ON PEARL JAM

Today is the re-issue of Pearl Jam's classic album "Ten." When it originally came out in 1991, I wouldn't have anything to do with the band. I was still very much into hair metal, and was still buying tapes from bands like Trixter and Britny Fox. The grunge revolution started without me. As I mentioned last week regarding Def Leppard - I started to get into the bands that my brother listened to, and, despite his copy of Nirvana's "Nevermind," he never really got into grunge, so I didn't either.

A few years later, Pearl Jam's "Vs." came out, and I continued to avoid them. By that time, I was starting to form my own opinions about music, and my opinion, stolen from people I worked with, was that any "trendy" music couldn't possibly be good. And I considered Pearl Jam trendy. I hated the song "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" based on its title, although I had to admit the refrain is catchy (it didn't help matters that a cute girl had copied down all the lyrics to the song and I didn't know how to get her attention in a way that DIDN'T involve mocking the song).

Some years after that, "Vitalogy" came out, and while other people I worked with were coming around, I wasn't having it. I went off to college, content to listen to Everclear, Jewel, and Sheryl Crow. At home over breaks, I would get together with friends to play cards. During these marathon sessions, Pearl Jam would inevitably shuffle through the CD player. And I realized: I liked these songs. A lot. Granted, I had the lyrics completely wrong..."Don't go on me" COULD have been "stomp the wombat," but it seems unlikely, doesn't it?

So I finally got some Pearl Jam CD's. And then I listened to the live CD of their performance in Chicago, recorded in October of 2000, and I realized that they were an excellent live band. I soon became a huge fan, getting not just their studio releases, but also a surprisingly large number of their live shows. I went with friends to Vegas in 2003 and saw Pearl Jam perform, then saw then less than two weeks later in Chicago. Both shows were fantastic for different reasons, and I realized that Pearl Jam was my favorite band.

Their eponymous CD, released in 2006, is great, hearkening back to the days when they produced straight-ahead rock. I put it up there with "Ten" and "Vs." as my favorite Pearl Jam albums. I purchased their double CD of rarities, their double CD of Greatest Hits, and four DVD's.

Today, my iPod has over thirty hours of Pearl Jam on it. I am planning on picking up the re-issue of "Ten" and the accompanying DVD, including their MTV "Unplugged" performance. And I am currently downloading the "Ten" album to play along with in the game "Rock Band 2." Considering how much I didn't care for them - admittedly for stupid reasons - it's kind of shocking how much I enjoy their work now.

All of this serves as proof that 13 year-old Brad was an idiot. And that 30 year-old Brad finally got to use the word "eponymous."