A long time ago I caught an Alice in Chains / Soundgarden / “Special Guest” concert at The Palladium on Sunset. The “special guest” was a band out of Seattle that would drop their debut album six weeks later. I never heard of these guys before the show but afterwards I left singing their songs. The band was Pearl Jam, the album “Ten“.
It was with this band, with this album, that I started forming a new musical identity. I discarded the head banging of my earlier years and bought a whole ton of flannel. Looking back, what’s odd is that I was responding to their classic rock sound. I think it’s impossible to listen to Pearl Jam, especially this album, and not hear their 60s and 70s rock influences. I swear you’ll hear some Cream in just about every song.
But that was me. Just as this album dropped, the band blew up, big time. By the following year everyone was making claims about how they were into this band since the very beginning. Me, I had six secret weeks where I couldn’t convince a soul about these guys.
That’s it for this week. Next week, a surprise for both of us.
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