

AUGUST 27, 1996: No Code released SEPTEMBER 14, 1996: A non-Ticketmaster No Code U.S. and European tour starts in Seattle and runs through November FEBRUARY 3, 1998: Yield released APRIL 1998: Jack Irons quits; drummer Matt Cameron (ex-Soundgarden) joins JUNE 20, 1998: Pearl Jam's first comprehensive U.S. arena tour starts in Missoula, MT and runs through September AUGUST 4, 1998: Single Video Theory long-form video released NOVEMBER 24, 1998: Live on Two Legs released DECEMBER 23, 1998: "Last Kiss" released as fan club-only single; radio stations across the country are soon playing it JUNE 8, 1999: "Last Kiss" is rereleased as commercial single. It reaches No. 2 on Billboard's singles chart, higher than any other Pearl Jam single

O'BRIEN: By No Code, things were a bit more relaxed. It was really a transitional record. We had a good time making it. Jack [Irons] had just joined the band. Jack was like a session pro, a session-drumming assassin. Everybody was on their best musical behavior around him.

GOSSARD: No matter what, you're going to have a time when some people are going to lose interest in you. We could still sell out live, which took some of the ego sting. But there was definitely a sense of us not delivering the goods in the way that the masses expected from us. It's only in hindsight that it seems all right. Then, I was straining at it. We didn't talk about it. Talk about what? How do we get people to like us again?

AMENT: No Code, I wasn't super involved with that record on any level. I found out three days into the session that they were actually recording. I'd worked really hard, demoed up a bunch of stuff, and luckily at that point I was working on the Three Fish record. If I wouldn't have had Three Fish at that point, it probably would have broke the camel's back.

McCREADY: I'm sure Jeff was pissed, but it was more about separating, because if we played all together nothing would get done. We'd all just get pissed off at each other.

O'BRIEN: It was a really transitional record. You listen to it and there's definitely stuff that's not common. "Off He Goes" is one of my favorite songs they've done.

VEDDER: The song "Off He Goes" is really about me being a shit friend. I'll show up and everything's great and then all of the sudden I'm outta there ... I also remember saying I should write a lullabye and by the end of the day I wrote a lullabye, It was "Around the Bend." It was kind of a writing exercise. Then I thought, "well you can't just write a lullabye because that's just too sweet."So, just by changing a few words, I made it so if you listen to it one way it was like a lullabye like a father singing to his child, which is basically a song for Jack Irons to sing to his boy, or it could be like a serial killer who had just eaten half of his ... See, there's a nasty side.

GOSSARD: There was a division between Jack our friend and Jack struggling with having a family and trying to deal with his own medical issues. There was also a lot of stress associated with trying to tour at that time and it was growing more and more difficult to be excited about being part of the band. Ticketmaster, as monopolistic as it may be, is very efficient so we weren't playing the venues we wanted to play. The fans had to jump through hoops. We [worked hard] trying to book these venues, make sure they were safe.

KEYES: The vibe was always different than a normal rock tour; the band had different goals, different ideals, and they generally treated women with more respect than a lot of the bands out there. The vibe was never to be doing drugs, drinking, and seeing how many chicks you could pick up. All the other tours call us the G-Rated Tour. We roll into some city and the promoter thinks there's going to be some huge party and everybody's like "When? I'm going to bed."

AMENT: During that black-hole period, there were just a lot of power struggles going on. But Yield was a superfun record to make. And so much of it was Ed kind of sitting back; we worked on all of our songs before we worked on any of his stuff. That was a huge thing.

O'BRIEN: I remember there was a concerted effort to really put together the best, most accessible songs they possibly could.

McCREADY: We were hanging out a lot, Eddie and me, talking politics, life, surfing, music. I remember telling him we need to be very cognizant of the powers that be, because it's critical to our survival. We needed to go out and play music, and enjoy it, within this capitalist structure. To still support those causes, but to work through the established channels.

VEDDER: Basically Yield was great because the music was coming too quick to keep up with it lyrically, and the words [the other band members wrote] have all been stuff that I'm proud and happy to sing.

CURTIS: And then Jack left. He was a guy whom everybody had wanted in the band, and initially he really had a great effect on everybody. But he stepped into the PJ world, and it was pretty overwhelming. He wasn't able to continue.

ELIASON: We went and did Hawaii and Australia with Jack. When we came back, Jack wasn't in a position to carry on. He made that decision more or less by himself. He can be a really great drummer but he had difficulty on tour putting out the energy for the length of shows they were doing. I don't know if he thought they'd put things on hold for him.

VEDDER: I only talked to Jack recently for the first time in quite a while. I think that him deciding that he wasn't going to be in the band really hurt.

MATT CAMERON: I got a phone call out of the blue, from Mr. Ed Ved, Stoney and Kelly. I was ambushed. It was really short notice. He called and said "hey what are you doing this summer?"

CURTIS: Matt said, "sure, I'll do it," and the changeover was really nice. The hysteria started to go away. That was the first non-drama tour in our life.

CAMERON: Working with them is totally pro. They can sell out any arena anywhere in the world. They're kind of in a special league. They can tour really comfortably but keep it kinda small as well. Punk-rock arena rock is the way they approach it.

SILVER: In Texas, a very, very drunk Dennis Rodman refused to leave the stage no matter what they did or how firmly they asked. He would go behind Stone and start strumming on the guitar while Stone was playing or just walk in front of Stone and talk about how incredible each guy was. They finally got him a stool and sat him in front of the drum kit, and he sat there for a song looking like the kid in the corner pouting; then he looked back and realized he didn't know the drummer. He spent what looked like eternity to me leering at Matt like, "Who are you? Show me what you got."

KEYES: One of the funniest end of tour parties was in '98. They rented out a club and it was a disco party. Everybody dressed up, made the thrift store run. Ed probably had the best costume: a great 70s suit and an Afro wig. He definitely played the part that night.

CAMERON: End of tour, Eddie said, "Hey, man, you want to join?" I said, "Let me think about it." So I said, "I'll do a record, do a tour, if you wouldn't mind me doing it that way." I haven't really joined them long-term.

GOSSARD: "Last Kiss" was one of my favorite moments in this band's history.

VEDDER: I had found a copy of [J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers' 1964 version of "Last Kiss"] that day and then learned it. We were playing a small club show in Seattle, and Matt and I did it at the end of the night.

GOSSARD: Brett recorded it later, we spent $1,500 mixing the single at home, and it was our biggest song ever. The same performance that was at soundcheck. Just us trying to sound like a '50s song and sounding half-assed. Ed's interpretation is sentimental and beautiful, and it's not ironic, or clever, or sarcastic.

TIM BIERMAN: We're not doing anything with the [Pearl Jam fan club], Ten Club, that's completely groundbreaking but it doesn't ever take a back seat. The Christmas single, that's their present back to the fans and it's always been two unreleased songs on a 45 with original artwork.

CURTIS: There was this pressure [from the label] to release it commercially. We came up with the idea that you can release it, but you've got to give all the money away.

VEDDER: "Jeremy"'s kind of a teen death song, too. We've done really well with teen death songs.

GOSSARD: Right now, Binaural is a little bit of a black sheep in my mind. People like it, but it doesn't necessarily carry them. We can make a better record than that. I'd like to go back and write some more spontaneous songs.

McCREADY on Binaural: I was going through some personal problems. It was my own stuff I was dealing with. That was a tough time. I was out of it. That was due, at the time, I was taking prescription drugs. I got caught up in it, because of my pain.

VEDDER: I hope he knows that at least with the four of us and the people we work with too that he's got solid ground. And that people love him, not just people who love him because he plays guitar but people who just really love him.

O'BRIEN: We'd done four records together, five counting the Neil Young one. For whatever reason, they decided to make a record on their own. It was time for that. There was no weirdness. Mike called me up; he was so sweet about it. Classic Mike McCready. "Are you ok? Are you alright." But when they finished it, I guess they didn't really like the way it sounded. I don't really know. They called me up and said, "Can you help us out?"

CAMERON: They were really adamant about me bringing in songs for Binaural. I brought four or five, and Ed really liked the one that became "Evacuation," wanted to write lyrics for it. He switched the arrangement around a little bit; the verse and the chorus. Had a real clear idea of what he wanted the song to be.

VEDDER: It's bad when you have writer's block in the studio and you've got three songs without words and four days left. It pretty much happened on the last record. And the worst part was they were songs that I had written. I had written the music to "Insignificance" and "Grievance." I just wasn't happy with what I had so I kept working on it and scrapping it and staying up at night, playing piano melodies to make it be the best thing. And it worked, finally. That causes hell in a relationship, that's all I'll tell you.

2000: GODS' DICE

MAY 16: Binaural released MAY 23: Pearl Jam begin European tour in Lisbon, Portugal JUNE 30: Nine fans are trampled to death in the audience pit while Pearl Jam perform at the Roskilde festival in Denmark AUGUST 3: The band begin a U.S. tour in Virginia Beach, Virginia SEPTEMBER 26: Twenty-five live albums are released (from the European tour)

VEDDER: I never really spoke with anybody about Roskilde. It's the most brutal experience we ever had. I'm still trying to come to grips with it. Right before we went on that night, we got a phone call. Chris Cornell and his wife, Susan, had a daughter that day. And also a sound guy left a day early, 'cause he was going to have a child. It brought me to tears, I was so happy. We were walking out onstage that night with two new names in our heads. And in 45 minutes everything changed.

CURTIS: I think if we had felt responsible in any way, they couldn't have played again. There's been plenty of times in Pearl Jam's career where you see people go down and you stop the show.

GOSSARD: Well, this particular show, the barrier was 30 meters away; it was dark and raining. They'd been serving beer all day long. People fell down; the band had no idea.

CURTIS: The reason those people died was that no one could get word out what was happening. It was just chaos. There was a lot of Danish press that said we were inciting moshing. It wasn't during a crazy part of the set; it was during "Daughter."

GOSSARD: We were part of an event that was disorganized on every level. Mostly I feel like we witnessed a car wreck. But on another level, we were involved. We played this show, and it happened. You can't be there and not have some sense of being responsible. It's just impossible. All of us spent two days in the hotel in Denmark crying and trying to understand what was going on.

VEDDER: The intensity of the whole event starts to seem surreal, and you want it to be real. So you sit there with it, and you cough it up and redigest it. You still want to pay respect to the people who were there or the people who died and their families. Respect for the people who cared about you. A friend of an Australian guy named Anthony Hurley asked if I would write something for the funeral. That was just hands-down the hardest thing I've ever had to do—not really knowing what was appropriate, not knowing how the family or friends felt; maybe I'm the last person they'd like to hear from. But it meant a lot to them, and it really helped me. I think it also helped the rest of the guys. Hurley had three younger siblings, and they said he really cared about our band, and that's why he was in the front. And that he was actually doing something he loved during his last minutes. His sister and a friend of his—who was with Anthony that night—came to Seattle and saw our last two shows. And that was nice, spending time with them. That's been really important.

AMENT: Some of us thought maybe we should cancel the [North American] tour. I felt if we cancel, what are we running from? It made us deal with it every day on some level, and that was the most positive thing we could do. The shows were all reserved-seating, which made it a lot easier. At first, it was hard to look at the crowd. A couple of kids I saw at Roskilde, they're burned in my memory forever. Sometimes, when you're looking at a crowd, you can't help but see those faces.

KEYES: The U.S. Tour: it was a great tour. Everybody needed to complete it, and not have any drama concerning anything: tickets, canceling shows, or god forbid any horrible accidents.

AMENT: The Vegas show on the U.S. tour was pretty heavy. That afternoon was the first time we'd played the Mother Love Bone song "Crown of Thorns." Kelly and Susan Silver and my parents are there, my whole family, and all of a sudden, playing that song, it was the first time I properly reflected on what we'd gone through and what a journey it's been. And that moment was reflected in a purely positive way, feeling blessed, happy to still be playing music.

FAULKNER: Every hometown return for the band turns into a special event for the charities they work with personally. They make it seem so easy. Every day I drive by the skateboard park that they helped build with their benefit shows. Part of the agreement with local radio is we pick our favorite organization and do a promotion around it which is an actual fundraiser. We had a public service day at a local soup kitchen, we had people do work for tickets, which was the main theme of their [2000] hometown benefit show. It was a great way for their audience to learn how easy it is to actually participate.

WILSON: I saw them in Seattle, the last show of their whole tour. It was incredible. All these incredible versions, different versions of songs, different grooves on songs, big long jams. Pretty much every person during the whole show sang every lyric to every song. And every time Eddie would glance over or look over to our section, every arm went up. Afterwards, I went backstage and Eddie came up to me and was having a million feelings you could tell, cause it was the end of the whole tour, the 'life and death tour.' I said, "I just got so emotional during your show. That was maybe the best show I've ever seen." I saw tears come into his eyes and he was like, "Yeah, I know," and gave me this big hug. It meant so much to him that the night was so good.

GETTING SOME ON THE SIDE
ESSENTIAL PEARL JAM SIDE PROJECTS

TEMPLE OF THE DOG
Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder with Matt Cameron and Chris Cornell A tribute to late Mother Love Bone singer Andy Wood in which his ex-roommate (Cornell) teams up with his ex-bandmates (Ament and Gossard). Olympian guitar solos and intense vocal duets ensue.
OUTPUT: Temple of the Dog, 1991

BRAD
Gossard with Regan Hagar, Shawn Smith, and Jeremy Toback The first true side project is a loose-grooving soul-rock quartet fronted by a guy who sounds like a white Prince understudy.
OUTPUT: Shame, 1993; Interiors, 1997

THREE FISH
Ament with Robbi Robb and Richard Stuverud Chianti-fueled discussions of Sufi poet Rumi and devil-priest Aleister Crowley birth two albums of vaguely Zeppelinesque mystic rawk, tablas and spoken-word segments included.
OUTPUT: Three Fish, 1996; The Quiet Table, 1999

MAD SEASON
McCready with Barrett Martin, Layne Staley, and John Baker Saunders McCready feeds his guitar-solo jones with moonlighting Alice in Chains singer Staley and Screaming Trees drummer Martin. The resulting Above is 55 minutes of dirges like "Lifeless Dead."
OUTPUT: Above, 1995; Live at the Moore (home video), 1995

THE WATT TOUR
Vedder, Mike Watt, Dave Grohl, others A 1995 punk rock roadshow in which Vedder drums with wife Liebling's space-rock trio Hovercraft, then returns to wrangle lead guitar in Watt's band before being chased by screaming, MTV-tipped hordes.
OUTPUT: Bootlegs only. See also Watt's Ball-hog or Tugboat?, 1995

THE QUICK ONES
Vedder with Brad Balsley and Jon Merithew In 1999, Vedder enlists Hobbit-metalists C-Average for a summer vacation of hit-and-run gigs as a punk/garage trio. Shows include a set at the Tibetan Freedom Concert and another as a full-on Who cover band (with Vedder in a Roger Daltrey fright wig) in an Olympia, Washington, wood-shop.
OUTPUT: Bootlegs only

THE ROCKFORDS
McCready with Carrie Akre, Rick and Chris Friel, and Danny Newcomb McCready reunites with guys from his high school band Shadow and updates their Cheap Trick-influenced sound with the big-voiced Akre and a raft of unsettlingly likable pop-rock tunes.
OUTPUT: The Rockfords, 2000 J.L.

CURTIS: With the [live albums], we'd been talking about the idea for years, but it had been prohibitive. We'd always recorded our shows, and now our sound engineer said it could be done cheaply.

ELIASON: For the Europe set, they gave me two weeks to mix 25 shows. In man-hours, it took 15 hours a show. My assistant stayed here at the house and we just went, "Tag, you're it." One slept while the other worked. But it was worth it. We had 14 records in the Top 200! Nobody's ever done that.

BIERMAN: People start collecting shows, and the band knows they're collecting shows, which makes them want to keep changing things, which makes the fans just nuts. "Dirty Frank," from the "Jeremy" single; if that was on a show from the tour, that bootleg would have a huge bump in sales because of that one track. People know the setlist, know how rare things are.

ELIASON: There're no plans in the works regarding older material, but there have been conversations. I've had fans approach me about shows they can't get their hands on. We were in Zurich in February [1992], in a little coffee shop. So we rented guitars and the band put on this show that was amazing. It was voted best performance of the year for Switzerland. [Fans] have been begging for it because that's not out there.

2001: PRESENT TENSE

February 27: Twenty-three more live albums released (from the first leg of 2000's North American tour) March 27: Twenty-four more live albums released (from the second leg of the North American tour) May 1: Touring Band 2000 DVD and video released

CURTIS: The next studio album is our last under our contract. We're not going to re-sign with a major, under current ways of thinking.

GOSSARD: We've kind of played small ball. And it's been great.

GOLDSTONE: Like any great band, there's peaks and valleys. If they continue to do what they want to do, they're going to be one of those bands that's around for 20 years. It's not that easy to achieve.

BONO: I'm a fan of the Pearl Jam organization, of what you might call the culture around the group. It's like the Grateful Dead. We've been thinking a lot about that West Coast way of doing business. I must say, I'm not sure how long U2's going to have the energy to take on the mainstream. And the Pearl Jam/Grateful Dead model is something to be really proud of. They exist entirely unto themselves. They don't depend on the media, don't depend on the radio.

GOSSARD: If we're at all like the Grateful Dead, that's the ultimate-a band believing in their own weird little world and people loving it because it is in a little bit of a vacuum.

TOWNSHEND: What comes across is that Pearl Jam are real and right sized. They have somehow managed to maintain a connection with their audience. They have also watched and learned. They have not stopped just because the creative process got hard, or because tragedy struck.

CORNELL: Better than any other band almost in history to have had that kind of enormous success, they dealt with it really eloquently. I think that set a great example to other musicians that, you know what, you can actually control the media spotlight. I think they stayed vital. The records they made didn't necessarily appeal to the same number of fans who were into Ten, but they appealed to a lot of people. They sold millions of records without having to make videos and without having to do an overhyped press campaign for each record.

VEDDER: I like the way [the DVD] came about, which was very organic. It was people who already worked with us on tour and they would just, once the show would start, drop what they were doing and grab a camera.

CURTIS: In a way, we just made 28 videos, but it was done in a Pearl Jam way.

AMENT: I still don't think we know what's going to happen, but we're much more relaxed about it. We've had a nice little ten-year run.

GOSSARD: Individually, each person in this band has a lot of music in them and what we decide on as a band, as far as what out next record will be. I just never know what's going to happen. I'm sort of hoping for a renaissance. I want to just get in a room together and jam a little bit. See where Ed takes us.

VEDDER: I'm writing on ukulele a lot [lately]. It's an interesting instrument, 'cause it's four strings, and the fewer strings, the more melody, I'm finding. And it's also about the smallest instrument you can play. So I'm just shrinking. As for the future, right now I have the luxury of not thinking about it at all. At the moment everyone is getting to figure out things about themselves. After everything that's happened, it's just really good that we're not trying to do what we usually do right now. That would just be unbearable. But I have a feeling that recording again is going to be a very similar thing. It's going to be the same kind of practice place, and the same kind of walking around, plugging in. And Stone's gonna plug in first and play really loud while the rest of us are trying to talk and say hello. We're gonna yell out, "Does anybody have a tape recorder?" And then they're gonna find a ghetto blaster from the back room, and then we'll play some songs, and we're gonna learn a couple of them, and then I'm gonna go home and drink beer.

Special thanks to Nicole Vandenberg

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ATHLETIC SUPPORTERS:
The Pearl Jam-Sports Connection
By Eric Weisbard

The stereotype is that rockers become rockers because they suck so bad in sports that they have to find some other way to impress people (OK, girls). But Pearl Jam, originally named Mookie Blaylock, after the NBA point guard, have unfailingly embraced athletics of all kinds. "The first year we played pingpong backstage, we actually had standings," says Jeff Ament. "We played for a month, gave everybody a ranking, played doubles matching up the best player with the worst player. We had a real tournament."

Ament, a former college basketball player who in 1994 volunteered to be (CBS commentator) Billy Packer's gopher at the Final Four, hooked Pearl Jam up with Dennis Rodman after interviewing the tattoed rebounder for Slam magazine. Rodman became a regular Pearl Jam scenester for a time: "He's definitely living the life of a rock star, way more so than us," says Ament. "I threw a lot of drinks over my shoulder, just kind of pretending I was going along for the ride. I hung out with him most when the Sonics were playing the Bulls in the finals, to psych him out, make him play bad. Took one for the team there."

Rodman's ties to the group cooled after he drunkenly commandeered the stage in Texas in 1998 and refused to leave. As Susan Silver remembers, "He would go behind Stone and start strumming on the guitar while Stone was playing or just walk in front of Stone and talk about how incredible each guy was. They finally got him a stool and set him in front of the drum kit, leering at Matt from right in front like, 'I don't know you, who are you, show me what you got, prove it.'" (When reached for comment recently, Rodman was completely incomprehensible, then hung up.)

Stone Gossard has his own fan: tennis star Pete Sampras, who has rallied with the band's preppiest member. "For as much tennis as Stone plays, which he probably doesn't have a lot of time, he hits the ball pretty good," says Sampras diplomatically. "Very grounded guys. They don't have any of the attitude that I see a lot when I watch these Behind the Music shows."

Gossard and Ament also take regular snowboarding trips to Alaska. "Landing the helicopter on insane stuff," says Ament. "Honestly, it's the only thing I've done that touches on the rush of having 20,000 people screaming to your music. Snowboarding is skateboarding for old people." Not that Ament has completely abandoned that pursuit: "We actually hooked up a few times recently and skated," says Mudhoney's Steve Turner. "But then my friend broke his arm, I hurt my knee, and Jeff broke his finger. So we stopped."

Eddie Vedder's love of surfing is legendary: he was recently spotted with former world champion Kelly Slater in Australia, where Pearl Jam love to play because they can surf by day and perform at night. McCready boogie boards, and also plays tennis and basketball. "He has skills," says Ament. "He just doesn't have the drive that the rest of us have. It might be that competitive thing." In that category, Vedder reigns supreme. "I'm a good pinball player," says Jim Rose, "and we had a bet that I was gonna kick his ass. There's no way in hell that anybody with Eddie's skills could beat me. He flipped when he should have flapped—but the ball went exactly where it was supposed to go. And he beat me." Ament had a similar experience with the man he towers over. "The last time we played basketball, actually Ed beat me, and he hasn't let me play since. He's holding on to that. He's a competitive guy, man. Everything he does he goes all out."

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MAXIMUM ROCK AND ROLL -
The Ultimate Pearl Jam Mix Tape
By Jessica Letkemann

There's a bounty of Pearl Jam out there—72 full concerts released in the last few months, six studio albums, a conventional live album, and countless singles. But sometimes there's nothing like a good old-fashioned mix tape.

The majority of the versions of these songs are available commercially, while a couple are only available via fan recordings (hint: look online). True to the quintessential Pearl Jam experience—seeing them live—the finished tape echoes the ebb and flow of one of their shows. Now all you need is a blank 90 minute tape ...

Intro: "The Color Red" - from Yield, 1998

1. "Sleight of Hand" - from the 6/16/2000 Spodek; Katowice Poland official bootleg A contemplative ballad to warm things up, the twinkling guitars almost hide it's heart of despair.

2. "Corduroy" - from Vitalogy, 1994 The tried and true mid-period rocker, a song even PJ skeptics enjoy, here in its original form.

3. "Do The Evolution" (live 7/13/98 in L.A.) from Live on Two Legs, 1998 A cool song in its studio incarnation, a carnivorous, howling jam live.

4. "Black Red Yellow" - B-side of import "Hail Hail" single, 1997 Eddie Vedder is a Who superfan, and this obscure b-side seems like it was written in unabashed homage to "I Can See For Miles"-era Townshend. Bonus (?): Dennis Rodman on the answering machine during the solo.

5. "Lukin" - from No Code, 1996 62 seconds of pure punk rock.

6. "Not For You" - (live 1/8/95) from the Hype! soundtrack, 1996 They make like Ragged Glory and pour quarts of hurt into a stomping crescendo of caterwauling guitars.

7. "MFC" - from Yield, 1998 A song about Vedder's love affair with the traffic in Rome—a kinetic, optimistic gem that's made for driving fast.

8. "Romanza/Better Man/(Save It For Later)" - from the 10/7/2000 Detroit official bootleg A favorite triple header: Better Man (with hearty singalong) intro'd by a melancholy instrumental and segueing seamlessly into an amped-up snippet of the English Beat's new wave classic.

9. "Long Road" - from the Merkin Ball single, 1995, with Neil Young A circular guitar elegy. Beautiful.

10. "Breath" - from the Singles soundtrack, 1992 One of those underrated rock-outs from the early days, huge interlocking Gossard-McCready riffs, and soaring Vedder vocals.

11. "Daughter/(Better To Not Be Sane)" - live 4/17/94 at the Paramount Theater, NYC "Daughter" is well received every time PJ plays it, but the "tag" at the end is what makes each version special. This one's an eerie, spoken-in-tongues mantra. Worth searching for.

12. "Black" - (live 9/7/98; Virginia Beach, VA) from Live On Two Legs, 1998 This 1998 reading captures the song's searing squall of love lost, and does the Ten version one better with an extended end-jam that truly smolders.

13. "Even Flow" (alt. studio version) b-side of the import "Alive" single, 1991 Guitarist Stone Gossard has a thing about grooves. This is the paradigm, easily trumping the album version.

14. "Soldier of Love" - (live 9/98) from the 1998 Pearl Jam fan club single Sure, sure, "Last Kiss" is a killer cover, early 60s Top 40 stylee, but so is "Soldier of Love" (a 1962 hit originally by Arthur Alexander) and it's got an even better climax. Cha cha cha!

15. "Angel" - from the 1993 Pearl Jam fan club single Unembellished melancholia on a whisper and an acoustic strum.

16. "Insignificance" - from Binaural, 2000 Trilogies are a Pearl Jam staple. PJ began with a demo trilogy called Mamasan. And the '00 tour saw the rise of the 'Man' trilogy ("Nothingman," "Leatherman," and "Better Man" played back to back). How about a third trilogy? The 'I' trilogy. Here's part one, the rocking, intricate "Insignificance," into:

17. "Immortality" - from Vitalogy, 1994 Ill-at-ease verses, McCready's guitar gently weeping. Confusion ain't next, it's now. Followed by:

18. "Indifference" - (live 4/3/94; Atlanta) from pt. 3 of the import Dissident ep, 1994 A minimalist declaration of ambivalent perseverance complete with cathartic sing-along, "I will scream my lungs out 'til it fills this room."

19. "Hard To Imagine" - (studio, 1993) from the Chicago Cab soundtrack, 1998 A grower that morphs from an arpeggio-driven ballad into a soaring groove-forward jam with a plaintive, repeating chorus.

20. "Blood/(Fame)" - live 10/2/96 Hartford, CT "Blood" is so caustic it's an acquired taste. This version is spiked with an irony-laden quote from David Bowie's "Fame."

21. "Leaving Here" - from the benefit album Home Alive, 1996 An early '60s Motown song with a nifty mini-solo, feminist message.

22. "Porch" - from the 3/17/95 JJJ radio broadcast from Melbourne, Australia "Porch" itself is one of Ten's best songs live, but here the middle-jam is practically an instrumental ep unto itself, moving amoeba-like through various moods.

23. "Baba O'Riley" from the 10/9/2000 Chicago official bootleg No Pearl Jam set is complete without a Who cover. Witness the audience drowning out Vedder on the line "It's only teenage wasteland!" What more needs to be said?

Outro: "Master/Slave" - uncredited Ten hidden track.

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