The Marathon is Almost Over
Pearl Jam’s at Hersheypark Stadium tonight, for the 68th show on a tour that started more than five months ago in Perth, Australia, and ends a week from today in Mexico City. In between, there have been stops in towns as diverse as Council Bluffs, Iowa, Fargo, N.D., and New York City. But the true marathon started more than three years ago, on June 30, 2000, in Roskilde, Denmark. A glorious tour of Europe was on its 26th show when the crowd got out of control and surged toward the stage. Nine people died in the crush, an event that shook the band to its core.
It was just the beginning of emotionally wrenching times. The press reported that Pearl Jam was attacked in a statement from Danish police, only to have it explained away as a mistranslation of a letter from Danish to English. In typical fashion, the bad translation was front-page news. The retraction was buried.
After a month of considerable soul searching — during which the band nearly called it quits — the U.S.leg of the tour continued. There were emotional shows, especially the first one in Virginia Beach, a Las Vegas show during which the band celebrated the 10th anniversary of its first gig, and the tour finale at home in Seattle. As that tour ended, there was political disappointment, with George W.Bush ascending to the presidency in a questionable Florida vote. Pearl Jam had done everything it could to bring out voters for the election. To see it decided by a few hanging chads with such a low voter turnout was heartbreaking, never mind that the band had worked to support Ralph Nader’s candidacy.
In 2001, Joey Ramone died. Airplanes brought down the World Trade Center towers and a chunk of the Pentagon. The United States went to war in Afghanistan.
In 2002, Layne Staley of Alice in Chains died. A Seattle contemporary and longtime friend and collaborator of guitarist Mike McCready’s, he succumbed to heroin addiction. Two more of the band’s musical heroes died in drug-related deaths, John Entwistle of The Who and Dee Dee Ramone, Joey’s bandmate. Then Joe Strummer, the influential guitarist of The Clash, died unexpectedly at year’s end. Strummer and his band, The Mescaleros,were expected to open for some of Pearl Jam’s dates on this tour.
As 2003 began, a close friend of the band, Pete Townshend of The Who, was arrested on child pornography charges. Again,the fact he was arrested was huge news; the fact he was subsequently cleared went relatively unreported.
The ardent non-violent-yet-pro- America band members then not only had to see their country wage war, but were subjected to media abuse and a Dixie Chicks-like witch hunt. During the first U.S.show, in Denver,Eddie Vedder hung a rubber George W.Bush mask on a microphone stand, as he always has when performing the song Bu$hleaguer (just watch the DVD Live From The Showbox, recorded in December). Suddenly, his actions were portrayed as “impaling” the mask — impaling the president,by god! — and the public whippings were on.
Strong shoulders It’s enough to challenge one’s resiliency. But this band is nothing if not resilient, and good things seem to come from that strength. Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard seemed on the verge of stardom as two-thirds of Mother Love Bone in 1990 when their lead singer, Andrew Wood, died of an overdose. From that darkness came a new light in a new singer, Vedder.
Pearl Jam was a record-setting act, a band able to sell 18 million albums over its first two releases, when it decided to battle Ticketmaster’s concert venue monopoly. By the time the dust settled, the “fans” in it for the trendiness of Pearl Jam had moved on to The Next Big Thing. Despite making remarkably vital and innovative music, the combined sales of the band’s last five studio albums can’t match the sales of its debut alone. But what the band got in return was an easing of the oppressive crush of stardom, something that looks so appealing to the outsider but can be strangling to guys like this.
“It did change us personally [in the mid-90s ],” McCready said in a recent interview. “We stopped doing interviews, stopped doing videos. It was tough. But while I say I’d like to sell 2 million or 3 million copies of the new record, at the same time, I’m pretty comfortable with my life, and happy. When we get together, we can still make good music. It’s more relaxed.”
Free of the spotlight, they were able to more easily reward their faithful fans. Artistically, they were able to steer clear of the yokes of being standard-bearers for any genre. Instead, they were able to concentrate on being inarguably the best American rock’n’roll band. In fact, thousands of fans will leave tonight convinced they’re the best rock’n’roll band in the world. Period. On Riot Act, the band’s latest album, Pearl Jam was able to address some of the darkness of these last three years. On the song “Love Boat Captain” ? which helped bring aboard a new member of the band, Boom Gaspar on Hammond B-3 organ ? Vedder writes about that horrible day in Denmark. It’s an art to live with pain //mix the light into grey //lost nine friends we’ll never know //two years ago today //and if our lives become too long //will it add to our regret?
Again with passion It was inevitable that all of this would show up in the music. The band has been covering a Joe Strummer tune, “Know Your Rights,” which is especially poignant given the fact the band’s right to free speech took a beating with the Bush mask. There have been Ramones covers. Who covers. But the effect is even deeper.
McCready, hailed as a modern blues master bringing Hendrix-like cries to rock’n’roll, said it’s inevitable that the anguish has affected his solos. “I think the more angst affects the music,” he said. “Definitely, the Roskilde thing affected me, and definitely 9/11 did. But it’s more like the personal stuff, the darkness, that comes out in the music. Sort of middle class,white guy blues,I guess.”
McCready’s playing has been dazzling on this tour. During a recent show in stifling heat, he stalked the stage with ferocity, undoubtedly replicating his new workout regiment of 4-and 5-mile runs just in the build-up before even playing his solos. He’s noticed that intensity around him as well. “Matt [Cameron ] has made us 100 percent better as a band,” McCready said of the drummer who joined Pearl Jam in 1998." He’s really a phenomenal, stable drummer. When he was with Soundgarden, he was my favorite. “Playing live, he and Jeff really lock up. Now, I see Jeff and Matt nonverbally communicating, and they’re just tearing it up. That frees Eddie to just sing his ass off, and it frees me up to play. Stone and Jeff and Matt together are just awesome.”
The band has had good drummers ? a lot of them ? but with Cameron’s energetic workouts, Pearl Jam finally has a drummer who’s as good at what he does as the other players are in their positions. He’s so admired in the industry that he could work non-stop with rock’s top artists if he had the time. Watching him, you’ll believe he has the strength keep going forever. “Hopefully, he’s the last one in the line of Pearl Jam drummers,” McCready said. “We’ve definitely had our Spinal Tap-ish moments with drummers.” Cameron is the fifth.
Ament brings Cameron-like intensity to the stage, playing an amazing bass that keeps the swirling guitars going down the right road. And no bassist in the business does a Pete Townshend leap like Ament. McCready’s amazing improvisation is so loaded with rock’n’roll fluency that a collection of his solos from a show can be a veritable tour of the great guitar licks in rock history. Listening to various “official bootlegs” from the tours, the song that will amaze you most is “Yellow Ledbetter.” A showcase for McCready, the solo work varies greatly from one show to the next depending on mood and intensity of the show. His solos have been laid-back grooves one night, fierce rages the next. McCready’s solos at times have overshadowed the terrific work done at the other end of the stage by Gossard. A crowd favorite is the lead lick he plays with dramatic flair on “Do The Evolution.” Gossard has more hooks at his command than a pro fisherman. Watch him closely tonight, then make sure you listen to the CD from the show (available for immediate download tomorrow at www.pearljambootlegs. com) on a good stereo. By isolating the sound from stage left, you’ll truly hear how many of the memorable guitar parts from Pearl Jam’s discography come from Gossard.
The voice Then there’s Vedder. Possessing great chops on guitar ? he plays his share of intro licks for the band,including the opening to “Corduroy” ? Vedder also has one of the signature voices in rock’n’roll history. Husky and rich, able to make you cry on “The Long Road,” able to take your spirits to the sky with “Given to Fly.” He’s been a lightning rod for adoration and criticism for the very same reason: He brings an unbridled passion to his singing, and a courageous commitment to social causes.
He’ll politely thank the audience for listening as he sings and speaks out against war. In Australia, he presented the cause of saving a treasured coral reef. In Missoula, Mont., a university town, he talked of going back to college and having the only required courses being the courses he required. In Arizona, a state with a crisis in education funding, he ad-libbed a verse of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” by singing, “Get more teachers to teach your kids //Pay them something so that they can live.” In Charlotte, N.C., a state that’s home to two of the largest military bases in the country, he questioned how half of the tax money in the country could go to the military yet soldiers dying for their country were barely making more than minimum wage.
Vedder has tirelessly given his time and his voice to a multitude of causes, but more importantly for you tonight, he’s given his voice to some amazing songs. From the soaring emotion of “Release” to the screams of “Lukin,” he invariably takes the audience on a memorable ride. The crowd will sing along with every word of the songs then hang on every word as he speaks, unsure of whether he will launch into a tirade, a touching story or a side-splitting joke. Sometimes it blows up in the band’s face, as it did in Denver, when Pearl Jam was somehow painted as un-American because of the way Vedder hung a mask on a mike stand.
“I wrote a song called ’Last Soldier,’ about the last soldier in America going off to war,” pointed out McCready, whose father was in the Navy. "I wrote it for the Neil Young (Bridge School) benefit. So, we’ve written both sides of that issue. “But people are still listening and paying attention. That’s the important thing.”
That’s because listening and paying attention have always brought such a big payoff to Pearl Jam fans. Tonight should be no different. Enjoy.
Meta
- Author: Tracy Collins
- Source: The Patriot-News
- Date Published: 2003-7-12
- Added to Database: 2003-07-17