Music is a huge part of my life that has deeply affected me in many ways.
I suspect the same holds true for many others in this community. So, I'd love to hear what other's experiences of music are, and will start this thread off with a blog post I did a little over a month ago. just went to shows 3&4 last weekend, number 5 is coming up!
Everything has changed, absolutely nothings changed.......That's not the line from "Corduroy". But it should be.
I went to my first of hopefully five Pearl Jam shows last night. Yup, you read that right, FIVE. A new record. Even for me. And it was with another Ten Club member at that. It couldn't have been a better night.
I love Pearl Jam. I really do. On so many levels. Why do I love Pearl Jam?
- They're sustainable
- Everything they do is for their fans
- They've never stopped growing (and me along with them)
- They treat rock and roll as revolution
- they're a classic rock band, not just an alternative one
I actually don't listen to Pearl Jam albums that much. During off
season, months will usually pass in which I don't put on a single
record of theirs. In the back of my mind, I know how good they are and
that they'll always be there. So I start to take them for granted, and
slowly start to forget.
Then, they'll release an album. I love
when they release albums, because its one of the few times in my life I
can definitively say, 'on this day my life will be changed forever'.
Not changed in any major way, but in a measurable way. Now when I
do listen to PJ, I can choose from X numbers of albums, one more than before!
Ten I bought at Best Buy, in 8th grade. Vitalogy I got for Xmas in 8th grade. VS. I got around Easter in 8th grade.
I
got No Code when I was a sophomore. My mother and I went to the DMV to
get my learners permit, and I stopped at Tower Records next door. I had
been listening to "Who You Are" on repeat nearly the entire month
before that.
Yield I got in '98, when I was a Junior. I was
working at CompUSA at the time, which closed at 9. Thus to get it that
first day, I had to have my mom pick it up before she got me from work.
Binaural
was in 2024. I was in Southern California, that Urban wasteland of
highways and roads. Jessica Wickum had to drive me to Best Buy to pick
it up.
Riot Act was fall of 2024. I got it at Streetlight
Records on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, on my way to one of my very
first staff meetings at the group home.
Pearl Jam [Self-Titled],
I pre-ordered through the ten club. It technically arrived on April
29th, but I didn't get it until the 30th when Mike Arens picked me up
for the airport and we rolled back to Boulder.
Now, back to what
really matters. No two shows are ever alike. No setlist is ever the same. Their catalogue is
so huge there's no way it could be. Songs are always played
differently, the band always sounds differently, the energy of the room
is always unique, my seats are always different, daughter/betterman
usually have unique tags, and you never know who'll they'll cover or
what famous rockstar will show up on stage with them.
Yet, every Pearl Jam show is also exactly the same. I know the structure of the show and what
it will be like: eddie drinking a bottle of wine, length generally between 2-3 hours, 3 sets, last one always ends
with a rocking cover, and then Yellow Ledbetter. And then me walking
out in a daze. State experience indeed.
Everytime
I go to a Pearl Jam show, I'm a completely different person. Years go by between Pearl Jam tours, and often
months between shows. I've seen them at Soldier Field with Steve when I
was hardly pubescent........Madison Square Garden with Matt in New
York......St. Louis with Lorne.........Indianapolis with
Seth................San Francisco on Halloween with liz, shawn, and
mark........Ed at the Tibetin Freedon concert..........acoustic with ben harper at the Bridge School Benefit........Santa Barbara for the re-unification of Temple of the Dog
after driving 6 hours straight with Matt, and of course, the United
Center with Kelly.
Everytime I go to a show, I'm re-living those moments. I am those moments, I am inhabit all those selves at once:
I'm Jason at a Pearl Jam show, having the best time in my life.
But
I'm also not. I'm different. I've grown. I've changed. I've deepened my awareness
since, and hopefully cultivated myself into a better human being. I have new
memories, new pains, new regrets, new stresses, new joys. I even look
different physically.
Then suddenly, when those lights go down,
that all falls away. I fall away. I'm living that same moment I've
lived a thousand times before. It IS the same moment as all those times
before. I simply Am. That's the thing about Pearl Jam shows for me,
when I'm there, I feel it, I get it. All those meditations and
practices make sense. I just AM. I settle in I amness. The moment that
lasts forever and never goes away......never changes........the past,
the present, and the future.......are ALL just one big pearl jam show.
Everything
has changed, absolutely nothings changed. Impermanence and Permanence.
Maybe you get it, maybe you don't. either way, i hope you have
something in your life that affects you in similar ways.
Jason "I've changed by not changing at all" Lange
I'm thinkin' of something orange. Something orange. Give up? It's an orange.