It’s not all that remarkable for a band to make it to 20 years. Plenty do, pulling in nostalgia on the casino/state fair circuit, doing hits with scant original members. What is remarkable about Pearl Jam making it to 20 years is that they are wholly intact, and as charged as they ever were in the bloom of their career in the early ’90s.
This past weekend the band celebrated their big 2-0 with a destination festival at Alpine Valley, an outdoor amphitheatre in East Troy, Wis., two hours from Chicago — a massive hillside venue nestled amid a ski resort. Pearl Jam packed each day with 12-plus hours of music from friends and favorites — with the earlier part of the day given to lesser-knowns (Liam Finn, Joseph Arthur), pet projects (guitarist Mike McCready’s discovery, Star Anna) and influences (X frontman John Doe).
On Saturday, the rain-or-shine event continued in spite of a major thunderstorm, which kept crowds at bay until the support bands in the evening began taking the main stage. Early arrivals with lawn seats were soaked, biding their time with foot-tall margaritas in guitar-shaped cups from concessions, clad in rain ponchos fashioned from trash bags. Others queued indoors to tour the Pearl Jam poster museum.
The rain passed and a crowd amassed, quietly tolerating Mudhoney, Pearl Jam’s peers from Seattle’s grunge boom who’ve had a different career trajectory than Vedder & Co. Undaunted, they are now in their 23rd year as a club band — though in as fine form as ever.
Desert-glam band Queens of the Stone Age followed and tapped the crowd with their radio-hits, frontman Josh Homme spoke to the crowd in the language of party — winding them up and chugging freely from a bottle of vodka between songs. New York City quintet the Strokes followed, with frontman Julian Casablancas offering a surprising tribute to the headliners. “They were the first band I played along with and recorded myself singing to. He’s got the best voice. I would sing along and that’s how I realized I really couldn’t sing,” he said.
Casablancas, swaggering with cool remove, clad in neon shoes and nighttime sunglasses, was soon cowed by the onstage appearance of his hero, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who dueted with him on the Strokes’ “Juicebox.” Casablancas evidenced his reverie as real, going limp and shy in Vedder’s presence.
When Pearl Jam took the stage, it became clear that there was no such thing as a casual Pearl Jam fan — at least not Pearl Jam at 20. If anyone in the audience wasn’t singing (or screaming) along with Vedder’s every bellow and sigh, it was because they were either in a distant Porta-Potty or passed out on the slick slopes of the lawn. While fans obviously love the band’s music, it is Vedder, the consummate un-rock star, who commands them; his voice unmarked by the past two decades of touring and recording, his earnest onstage banter downright corny.
The band careened through crowd favorites (though, seemingly, they all are) and none of the familiar hits in their 28-song, 2½-hour set. In their, uh, old age, the band is burrowing closer to their teenage punk roots — bounding around the stage, tearing through their twitchy anti-anthems of discontent, Vedder flipping the finger when he sings of “the man upstairs.” Perhaps it is the security of their relationship — the fans and the band so obviously, and equally, dedicated to each other — that frees them to be whatever they want, rather than beholden to hits, poses and all the traditional bombast.
A few songs into their set, Vedder brought Liam Finn and Swell Season frontman Glen Hansard to the stage, along with Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters on a second kit to join them for “Who You Are.” Casablancas, Homme and Finn soon followed with their turns at duets — Finn being the only one who truly held his own against Vedder’s booming voice.
Soon enough, the audience got the cameo they’d been waiting for — the heavily rumored Temple of the Dog reunion — which is Pearl Jam augmented by Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell; the side project has only ever played rare one-offs since releasing their album in 1991. The well-preserved Cornell covered “Stardog Champion” by pre-Pearl Jam band Mother Love Bone, and then three Temple of the Dog songs. Vedder returned Finn and Hansard to the stage to sing as backups, but when you have heavyweights like Cornell and Vedder, in dueling crescendo, everything — and everyone else — is moot.
This past weekend the band celebrated their big 2-0 with a destination festival at Alpine Valley, an outdoor amphitheatre in East Troy, Wis., two hours from Chicago — a massive hillside venue nestled amid a ski resort. Pearl Jam packed each day with 12-plus hours of music from friends and favorites — with the earlier part of the day given to lesser-knowns (Liam Finn, Joseph Arthur), pet projects (guitarist Mike McCready’s discovery, Star Anna) and influences (X frontman John Doe).
On Saturday, the rain-or-shine event continued in spite of a major thunderstorm, which kept crowds at bay until the support bands in the evening began taking the main stage. Early arrivals with lawn seats were soaked, biding their time with foot-tall margaritas in guitar-shaped cups from concessions, clad in rain ponchos fashioned from trash bags. Others queued indoors to tour the Pearl Jam poster museum.
The rain passed and a crowd amassed, quietly tolerating Mudhoney, Pearl Jam’s peers from Seattle’s grunge boom who’ve had a different career trajectory than Vedder & Co. Undaunted, they are now in their 23rd year as a club band — though in as fine form as ever.
Desert-glam band Queens of the Stone Age followed and tapped the crowd with their radio-hits, frontman Josh Homme spoke to the crowd in the language of party — winding them up and chugging freely from a bottle of vodka between songs. New York City quintet the Strokes followed, with frontman Julian Casablancas offering a surprising tribute to the headliners. “They were the first band I played along with and recorded myself singing to. He’s got the best voice. I would sing along and that’s how I realized I really couldn’t sing,” he said.
Casablancas, swaggering with cool remove, clad in neon shoes and nighttime sunglasses, was soon cowed by the onstage appearance of his hero, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who dueted with him on the Strokes’ “Juicebox.” Casablancas evidenced his reverie as real, going limp and shy in Vedder’s presence.
When Pearl Jam took the stage, it became clear that there was no such thing as a casual Pearl Jam fan — at least not Pearl Jam at 20. If anyone in the audience wasn’t singing (or screaming) along with Vedder’s every bellow and sigh, it was because they were either in a distant Porta-Potty or passed out on the slick slopes of the lawn. While fans obviously love the band’s music, it is Vedder, the consummate un-rock star, who commands them; his voice unmarked by the past two decades of touring and recording, his earnest onstage banter downright corny.
The band careened through crowd favorites (though, seemingly, they all are) and none of the familiar hits in their 28-song, 2½-hour set. In their, uh, old age, the band is burrowing closer to their teenage punk roots — bounding around the stage, tearing through their twitchy anti-anthems of discontent, Vedder flipping the finger when he sings of “the man upstairs.” Perhaps it is the security of their relationship — the fans and the band so obviously, and equally, dedicated to each other — that frees them to be whatever they want, rather than beholden to hits, poses and all the traditional bombast.
A few songs into their set, Vedder brought Liam Finn and Swell Season frontman Glen Hansard to the stage, along with Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters on a second kit to join them for “Who You Are.” Casablancas, Homme and Finn soon followed with their turns at duets — Finn being the only one who truly held his own against Vedder’s booming voice.
Soon enough, the audience got the cameo they’d been waiting for — the heavily rumored Temple of the Dog reunion — which is Pearl Jam augmented by Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell; the side project has only ever played rare one-offs since releasing their album in 1991. The well-preserved Cornell covered “Stardog Champion” by pre-Pearl Jam band Mother Love Bone, and then three Temple of the Dog songs. Vedder returned Finn and Hansard to the stage to sing as backups, but when you have heavyweights like Cornell and Vedder, in dueling crescendo, everything — and everyone else — is moot.
