They set out to take rock music off its hinges. But after they had succeeded in doing so during the grunge revolt, they backed down and went for total refusal. Now Pearl Jam are celebrating their 30th anniversary - with an album that is disillusioning and raises questions like: Have the Seattle heroes passed their zenith? And: How long will the quintet continue? Reason enough for a look behind the scenes.
The mouse-grey warehouse in downtown Seattle is located right next to Boeing's headquarters and has no house number or doorplate. Its spacious, two-story interior is a mixture of warehouse, office and adventure playground - with offices for management, label and fan club, shelves full of merchandise, but also rehearsal room, studio and equipment archive. Pearl Jam's headquarters looks neat and tidy and is full of surprises: for example, the company's own baseball machine, which comes with a full-size playing field including artificial grass and bases. "It's a gift to the crew for a little exercise," giggles singer Eddie Vedder - and adds: "Of course it's also good for working off aggression. So when we fight with each other - which happens quite often, but is never really bad. I think that's the reason why we are still together: We know how to deal with our temperament."
So that the band members can avoid each other, each has a private room. In Vedders case there are even two - because he is a passionate collector. In the first room hundreds of guitars are piled up, some of which he got as a gift ("This one is from Neil Young, this one is from Pete Townshend, this one is from Chris Cornell"), some of which he got for small money in pawn shops. To add to the museum character, room number two is dedicated to his passion for the English old rockers The Who - with signed record covers and posters, photos of Vedder with individual members whom he describes as his "mental foster-fathers", and a huge vinyl collection including bootlegs and exotic pressings: "When I was 23, I thought I had just about everything," he says
"But then fans found out through interviews and articles that I'm into The Who - and sent me an awful lot of stuff in the mail. So my collection has doubled in four or five years. Unfortunately, I don't have time to listen to everything, that's the problem." Which puts him in his element, tells in detail how he met Townshend for the first time ("I nearly wet my pants"), spent long evenings with John Entwistle ("The two of us and a bottle of brandy") and even went on a complete US tour in the early 80s ("Hitchhiking with my girlfriend at the time - the craziest trip I ever took")
