Last night I was cruising the “what’s new” on Netflix streaming and came across Pearl Jam Twenty. I had planned to try and turn in a little early, but once I started watching I couldn’t stop. Pearl Jam’s Ten album was the first cassette I had ever bought and one of my all time favorites. I remember popping that tape in and falling asleep to it many times.
The film opens with early footage of Mother Love Bone. I had known that some of the members of Mother Love Bone had later formed Pearl Jam, but I didn’t know anything about the death of their lead singer Andy Wood. Interviews from band members and Chris Cornell go over his life and final days and at one point Chris is nearly in tears. You really get a sense that these guys were extremely close.
Next we see Eddie Vedder come into the picture, this shy dude with tremendous creativity and that distinctive voice. It was awesome watching some of their early shows. Eddie seems like this tortured soul just putting everything out there through his music. Then things get weird…you see Eddie start to transform into this intense sometimes chaotic character…climbing the stage and diving into the crowd. As the band begins to gain popularity and merge into the mainstream you see Eddie starting to question if the band is growing into something he didn’t want to be a part of. I remember watching another band documentary on Green Day and they struggled with the same issue, dealing with alienating their core audience and trying stay true to their music. As the band starts to come apart at the seams, Neil Young reaches out the them and becomes somewhat of a mentor for Eddie. Seems like Neil deserves some real credit for keeping the band together and getting them back on the right path.
The second half of the film goes into the stories behind the band’s other players, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Matt Cameron, and a brief overview of the other various drummers they’ve had. We also see the tragedy of Roskilde Festival where 9 people were crushed and killed when the crowd pushed forward during Pearl Jam’s set. I’ve skipped over a few bits, like the Ticketmaster dispute and some of the humanitarian efforts the band was involved in, but I wasn’t interested in that stuff…I was more interested in the personal side and watching the band and the music evolve.
Overall I loved the film. What I took away from this movie/film/documentary:
- Pearl Jam is the real deal, they believe in their art.
- Gotta listen to some Neil Young!
- Time to queue up Ten and be 13 again, if only for a little while
