Hail hail the lucky ones

What's the matter, Stone?

First: do you like zombies? Do you think zombies get a bum rap, that they deserve more respect? Do you think they occupy an important niche in our cultural mosaic? If you find yourself saying "Yeah...HECK YEAH!" then scroll down a ways to a post called "Zombie Freakout!" It's the third one down, just past the Leafs faerie. [Stupid blogspot insists on putting that post third from the top because I started it back in March and made some other posts before finishing it. Stupid blogspot. Or stupid Ryan for not being able to figure out how to reorder his posts.]

Okay, now you're informed on zombies or you just skipped it because you want to read about those handsome gentlemen pictured above. On Wednesday Stevie G and I saw Pearl Jam play at the ACC. I think it's fair to say that for both of us this was a seminal event in our lives; I fell in love with Pearl Jam the first time I heard "Jeremy" back in the heyday of grunge when I was a mere 12 years-old. I take credit for turning Steve on to the band not long after that. Through our teenage years we were the biggest, and for awhile the only, Pearl Jam fans in East Wiltshire Junior High and Bluefield High Schools. We both bought every album the moment it came out, and then proceeded to analyze each one endlessly. When Vitalogy came out in 1994 I wrote a prose poem that made use of all of the song titles. It was on my bedroom wall till just a few years ago when I decided I couldn't bear the reminder of my teenage writing skills anymore. I think love of Pearl Jam was a big factor in both Steve and I learning to play the guitar when we were teenagers. In our minds rock star was clearly the most promising career choice.

I loved Pearl Jam all through high school and into university, but then around the time they released multiple recordings of concerts on CD, my love faded a bit. I'm not completely certain why. I still bought their albums, but not the moment they came out. Riot Act, the last album before the one they're currently touring, really didn't thrill me, and I've probably only played it five or six times. When Steve discovered that tickets were still available for both Toronto concerts, I said I would go but I admit that I hesitated slightly. And even taking the TTC downtown to the ACC on Wednesday I was not as excited as I thought I would be. Going to the concert felt like a symbolic gesture, a nod to past obsession now empty of enthusiasm.

Pearl Jam took the stage not long after the opening act to chants of "Ed-die, Ed-die". In blue lighting they opened with the slowly-building "Release", a song neither Steve nor I predicted they would play. Before they took the stage Steve and I passed the time by coming up with lists of the songs we thought they would play. Steve took the stance that they would play their hits and well-known songs to please the fans. For contrast, I predicted mostly non-hits and less popular songs, relying on the scorn the band has shown through the years for hits and music videos and radio-repetition.

Here's what they played...
Release
Worldwide Suicide
Life Wasted
Severed Hand
Hail Hail
Unemployed
Dissident
Evenflow
Corduroy
I Am Mine
Low Light
The Whipping
You Are
I Got Id
a few bars of Cinnamon Girl
Betterman
Jeremy
Marker in the Sand
Black
Rearviewmirror

[Encore]
Wasted Reprise
Man of the Hour
Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
State of Love and Trust
Do the Evolution
Alive

[Double Encore]
"Don't leave us/Don't go/To-ron-to"
Go
Crazy Mary
Fuckin' Up
Indifference
Yellow Ledbetter, with Beast of Burden mixed in

Steve predicted 14 of those and I got 6. I guess this points to the fact that Pearl Jam has mellowed over the years, and have realized that concerts are about having a good time. There was a time when they were an unhappy bunch and had a reputation for playing without emotion, as though concerts were manual labour. This was in the same period as their crusade against Ticketmaster, and while they're no less politically-motivated these days (Eddie told the crowd during "Fuckin' Up," that "George Bush really likes this song") now that they're in their 40s they clearly like to have fun again. Mike McCready constantly runs around stage and jumps and does funny little dance moves; Jeff Ament punctuates big notes with splay-legged jumps; Eddie Vedder talks to the crowd constantly; Stone Gossard remains comparatively subdued, but bobs his head along to the music (maybe, after all these years, he still has to concentrate to play guitar properly) and I couldn't really see Matt Cameron behind all his drums and cymbals, but there was lots of crashing and banging. They've also added another member, whether permanent full-time or only for now I don't know: keyboardist Boom Kasper. From where we were sitting he looked like some flabby-armed, grey-bearded, long-haired biker pounding away on a piano like it was his opponent in a bar brawl. I really don't know how he managed to play it properly while carrying on like that, but for the most part I couldn't hear his contribution. I don't think he really fits with the band, but hey, as long as he doesn't wreck the music...

So they rocked on through 30-odd songs over 3 hours. In addition to blistering crescendos in practically every song, the show had lots of the little things that make a concert entertaining. In "Evenflow" Eddie said "Check this shit" before Mike launched into a behind-the-head guitar solo. "Jeremy," a song that foreshadowed the Columbine school shootings, ended with Jeff playing an eerie riff while lit by a red spotlight. The crowd practically sang "Betterman" all by itself (this is my absolute least-favourite Pearl Jam song, but I sang along too). The band payed several tributes to "Uncle Neil," from Eddie playing a few solo bars of "Cinnamon Girl," to the song "I Got Id" from the Pearl Jam/Neil Young Merkin Ball release, to "Fuckin' Up"---a cover that is actually better than the original in my mind. Eddie got the crowd to shout "Happy Birthday, Sean!" which was recorded for sending to Sean Kinney, the drummer of Alice in Chains, currently on tour in Portugal (I didn't even know they were still together). Eddie made a few "global village" comments, such as pointing out the person in the stands behind the stage waving the Brazillian flag and the person in front waving a Canadian one, and comemorating the crowd as "so many individuals, with so many variables, that coming together like this is something special".

Just like sitting through a friend's photos and stories from a vacation to Europe, it's hard to share the enthusiasm and awe of a concert without having been in the crowd, so I'll halt the praise train right about here. Suffice to say the show totally renewed my appreciation for the band. I stood through most of it, sang along, bobbed my head...maybe not as physically compelling an experience for me as it was for the girl to my right, who shouted and jumped and seemed about to tear her clothes off, or the fat ball-capped guy in front of me who played an imaginary drum set and shook his head and generally seemed to be in the throes of something mystical. But man, I felt it.

I was particularly appreciative of the tributes to Neil Young and the brief one to the Stones, tying together three of my all-time favourite artists. If there is a "Big Four" group of concerts I must see in my life, I've now seen three of them: Nine Inch Nails (spring, 2000), The Rolling Stones (last September) and now Pearl Jam. Only Neil Young remains, and I fear that this will be the most difficult one to get to, with his age and smaller and smaller tour schedule. Not that he isn't still producing music---just yesterday while picking up the new Pearl Jam and Red Hot Chili Peppers CDs I saw that he has yet another album out: Living With War. By the album and song titles it's clearly very current affairs, which, in Neil's case, can mean it's a groaner (like "Let's Roll" the song he released after 9/11) or a gem (like "Ohio," his classic about the Kent State shootings in the early 70s). Fanning out beyond the big four, I'd really like to see the Chili Peppers (new album=new tour, so maybe they're next), Tool (new album out, but Toronto show already sold out), Radiohead (no idea), Queens of the Stone Age (just missed them), Coldplay (no idea), Bob Marley (he's dead...) and the list goes on. A little ways down that list is INXS, whom I happen to be seeing in a few hours, again with Steve at the ACC. I like INXS, and have enjoyed their 80s swagger since I got Kick on tape when I was 8. However, I feel a bit smarmed by the way they used a reality TV show to put themselves back in the spotlight. Of their new singles, I like "Pretty Vegas" but "Afterglow" is too schmaltzy. Nonetheless, Steve assures me the album is good, and hopefully they'll play a few of their classics tonight, though it will be different without Michael Hutchence singing them. And both Steve and I have recognized that after having finally seen the band that has been a major focus of our friendship through the years, anything else is a little anti-climactic.

Why do I keep fuckin' up?