Glorified version of a pellet gun

So how the heck did Pearl Jam fall so far off my radar? I think it's because I go so freaking tired of Seattle grunge. But in my haste to distance myself from that entire musical movement, I did Pearl Jam a grave injustice. They're so much more than grunge.

I really love a band that grows over time. Nothing worse than a band releasing the same record over and over again with a thin veneer over it to fool you into thinking it's different. I've got a few Pearl Jam albums and each one has a completely different set of sounds and feels to it. After however many years it's been they still sound fresh and vital.

I saw them back in the mid 90s. They were part of a 3 band bill with Nirvana and the Red Hot Chillipeppers. Speaking of which, the Peppers sucked, and Nirvana was incomprehensible. But Eddie Vedder and the rest of the band kicked serious ass. Whereas the other two bands seemed to slouch through their sets, Pearl Jam was an explosion of energy. At one point Vedder scaled the thirty or forty foot tall lights scaffold and was hanging off upside down with his legs through the bars, singing. I think it was during Alive.

Oh, and I have to say that it helps that Vedder sings in a range that I can actually hit--so I can sing all the songs in the shower or the car and hit all the notes. How cool is that?

I'm pretty sure I'm about to freak out and buy all the albums I don't already have :)