Pearl Jam to play "rehearsal" concert at sold-out Gorge

What? Pearl Jam is playing a concert that ordinary people can actually attend!

Amazing!

Not since 2002 has the famously unconventional Seattle band played a show hereabouts that wasn't a high-priced benefit at a nightclub or theater — usually with tickets sold only to dues-paying fan-club members — or an in-store at a small independent record store with attendance by invitation only.

Taking a line from one of its best songs, the band seemed to say to its ordinary fans whenever a show was planned: "This is not for you!"

So when PJ announced last month that it would play the Gorge as a sort of dress rehearsal for a previously announced 15-city Canadian tour, amazed fans snatched up every ticket in a matter of days, at $48 apiece. The show is 7 p.m. Thursday (there is no opening act). The Canadian tour begins the next day in Vancouver.

The Gorge date is one of only a handful in the U.S. this year. The others include opening for the Rolling Stones in Pittsburgh on Sept. 28 and shows in Atlantic City and Philadelphia.

In addition to the rare opportunity, another draw for the Gorge is the promise of new songs, from Pearl Jam's upcoming eighth studio album.

The band reportedly has written 25 new ones, a dozen of which will end up on the CD. Rolling Stone reports that potential tracks include "Crapshoot," "Severed Hand," "Worldwide Suicide," "2X4," "Marker" and "Cold Concession."

The disc will be released in the fall. Pearl Jam has left Epic Records, its label for 14 years, and signed on to Clive Davis' J Records, which will release the new disc.

Pearl Jam is a beloved Seattle rock institution. It's the last superstar survivor of the Seattle grunge movement of the late 1980s and early '90s — if you don't count Mudhoney, which never achieved the popularity it deserved.

Even Kurt Cobain, who initially dismissed Pearl Jam, came to respect lead singer Eddie Vedder and company. While Cobain considered Vedder an interloper because he came here from California, Pearl Jam has impeccable grunge credentials. Two of its founding members, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament, were in Mother Love Bone, the pioneering Seattle grunge band.

Pearl Jam was always the most accessible grunge group: Nirvana was more artful, Soundgarden more bloated, Alice in Chains more metal. PJ rocketed to the top with its debut album, "Ten," in 1992. Still its biggest-selling album, it contained the hits "Alive," "Evenflow" and "Jeremy."

Its "Vs." album the next year was a big seller but didn't produce any hits of the caliber of those from "Ten." Subsequent albums, such as "Vitalogy," "No Code," "Binaural" and "Riot Act," sold fewer and fewer copies, so the unconventional band dropped out of the album-tour cycle and issued maxi-singles, EPs, fan-club exclusives and, most significantly, live albums of its shows — more than 50 so far. (The band has not announced whether shows on the upcoming tour will be recorded.)

It also dropped out of the star-making machinery, refusing to make video clips, do interviews or work with Ticketmaster, because of its high fees. The latter move stalled PJ's career for years, until it finally gave in: Ticketmaster is handling tickets for the upcoming tour, as it has for the past several.

So while Pearl Jam has decreased its profile and popularity in the mainstream, its independence and feistiness have made the band's core following even stronger. Joined by fans who haven't been able to see the band for years, they'll raise a mighty roar when Pearl Jam takes the stage Thursday night.