PEARL JAM Celebrates 20th Anniversary At Weekend Benefit

October 26, 2010

According to The Pulse of Radio, PEARL JAM celebrated its 20th anniversary as a band this past weekend, playing on Saturday (October 23) and Sunday (October 24) as part of Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, California. The group actually played its very first gig on October 22, 1990 in Seattle. Singer Eddie Vedder commemorated this on Saturday night, telling the crowd, "It was 20 years ago, last night, our group played our first gig. I wouldn't mention it, but only because, if we wouldn't have had the help or assistance or the camaraderie with a certain guy, I guess we would have made it for about five or six . . . if we wouldn't have had our Uncle Neil looking after us."

Vedder added, "Ordinarily 20 would seem pretty good. But then you're around these kind of guys, and it feels like we're not even halfway there."

PEARL JAM was formed out of the ashes of Seattle act MOTHER LOVE BONE after that band's singer Andy Wood died of an overdose. The bassist for both bands, Jeff Ament, said he considered going to art school instead of starting a new group. "When that kind of got pulled out from underneath my feet I was like, 'OK, what's God telling me here? What am I supposed to do?'" he said. "And so I was really contemplating going to art school at that point because it was really something in the back of my head, and it's still in the back of my head. I could imagine getting a loft in New York or whatever and just painting for six months."

Guitarist Stone Gossard told The Pulse of Radio a while back that PEARL JAM feels like its songwriting is as strong as ever after so many years together. "We're still writing songs in a way that, we don't take it — we haven't started hiring people to write songs for us, or feeling like we can't do it ourselves," he said. "And we keep being rewarded for our work that we do with each other and the chances we take in terms of trusting each other and songwriting and collaboration and all that stuff."

Aside from the Bridge School gigs, PEARL JAM is currently on a break and not expected to work again until sometime next year.

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