Ain't No Party Like A Pearl Jam Party

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on May 18, 2011 3:20PM

Pearl Jam is celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band this year. The festivities kicked off a few months ago with the dual re-release of Vs. and Vitalogoy, arguably two of the band's strongest albums (more on that in a bit) and have now revved into high gear with the announcement of a sort of PJ-palozza at Alpine Valley a few miles north of us in September.

In the early '90s, Pearl Jam became the face of that whole grunge thing, and it was obvious that while the group certainly wanted to be heard, the level of fame they actually achieved was hard for them to deal with at first. This was sonically most obvious in the somewhat staid classic rock of their debut and launchpad, Ten, being followed by the quick one-two punch of the far more aggressive (and at times willfully weird) albums Vs. and Vitalogy. Vs. was the sound of a young band finally incorporating their influences and successfully melding punk desperation with the epic arena rock they were famous for. Vitaology pushed the envelope further by amping up the anger and allowing the band to delve into the sort of sonic experimentation you'd expect on an indie-rock b-side and not a major label offering from one of the biggest bands in the world.

The recent re-release of those two albums finds them sounding surprisingly fresh, and they're augmented by a third disc of a mostly complete recording of Orpheum Theatre show in 1994 that showcases the band at the height of their powers in the first wave of their career. We urge fans who might not have been around in the band's earlier days to give this recording a spin since it showcases just how elastic and electric the band was at the time. While the Pearl Jam of today is still a massive live spectacle (and we are of the camp that believes the band is better live than on album) in the mid-'90s the band was channeling electricity from from some deeper, darker place and the results are astounding.

So here we are, twenty years after the band began, and they've decided to throw themselves a little party for making it this long. Luckily for us they've chosen Alpine Valley, a few miles north of the Wisconsin border, to stage this soiree; not totally surprising since Vedder is an Evanston native. Even more luckily for us they're putting together a knock-out line-up including The Strokes, Queens of the Stone Age, Mudhoney, John Doe, Joseph Arthur, Glen Hansard, Liam Finn, David Garza and Grandaddy's Jason Lytle. And they're hints that there may be more. many of the groups on the bill are longtime friends or influences -- one nice touch is Mudhoney, who actually appears on the aforementioned 1994 Orpheum recording -- indicating that the band is engineering a show they would actually want to attend themselves. It appears as if Pearl jam has finally grown comfortable with their celebrity and are using it to their, and their fans', advantage.

The PJ Destination Weekend will be on September 3 and 4 at Alpine Valley in Troy, Wisconsin. Tickets come in a variety of packages and options and go on sale to Ten Club members this Monday, May 24, and to the general public on June 4. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to charity.