Pearl Jam Destination Weekend : 3 & 4/9, Alpine Valley, WI

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Pearl Jam performing at Alpine Valley as part of Pearl Jam's Destination Weekend in East Troy, Wisconsin.

Toward the end of Pearl Jam's huge 20th-anniversary celebration on September 4th, Eddie Vedder returned to the stage alone with an acoustic guitar and began playing a sweet little tune he'd written just hours before. "Couldn’t have told me back then that it would someday be allowed to be so in love with life, as deeply as we are now," he sang, his voice full of genuine gratitude. "Never thought we would, never thought we could/So glad we made it/I’m so glad we made it/I’m so glad we made it to when it all got good."

Those words summed up the feel-good vibe at PJ20, a two-day lovefest that celebrated everything Pearl Jam has accomplished over the past two decades. Tens of thousands of devotees descended on East Troy, Wisconsin's famed Alpine Valley Music Theatre to spend their Labor Day weekend with the band. They came from all over the world, waving the flags of Japan, Mexico, Peru, Italy and other far-flung nations over their heads in the enormous outdoor amphitheater. They queued up all day to get a chance to see band artifacts housed in an on-site Pearl Jam museum, and they cheered their lungs out when their heroes took the stage.

Pearl Jam rewarded the faithful with two days and nights of top-notch guitar rock. The lineups for Saturday and Sunday were the same: Hand-picked openers including Glen Hansard, Joseph Arthur, Liam Finn, John Doe and thenewno2 played on two small side stages in the afternoon, followed by hard-charging performances from Mudhoney, Queens of the Stone Age and the Strokes on the main stage – all leading up to a killer three-hour Pearl Jam set each evening.

Each night also featured a previously unannounced Temple of the Dog mini-set in the middle of Pearl Jam's show. Twitter rumors beforehand had indicated that Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell might join the band to reunite their beloved pre-Pearl Jam project – and Cornell got possibly the loudest crowd reactions of the weekend each time he swaggered on stage and ripped through dusty 1991 classics like "Hunger Strike," "Say Hello 2 Heaven," "Call Me a Dog" and "Reach Down." But Pearl Jam gave the audience two very distinct experiences each night, completely switching up the set lists in their usual fashion.

After a long day of rain on Saturday, Pearl Jam opened their set with "Release," as super-pumped fans sang along to each and every word. After that they spent most of the night digging into rarely played deep cuts like 1998's "Push Me, Pull Me" and 2000's "In the Moonlight." Anyone who came to Alpine Valley on Saturday hoping to hear the big hits probably picked the wrong night. But the set list was surely a treat for the true believers who know every B-side and outtake by heart – and that description seemed to apply to most of the people in attendance. That said, the crowd absolutely lost it when they heard the opening lick of 1994 smash "Better Man," calling out the entire first verse and chorus while Vedder looked out in wide-eyed wonder over the teeming lawn. "[People said] this ain't gonna happen," he said of the band's 20-year milestone a bit later. "That it's a dream, against the odds. I'm glad we didn't listen. "

Special guests abounded on Saturday – the Strokes' Julian Casablancas wailing on "Not for You," Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme livening up "In the Moonlight," thenewno2's Dhani Harrison rocking out on "State of Love and Trust" and more. The biggest cameo of all, of course, came from Cornell. After Temple of the Dog's Saturday set, whose highlights included a cover of Mother Love Bone's "Stardog Champion" and a monumental Vedder-Cornell duet on "Hunger Strike" (watch video below), Pearl Jam returned for a cover-filled encore including the Who's "Love Reign O'er Me" and a rowdy spin through the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" with help from members of Mudhoney. "Let's do this again tomorrow!" Vedder said to close out the night.

Pearl Jam's members seemed to be everywhere on Sunday afternoon, when sunnier weather meant big audiences for the sidestage openers. PJ bassist Jeff Ament, drummer Matt Cameron and guitarist Mike McCready all came out to back Joseph Arthur on tunes including a strong new Ament-penned rocker called "When the Fire Burns" and Arthur's signature "In the Sun." A grinning Vedder popped up to play drums with Liam Finn, dashed off stage, then reappeared later to duet with Glen Hansard on "Falling Slowly," drawing packed crowds.

Around 6 p.m. on Sunday, as on Saturday, the masses moved in a wave toward the mainstage to see Mudhoney and then Queens of the Stone Age kick up heavy rackets. The two bands felt like contemporaries and heirs, respectively, of Pearl Jam's early raging attack. The Strokes' tight hooks might seem to have less to do with Pearl Jam, but there's definitely a bond between the two bands. Vedder came out both nights to scream himself nearly hoarse on the Strokes' "Juiceboxxx." Casablancas, who seemed particularly listless and blasé on Sunday night, perked right up when Vedder arrived. "This is great," he said, "'cause he sings it so much better than I do." He wasn't lying.

At around 9:15 on Sunday night, Pearl Jam made their entrance for the second time. Immediately, it was clear that the band was firing on all cylinders. Vedder – easily one of rock's two or three most dynamic frontmen – was a ball of manic energy from the opening notes of "Wash" onward, swaying, writhing and jumping for pure joy as the crowd pumped their fists en masse. "We feel like we could play just about anything," he said a few songs in, "and you fuckers would know it." Fans cheered as they recognized the next unexpected selection, 1998's "Pilate."

But that comment turned out to be a fake-out of sorts. Midway through the set, right after a campfire-style singalong on 2002's "Love Boat Captain" and a raving version of 1996 B side "Habit" assisted by Liam Finn, Pearl Jam's set list suddenly transformed into a total hit parade. In short order, they tore through blazing versions of old favorites like 1991's "Even Flow" (featuring an awe-inspiring extended McCready solo, 1993's "Daughter" (with Ament on an upright bass) and "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" (a request from guest Dhani Harrison). "It's like a fine wine," Vedder said after "Even Flow." "It gets better and stronger and purer and more powerful with age."

The singer later gave an impassioned speech about his years advocating for the wrongly imprisoned West Memphis Three, who were finally freed last month. "Thanks for trusting us," Vedder said. "And if you didn't trust us on that, fuck you. You should have known better." With that, he invited John Doe on stage for a rowdy cover of X's "The New World." Then it was back to the hits, with a soulful "Black" and an incandescent "Jeremy" closing out Sunday's main set – an incredible one-two punch.

"This doesn't make us feel older at all," Vedder said when he returned for the first encore. "It's given us some sense of rebirth. It feels like a new beginning." After he finished the aforementioned new song, the rest of the band joined him for heartfelt semi-acoustic versions of 2009's "Just Breathe" and 1994's "Nothingman." After a dark, harmonica-laced run through 1996's "Smile" featuring a ripping guest turn by Glen Hansard and a rowdy rendition of 1994's "Spin the Black Circle" during which McCready ran literal laps around his bandmates, it was time for the weekend's second Temple of the Dog reunion, featuring another massive "Hunger Strike" duet, a mostly acoustic "All Night Thing" and a heavy bayou-funk spin through "Reach Down." "Keeping a band together for 20 years," Cornell noted dryly over the crowd's wild cheers, "is not that easy to do."

Cornell departed, only to be replaced on stage by Mudhoney's Mark Arm and Steve Turner. "This is a song we used to play at the end of the night when the crowd numbered in the tens," said Vedder, introducing a raucous cover of Dead Boys' 1977 nugget "Sonic Reducer." The stage emptied afterward, but the night wasn't over just yet – not before Pearl Jam came back for a third and final encore. The crowd-thrilling set list: 1991's "Alive," Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," and the 1992 B-side "Yellow Ledbetter." It was well after midnight when they finished. It's hard to imagine that anyone left Alpine Valley feeling unsatisfied.

[dvi2702]

Pearl Jam Throws Rockin' 20th Birthday Party

It Happened Last Night

It may not be the coolest move to throw your own birthday party, but at least you get the celebration you want. The 20-year tributes to Nirvana's Nevermind have been an unregulated free-for-all ranging from dignified (Krist Novoselic's all-star bash, SPIN's cover-songs tribute) to decidedly un- (Chris Brown, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," 'nuff said). Pearl Jam on the other hand, are still together, and thus capable of controlling the agenda for the 20th birthday of their watershed 1991 record, Ten.

If it's surprising that they celebrated 2,000 miles away from Seattle — in Alpine Valley, WI — know that Pearl Jam long ago evolved past their original grunge label to become prefix-less, suffix-less Rock, a sound without geography. In other words, when you're drawing fans from the four corners of the United States and as far away as Germany and New Zealand, you might as well drop the pin in the Midwest. They booked it and the fans came, showing they are dedicated enough to make Pearl Jam one of the endangered species that can still (almost) fill a gargantuan, 37,000-capacity amphitheatre like Alpine Valley for 2 nights over Labor Day weekend.

Any snark about the band being a museum piece in 2011 was pre-empted by an actual Pearl Jam museum on site, where fans waited in line an hour to file past Eddie Vedder's 4-track and a display case containing "Hats Worn By Jeff Ament." Fans also happily swarmed the merch booths for unique "PJ20" posters and clothing (including a hoodie with a wrong-date misprint), and crammed into special viewing areas reserved for the Ten Club, the Pearl Jam society of super-fans.

Those amenities were appreciated on a Saturday of poncho weather, with unceasing grey skies and a steady rain that put a soggy damper on tailgating plans and the afternoon side stages full of up-and comers and strummy solo acts. The Swell Season's Glen Hansard tried to keep spirits up with a half-remembered cover of "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" and a string-breakingly savage cover of fellow Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks," but the crowd mostly chose to drink away the storm, lending the afternoon a "rain delay in the bleachers" vibe.

Fortunately, precipitation was down to a surly drizzle for the main event, where the band's guestlist mixed nostalgia with contemporaries, and maneuvered groups accustomed to headlining into opener slots. The result felt something like the classic '90's Lollapalooza lineups, a murderer's row of accomplished acts forced to make their case in 45 minutes or less in front of another band's gear.

Mudhoney were the band most tightly linked with Pearl Jam's Emerald City past, and the only one that could be considered an influence on their sound. But the grunge pioneers sounded refreshingly undated, the snotty punk sensuality of tracks like "Touch Me I'm Sick" still roaring like they were written recently. On a night with pretty thick frontman competition, Mark Arm set the bar unattainably high with his half-cocky, half-cramped stage moves.

In contrast to Mudhoney's unhinged danger, Queens of the Stone Age brought a very precise evil to the stage. As dark clouds continued to threaten the poor kids on Alpine's steep lawn, Josh Homme's band (which released its first album on Stone Gossard's label) fought back with their own lightning storm. Even if Homme's jocky banter — "if we do this right, we can all get laid toniiight!" — would have been awkwardly out of place in the scene that birthed Pearl Jam, the stoner metal sound of "No One Knows" and "The Sky is Falling" fit right in as examples of a grunge afterlife.

The Strokes, by their own admission, were the kids of the main stage. Julian Casablancas confessed to first trying out his singing voice alongside a cassette of Ten, and broke street-cool character several times to sheepishly thank Pearl Jam for the invite. The set itself was the night's anomaly — brisk (10 songs, 35 minutes), catchy, and the only thing approaching danceable if you don't count fist-pumping. Largely ignoring this year's Angles, the highlight of the greatest hits set was Eddie Vedder convincingly taking the chorus of "Juicebox" and bringing a little showmanship to the movement-averse New Yorkers. "Oh shit, he sings that so much better than I do," Casabalancas moaned.

After a long day of mounting musical and meteorological tension, Pearl Jam couldn't help but open with "Release," giving the crowd its long-awaited chance for a communal arm-waving sing-along. Middle-age has found the band settling into its sweet spot, a stadium rock bombast kept tethered to the earth with punk-rock chords. Though the Ten material ("Deep," "Once," "Porch") still got the biggest cheers, there was plenty of room to explore their deep catalog, culminating this night in versions of "Better Man" and "rearviewmirror" that were tastefully extended and triumphantly peaked.

For a gig that was very much preaching to the choir, Pearl Jam didn't need to worry too much about pacing, and the setlist was accordingly packed with rarities ("Who You Are," Vedder's solo track "Setting Forth") and guest spots (Casablancas on "Not For You," Homme on the never-before-played "In the Moonlight," George Harrison's son Dhani on "State of Love and Trust"). But the mother of all special guests for grunge aficionados was the encore appearance by Chris Cornell, who first took the role of Mother Love Bone singer Andrew Wood for "Stardog Champion," then sang three songs from the Temple of the Dog memorial project for Wood. "Hunger Strike" was a gimmee, but "Reach Down" and "Say Hello to Heaven" made it a full-on reunion — only the third since 1992.

If Cornell couldn't quite hit the ridiculously high notes of 20 years ago, it made it all the more poignant — why hide the wrinkles at an event celebrating long-term survival? The ghosts of mortality that lingered over the encore made for a bit of a bummer ending, despite the twin exorcisms of "Love Reign O'er Me" and "Kick Out the Jams" covers (the latter with Mudhoney). But it was Pearl Jam's party, and they could cry if they wanted to.

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On the left, a Joseph Arthur/Jeff Ament collaboration. Two songs (one of which is a new version of Other Side) reportedly from an upcoming album.

Curieux de savoir ce que ça donne !!

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[dvi2702]

PJ20 Crew tshirt's "Feels like PJ40"

[GreenDisease]

In The Sun live at Alpine Valley 9/4/11 during PJ20, featuring Jeff Ament, Joseph Arthur, Matt Cameron and Mike McCready.

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PJ20 Crew tshirt's "Feels like PJ40"

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