Five against One

May 15, 1998
Glom the Pearl Jam ethos from a single vignette. In 1994, the band was scheduled to play the Boston Garden, and a contract clause stipulated band access to "the fabled Celtics court." No one told the Bruins, though, and when they showed up for practice, the basketball floor was down over their ice, and "Pearl Jam [was] happily immersed in a vigorous game of b-ball." Beantown media "chastised the band for pulling celebrity rank," but in a defining gesture, head Jammer Eddie Vedder later hung around the Bruins' locker room until he was invited in. In the ensuing rocker-jocker fest of manly respect and merriment, "chances are [Vedder] neglected to mention" that the night before "he'd sneaked into their locker room and smuggled out one of their hockey sticks." Longtime PJ supporter Neely examines the band of the '90s in disturbing detail: the fight against Ticketmaster, Eddie the antistar, the way PJ's "much-lauded distaste for hype was the hype" --it's all here, presented to excite the fans and inform more casually interested readers. ((Reviewed May 15, 1998))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1998, American Library Association.)