Pearl Jam Opens The Vault

Pearl Jam opens up on 20 years of rock fame

TORONTO, Sept 17 — Cameron Crowe’s documentary “Pearl Jam Twenty” takes viewers on a 20-year behind-the-scenes journey with a band that has reached the top of the rock ‘n’ roll pantheon while refusing to embrace the spotlight.

“It’s more than just a rock documentary,” Academy Award winner Crowe said of the film he pieced together from over 1,200 hours of archived footage and recent interviews.

Crowe (left) and members of Pearl Jam

Highs like Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder slow-dancing with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain beneath a stage while Eric Clapton plays “Tears in Heaven” above intersect lows like the suffocation deaths of nine fans at the band’s Roskilde, Denmark concert in 2000, throughout the two-hour film.

Crowe, director of “Jerry Maguire” and a rock journalist in Seattle in the ‘80s, spent three years making the film. It hits movie screens worldwide on September 20 for a one-night showing, then runs for a week in select markets starting on September 23.

PJ 20 hits movie screens worldwide on September 20

The Seattle-based group is also releasing a 384-page book and a 29-song soundtrack to mark its first two decades. A DVD of the documentary with extra footage will follow.

Pearl Jam Twenty from Pearl Jam on Vimeo.

The birth of Pearl Jam followed the drug overdose of Andrew Wood, the charismatic singer of Mother Love Bone, in 1990. That group’s guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament later hooked up with McCready and Soundgarden’s Cameron. Together they brought in Vedder, a surfer from San Diego, to sing. - Reuters via The Malaysian Insider

* I grew up admiring this band so yes, this is one of my most anticipated films this year. Other bands rise and fall but Pearl Jam rocks on. Hopefully they will hit our shores someday. Keep on rocking in a free world!


~ruudvanirwan~