Pearl Jam

There was an interesting program on Music Max today about the top 50 albums of the 90's. This interested me as this is my favourite music period. Whilst I did not have much time to follow the full program, I did see about an hour of it and was in time to see them feature "Vitalogy"

I still remember buying this CD from my local record store back in the days where i would scour for my collection. The cardboard cover meant that it did not fit into my CD rack and I had to sit it on the floor of my stand.

Vitalogy Cover

I still remember one particular Thursday night back in uni days where a friend and I were at uni bar having a few drinks and we were talking about Pearl Jam touring and playing that night, only a few hundred meters away. The show was sold out months before but we took our chances and headed to the Entertainment Centre and tried to secure a couple of tickets. Ended up paying $100 each for a ticket from a scalper not even knowing where we were sitting. This was quite a massive investment for the time as was about twice retail price.

We entered the venue about 2 or 3 songs in and were ushered to our seats - first tier, Front row center. You could not have found better seats (although there was a large standing moshpit in front of us). We really enjoyed ourselves and the gig and in hindsight it was money well spent.

A few months later I was playing pool with some old school friends and picked "Spin the Black Circle" from the dukebox. They looked at me as if I was from another planet and could not understand how I could listen to such fast paced and alternative music.

Pearl Jam are a band that I have had alot of fun with and one of the bands that defined the 90's for me, yet I still would not put them up there with my favourite bands or call myself a die hard fan. Nonetheless, I still think they were a quality outfit and well worth a listen.