Film Review: Pearl Jam Twenty
For as long as Rock n Roll has existed, there have been tragic, dramatic stories of rock bands. Bands come and go every day; very few become successful, and even fewer stay together long enough to enjoy that success.
To say that Pearl Jam is a rarity is an understatement.
The Billboard charts are full of disposable acts and instant celebrities; people who can barely hold a note, much less an instrument. Any jerk with a laptop can make music these days, and any paparazzi darling can be auto-tuned to death.
That is not this band. Pearl Jam is made up of a group of guys who, for example, learned how to play bass as a kid by putting on a record and turning the stereo knob all the way to the left so that he could learn the bass-line of a song. Guys who sweated it out in tiny clubs and basements, who saw their first lead singer die of a drug overdose, who watched their next lead singer (literally) swing from the rafters night after night, because his rock n roll spirit compelled him to do so. These are guys who write their own music, build their own path, and take on The Man (damn the consequences).
This is the story of the last great American Rock band.
Cameron Crowe is a major film director who also happens to be a big fan of music. His love of music comes through in his work; everything from Say Anything, to Singles, to Almost Famous. Crowe is a big fan of Pearl Jam (members of the band appear in the movie Singles) making him the perfect person to direct their twenty-year story.
The band, like many other bands of their era, struggled for years on the Seattle music scene. It was a close-knit community; supportive of one another in ways not seen in New York or LA. (Soundgarden's Chris Cornell once roomed with Mother Love Bone's Andrew Wood. They would play songs for one another, bounce around ideas, and play together.)
The untimely death of Andrew Wood in 1990 left a gaping hole in that community. The interviews with Cornell, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and even Eddie Vedder make it clear that Wood's presence is still felt, that he was born to be a rock star.(Vedder's tribute to Mother Love Bone later in the film is heartening and beautiful.)
As most people know, Gossard and Ament, along with the world's most underrated guitarist, Mike McCready, would go on to form a new band in 1990 with a singer/surfer from Southern California named Eddie Vedder. These same four guys are still together today (along with Soundgarden's Matt Cameron, who is the last in a very long line of drummers).
Pearl Jam, as everyone knows, went on to become wildly successful in the 1990's. The "Grunge" movement peaked in that decade, with bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden at the forefront. The documentary touches on that success with the same low-key, skeptical attitude that the band itself has toward it. (In one very memorable scene, Gossard finds a Grammy award in his basement, shoved into a corner, covered in dust with an electrical cord wrapped around it.)
The most fascinating part of this documentary is watching (literally - Crowe has footage of nearly everything) the band evolve from a group of twenty-something musicians who play drunk onstage and leap into throbbing, sweaty crowds, to the men they are today - still, in many ways the same guys, but with two decades of experience, on the road and off. Their relationship with fame has shifted too; no longer using their energy to rail against The Man in the same way (the band plays for benefits constantly, and throws their support behind a myriad of causes, from voting rights to the West Memphis Three). And there is no doubt at all that the band has been forever changed by the Roskilde tragedy in 2000 (in which nine fans were crushed to death during the band's set at a music festival in Denmark).
The story is one that will compel any music fan, but the rare footage that Crowe shows - that is for Pearl Jam fans.
Crowe shows us everything from PJ's first ever live performance (the band performed Alive just six days after Vedder joined the band) to a disastrous MTV appearance that never made it to air (the entire band was drunk, and Vedder drops the f-bomb about fifty times). It's amazing, actually, just how much footage there is; it seems like everything was documented. Intertwined with all of this archival footage is more recent footage of the band in concert. The older film of the band playing tiny clubs is fantastic, but it's the footage of the band playing "Better Man" at Madison Square Garden that will choke you up - it's truly a beautiful moment.
Twenty years is a long lifespan for a band. There are very few contemporary bands left who still have their original members, who have never, ever broken up (Pearl Jam did come close a time or two) and who still crank out fantastic rock music, who still tour relentlessly, who still have a huge, loyal fanbase who attend multiple shows a year (The band never does the same setlist twice - another thing that sets them apart from most). Those who say that Pearl Jam is no longer relevant "because Grunge is dead" don't realize that Pearl Jam was never a "Grunge" band; they're a Rock band, and they don't write disposable hits, they write Rock music. They are one of the best bands in history, and I don't think it's an overstatement to say that they are our generation's The Who or even Zeppelin. When you turn on the radio twenty years from now, you'll hear "Better Man" or "Indifference" or "Just Breathe" or "Jeremy" and they will sound both relevant and classic.
And the band will probably still be rocking.
Pearl Jam Twenty
In Limited Release
http://www.pj20.com/
A+
.
To say that Pearl Jam is a rarity is an understatement.
The Billboard charts are full of disposable acts and instant celebrities; people who can barely hold a note, much less an instrument. Any jerk with a laptop can make music these days, and any paparazzi darling can be auto-tuned to death.
That is not this band. Pearl Jam is made up of a group of guys who, for example, learned how to play bass as a kid by putting on a record and turning the stereo knob all the way to the left so that he could learn the bass-line of a song. Guys who sweated it out in tiny clubs and basements, who saw their first lead singer die of a drug overdose, who watched their next lead singer (literally) swing from the rafters night after night, because his rock n roll spirit compelled him to do so. These are guys who write their own music, build their own path, and take on The Man (damn the consequences).
This is the story of the last great American Rock band.
Cameron Crowe is a major film director who also happens to be a big fan of music. His love of music comes through in his work; everything from Say Anything, to Singles, to Almost Famous. Crowe is a big fan of Pearl Jam (members of the band appear in the movie Singles) making him the perfect person to direct their twenty-year story.
The band, like many other bands of their era, struggled for years on the Seattle music scene. It was a close-knit community; supportive of one another in ways not seen in New York or LA. (Soundgarden's Chris Cornell once roomed with Mother Love Bone's Andrew Wood. They would play songs for one another, bounce around ideas, and play together.)
The untimely death of Andrew Wood in 1990 left a gaping hole in that community. The interviews with Cornell, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and even Eddie Vedder make it clear that Wood's presence is still felt, that he was born to be a rock star.(Vedder's tribute to Mother Love Bone later in the film is heartening and beautiful.)
As most people know, Gossard and Ament, along with the world's most underrated guitarist, Mike McCready, would go on to form a new band in 1990 with a singer/surfer from Southern California named Eddie Vedder. These same four guys are still together today (along with Soundgarden's Matt Cameron, who is the last in a very long line of drummers).
Pearl Jam, as everyone knows, went on to become wildly successful in the 1990's. The "Grunge" movement peaked in that decade, with bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden at the forefront. The documentary touches on that success with the same low-key, skeptical attitude that the band itself has toward it. (In one very memorable scene, Gossard finds a Grammy award in his basement, shoved into a corner, covered in dust with an electrical cord wrapped around it.)
The most fascinating part of this documentary is watching (literally - Crowe has footage of nearly everything) the band evolve from a group of twenty-something musicians who play drunk onstage and leap into throbbing, sweaty crowds, to the men they are today - still, in many ways the same guys, but with two decades of experience, on the road and off. Their relationship with fame has shifted too; no longer using their energy to rail against The Man in the same way (the band plays for benefits constantly, and throws their support behind a myriad of causes, from voting rights to the West Memphis Three). And there is no doubt at all that the band has been forever changed by the Roskilde tragedy in 2000 (in which nine fans were crushed to death during the band's set at a music festival in Denmark).
The story is one that will compel any music fan, but the rare footage that Crowe shows - that is for Pearl Jam fans.
Crowe shows us everything from PJ's first ever live performance (the band performed Alive just six days after Vedder joined the band) to a disastrous MTV appearance that never made it to air (the entire band was drunk, and Vedder drops the f-bomb about fifty times). It's amazing, actually, just how much footage there is; it seems like everything was documented. Intertwined with all of this archival footage is more recent footage of the band in concert. The older film of the band playing tiny clubs is fantastic, but it's the footage of the band playing "Better Man" at Madison Square Garden that will choke you up - it's truly a beautiful moment.
Twenty years is a long lifespan for a band. There are very few contemporary bands left who still have their original members, who have never, ever broken up (Pearl Jam did come close a time or two) and who still crank out fantastic rock music, who still tour relentlessly, who still have a huge, loyal fanbase who attend multiple shows a year (The band never does the same setlist twice - another thing that sets them apart from most). Those who say that Pearl Jam is no longer relevant "because Grunge is dead" don't realize that Pearl Jam was never a "Grunge" band; they're a Rock band, and they don't write disposable hits, they write Rock music. They are one of the best bands in history, and I don't think it's an overstatement to say that they are our generation's The Who or even Zeppelin. When you turn on the radio twenty years from now, you'll hear "Better Man" or "Indifference" or "Just Breathe" or "Jeremy" and they will sound both relevant and classic.
And the band will probably still be rocking.
Pearl Jam Twenty
In Limited Release
http://www.pj20.com/
A+
.