Anticipation is high for Pearl Jam's Gorge shows

This is the big one. The rock concert of the summer.

Anytime Pearl Jam plays the Northwest, it's major. After all, it's the last band standing from the glory days of grunge, those few years in the late '80s and early '90s when Seattle was the center of the rock universe.

The band is sounding so good these days, it's almost like being back in that great time.

Pearl Jam has played the Gorge before but never like this. They're doing two shows this time, and there still may be some tickets available for Sunday (Saturday is sold out).

The shows come at the end of a triumphant North American tour, with the biggest crowds and best reviews in more than a decade. The tour is in support of "Pearl Jam," the band's eighth studio album and the first on J Records, Clive Davis' label.

Signing to a new label, and having Davis' considerable clout behind them, seems to have given the band a new sense of energy and purpose. "Pearl Jam" is the band's best album since the '90s, with sharper, more concise lyrics, inspired guitar solos and duos, and plenty of anthemic rock songs, Pearl Jam's strong suit.

The band has done more publicity for this recording than for any other, probably at Davis' insistence. They even got back to making a video, a practice they had abandoned long ago (however, the dark, foreboding, arty-smarty clip for "Life Wasted" is so murky it hardly gets any airplay).

Concert preview


Pearl Jam, 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Gorge Amphitheatre, George, Grant County; $49-$58

(206-628-0888 or www.ticketmaster.com; information, www.hob.com or www.pearljam.com).

Eddie Vedder also allowed a solo shot of him, the star of the band, to be used on the cover of Rolling Stone, rather than a group photo he used to require before granting magazine interviews. The band even did a VH1 "Storytellers" segment!

The positive reviews and all that publicity were expected to make "Pearl Jam" a big seller. But that hasn't panned out. After debuting ten weeks ago at No. 2 in Billboard, it's now down to No. 73. It hasn't even gone gold yet.

But ticket sales and chart positions have never meant much to Pearl Jam fans. That's because the group has done a masterful job of making its fans feel special, unique, part of an exclusive group. The band's Web site encourages that exclusivity. So does its huge, fee-based fan organization, Ten Club. Fan loyalty is a major reason why Pearl Jam remained a strong concert draw even while its record sales plummeted.

While the band risked alienating those core fans with its recent, unprecedented publicity blitz, shows like the ones at the Gorge this weekend should reinforce those rabid fans' loyalty. That's because the shows are not in some lifeless, barnlike arena but in the great outdoors, at one of the most beautiful concert sites in the world. And it's a hometown (well, close enough) show with no opening act.

That means a very long set — perhaps as much as three hours — from a revitalized, re-energized, rockin'-like-the-old-days Pearl Jam. Expect most of the "Pearl Jam" songs, most of the big hits, plenty of sing-alongs and nonstop dancing, onstage and in the audience. It promises to be one of the best Gorge shows ever.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com