Eddie Vedder, the lead singer with alternative US rock band Pearl Jam, glares at another interviewer, who braces himself for a stormy ride ahead; "How many members of Pearl Jam does it take to change a lightbulb?" he asks, deadpan, as the interviewer cautiously opts silence. "CHANGE? WE'RE NEVER GONNA CHANGE!" howls Vedder, his face twisting into an angry grimace before dissolving into fits of laughter.
Since Vedder was anointed spokesman for a generation, sometime in 1993, Pearl Jam has struggled to stay true to its loyal fans while negotiating its way through the mercenary corridors of corporate rock. The alternative music scene exploded into the mainstream in 1992 when Smells Like Teen Spirit by Seattle band Nirvana, blasted a hole in radioland, selling millions and heralding the arrival of "grunge", a sort of radio-friendly punk with attitude.
Pearl Jam, based in Seattle, released its debut album Ten a month before Nirvana's Nevermind. After a sluggish start the band found itself caught in the grunge feeding frenzy, feted by MTV and an industry hungry for fresh idols.
Millions of teenagers found emotional rescue in tracks such as Jeremy, Alive and Even Flow, as evidenced by intimate fan mail written at the time. The music was dominated by crashing drums, punky power chords and Vedder's plaintive vocals. In live shows, Vedder turned postal, diving off stage and "surfing" the crowd while Mike McCready, Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, the musical heart of the band, leapt about, crashing into the drum kit, where Dave Abbruzzese crouched in fear behind the sticks.
On one night of the 1992 European tour, Vedder tossed the mike in the air, watched it land in a ceiling vent then hauled himself up after it by the trailing cord, before performing a graceful fall into the sea of bodies 15 feet below. Vedder would stay on for hours after the shows, chatting to fans, amazed at the powerful feelings stirred by his lyrics.
Vedder had his own cross to bear, belatedly discovering that an occasional visitor to his home, presented as a friend of the family, was in fact his real father. Ed Severson, wheelchair-bound because of MS, died before Vedder's mother told her son who he was.
The powerful Jeremy, a song about a boy who takes a gun into his classroom, was MTV's video of the year while Ten sold 10 million copies in the US alone.( Last year, in the aftermath of the Columbine school massacre, the most visited Internet bulletin board was alt.rock.pearl-jam, where thousands of teenagers offloaded their anxieties.) By the time the follow-up, Vs, was released in October 1993, industry expectations had reached feverish levels. Time magazine slapped Pearl Jam on the cover, declaring it the greatest band in the world - while first-week sales of one million set a new record in the US charts.
The album was a devastating collection of noise and melody, shadow and light, Vedder stripped bare and swinging on all sides. "I took a drive today/ time to emancipate/ I guess it was the beatings made me wise" from Rearviewmirror - which quickens pace on every verse before collapsing beneath a howling mass of guitar feedback and vocals.
Vedder and his colleagues found themselves at the pinnacle of their careers but worried that the music was being buried beneath the hype and longed to keep success within manageable boundaries. In addition, Pearl Jam's frontman found it increasingly difficult to establish boundaries with fans, a problem that swelled to troubling proportions when a stalker began following him, even driving a car through his front gate.
Vedder often spoke of his punk heroes Fugazi, from Washington DC, the last word on anti-corporate ethics, running their own label, enforcing strict control over concert ticket prices and making no concessions to the music industry.
Vedder used his public profile to play pro-choice and gun control benefits and flew to Miami to show support for the family of David Gunn, the doctor shot dead by anti-abortion militants. "I am lost, I'm no guide, but I'm right by your side" sang Eddie on Leash, still searching for a way to use the platform afforded by his fame.
Disaster struck when someone stole Vedder's composition notebooks in Stockholm, where they had played an exhausting three-hour set: "You think you're giving everything you've got but there's always someone who wants more and if you can't give it they'll just take it," said Vedder.
The band was also hurt by a public tiff with grunge kings Nirvana, whose lead singer, Kurt Cobain, denounced them as cheap imitations of the real thing. The rift ended after Cobain saw Vedder play live, acknowledging his passion. Cobain's suicide in April 1994 deeply affected Pearl Jam who were working on the third album, Vitalogy.
The band then challenged dominant US ticket distributor Ticketmaster, after a squabble over exorbitant ticket charges. In one case, an $18 ticket cost $26 owing to unspecified charges. In May 1994, Pearl Jam filed anti-trust charges with the US Justice Department and cancelled its summer tour, seeking alternative ticketing arrangements.
In mid-1995, the band limped through a 13-day tour which fell apart thanks to overzealous police, a freak lightning storm and a hospitalised Vedder, who walked offstage in San Francisco, sick and unable to sing. "We all agreed that it had gotten insane," said Vedder, "that it was no longer about the music." Rumour spread that the band might split up.
The US Justice Department dropped the Ticketmaster case, with Attorney General Janet Reno saying there was "no basis for proceeding" against the company, as rivals were coming into the ticket sales arena.
The third album, Vitalogy, was raw and angry but also revealed another side to Vedder's writing skills, as he put himself in the skin of a woman trapped in a loveless relationship: "Waiting, watching the clock it's four o'clock it's got to stop/ tell him/ take no more/ she practises her speech/ as he opens the door/ pretends to sleep as he looks her over."
Pearl Jam toured with Neil Young, a collaboration which resulted in Mirrorball, while Vedder jammed with his teen idol Pete Townsend. The surviving Doors invited Eddie to sing with them when they were inducted into the Hall of Fame while he sneaked out on the road with Mike Watt, ex-vocalist with cult band the Minutemen. Vedder was invited to share vocals with the king of devotional Sufi music, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on the soundtrack to Dead Man Walking. "I saw him warm up once," said Eddie of Nusrat, who has since died. "I walked out of the room and just broke down, what amazing power and energy."
Pearl Jam stopped making videos, gave no more interviews, played few live dates and gradually faded from public view. The fourth album, No Code, showcased the fruits of their reflection, a moody collection which revealed enormous musical growth, marked by acoustic experiment, tribal drumbeats and a gentle lullaby, Around the Bend,in which Vedder sings to a sleeping child, wishing them peace and harmony.
The band appeared relaxed and content with their new profile, gladly swapping sales for intimacy. "To us it's about choices and lifestyle," said Vedder, "do you spend your time on the road and doing promotion or do you spend your time making new music and living your life?"
The band's fans understood, but the media felt cheated; US rock magazine Rolling Stone found a way around Vedder's silence, splashing him on the cover for a lengthy feature in which Vedder was scolded for fighting "unwinnable" battles, betraying his fans and bullying fellow band members.
In a more revealing paragraph, the dollar-obsessed magazine lamented the band's loss of potential earnings due to the battle with Ticketmaster, estimated at $30 million. Michael Stipe, Neil Young and Courtney Love waded in against the hatchet job, while film director, Tim Robbins, also publicly expressed his displeasure. Vedder's principled stand inside an industry plagued with mercenary salespeople made others protective of his privacy.
The moodswings on No Code gave way to blinding sunshine on Yield (1998), an album which bristled with joy, as the band members found harmony between themselves, playing to each other, rediscovering the fun of creating music together. "I wish I was the verb to trust and never let you down," sang Eddie on Wishlist, probably the band's finest moment.
At the Point gig this Thursday, Pearl Jam will showcase material from its new album Binaural, released last week. The 13 songs challenge the language of rock, combining soulful harmonies with trademark power guitar and a whimsical ukelele tune. Eddie's anger at social injustice sets the tone, reflecting on the anti-globalisation protests in Seattle last year: "Time to plant seeds of a reconstruction/ no time this time to feign reluctance."
Pearl Jam has been unfairly pigeonholed as a typical stadium band by critics who stopped listening to them years ago. "Me you wouldn't recall, for I'm not my former self," sang Vedder when the long, strange trip first began. The band has found maturity without complacency, dignifying the cynical rock world. But then, I'm a fan.