Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam, the Seattle grunge survivors fronted by Eddie Vedder who closed down the Spectrum in South Philadelphia in 2009 with four sold-out shows, will headline the "Made in America" festival in Philadelphia on Sept. 1 and 2 along with Jay-Z. Other notable acts added to the lineup on Monday included Skrillex, the electronic producer and DJ (born Sonny Moore) who won three Grammy Awards this year and has become the face of dubstep, the throbbing, bass-heavy dance music; Maybach Music, the alliance of hip-hop heavyweight Rick Ross, Washington rapper Wale, and Philadelphia's Meek Mill; the formerly reclusive, now resurgent soul man D'Angelo; Dutch DJ Afrojack; the acclaimed Brooklyn indie-rock band Dirty Projectors; genre-smashing avant-pop acts Janelle Monáe and Santigold (the Philadelphia-reared songwriter Santi White)

As a concert venue, the Spectrum will not live to see Halloween. The Pearl Jam shows Oct. 28 and 30 announced last week will be the Spectrum's last. Comcast-Spectacor said yesterday that the dates by Eddie Vedder and crew (on sale tomorrow on ComcastTIX.com and LiveNation.com) will be the final shows at the venue, which is being replaced by an entertainment complex. Since the plan to destroy the Spectrum was announced last year, a number of big names have returned to play it rather than the spiffier, more cavernous Wachovia Center.

There's a level of trust between Pearl Jam and its audience that has become virtually unheard of among big acts and their fans. Pearl Jam's members know they can open a sold-out arena gig - such as Monday's 2 3/4-hour marathon at the First Union Spectrum - with the Southern Gothic strum of Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary" and not lose the frothing crowd. The audience obliges the band, sensing that the sonic butt-kicking it craves - like the white-knuckle double shot of "Spin the Black Circle" and "Hail Hail" that quickly followed - will be just around the corner.

The most "alternative" thing about Pearl Jam in 1992 was the band's hometown. Alt-rock's heavy punk-indie hybrid style was born in Seattle, so any group with four Seattleites must be alternative - even if frontman Eddie Vedder was a California surfer dude, even if their riffs were the stuff of conventional hard rock. Throughout the '90s, however, the band struggled admirably to live up to that tag's musical and social implications, growing rawer yet more experimental, and adopting a staunch anticorporate stance.

The resurgence of '70s pop doesn't stop with disco. The sodden rock of that era is making a comeback, too. Herewith, the rock recipe that pleased a large crowd of Pearl Jam fans Friday night at the Trocadero: PEARL JAM 5 twentysomething guys from Seattle (include 2 finely chopped guitarists, 1 raw-throated vocalist) 1 bushel Bad Company, Free and Guess Who records One packet generic rebellion, anger and alienation 1 tub of hype Overripe rock-and-roll theatrics, to (excessive)

It's been a dozen years since Pearl Jam, with Nirvana, stood at the center of the culture as Seattle's godheads of grunge. As he made clear during the band's sold-out show Friday at the Borgata Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, Eddie Vedder is keenly aware of that passage of time. "We don't need to be crowd-surfing like it was some video from 1992," the 40-year-old singer said as he surveyed a sea of jostling bodies. "We're all older, smarter, and perhaps more fragile now. " And, he might have added, still able to command a mass audience hungry for muscled-up rock-and-roll.

Everybody's griping about the high cost of summer concert tickets - in some cases reaching price parity with Broadway spectacles. But only one band's doing something about it. Pearl Jam, the grunge rock group, has gone to the antitrust division of the U.S. Justice Department, claiming it was unduly pressured to pump up its ticket prices by Ticketmaster, the national computerized ticket agency, in collusion with the North American Concert Promoters...

As Pearl Jam moves ahead with self-releasing its first music since parting ways with longtime label Epic, guitarist Mike McCready says the band could return to the studio as early as April. "Now that we're free from our contract, we're just going to see how things go from here," he revealed recently. He added that the band is exploring a number of ways to get music to its fans, whether it is self-released or issued through a deal with an existing label willing to approach the projects adventurously.

Pearl Jam is coming! Pearl Jam is coming! But not to Philadelphia. The Eddie Vedder-led grunge avatars and Ticketmaster-battlers have an album - the hotly anticipated No Code - due out Aug. 27, and a quickie North American tour starts shortly thereafter. But the first Pearl Jam tour since last year's alternative-venue trek collapsed under the weight of logistical problems will get no closer to Philly than Downing Stadium on New York's Randall's Island (Sept. 28-29) and an undisclosed Washington venue (Sept.

Pearl Jamand Philly-raised Santigold are among top artists who will perform along with Jay-Z at the Budweiser Made in America festival over Labor Day Weekend. Dirty Projectors, Skrillex, Afrojack, Odd Future and Mike Snow are also performing over the two-day event, Sept. 1 and 2, along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. We reported the lineup's biggest names Monday morning at PhillyGossip.com after noting that an apparent Ticketmaster goof had prematurely listed acts online Friday.

Late Show With David Letterman (11:35 p.m., CBS3) - Comic Karen Rontowski; Anne-Sophie Mutter. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (11:35 p.m., NBC10) - Hugh Laurie; Herman Cain; Airborne Toxic Event. The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (12:37 a.m., CBS3) - Actor Seth Rogen; actress Judy Greer. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (12:37 a.m., NBC10) - Claire Danes; the Rev. Al Sharpton; Jeff Musial; Pearl Jam.

In his now 20-year role as Pearl Jam's vocalist and lyricist, Eddie Vedder has been regarded as brooding, obtuse, intelligent, and intense. What he has probably never been thought of, until now, is charming. It is through his new solo efforts, the live Water on the Road Blu-ray and the sweet and aptly titled Ukulele Songs , that his levels of gracefulness have become apparent. During his sold-out solo show Saturday at the Tower Theater, with opener Glen Hansard and a few special guests, the elegant manner in which Vedder embraced songs old, new, borrowed, and blue was mesmerizing in a way that bested even his weightier performances with Pearl Jam. For all this allure and panache, Vedder never lacked for aggression.

The Spectrum will not go away quietly. Lou Scheinfeld - who has spent more than a year at the doomed arena, cataloging memorabilia - says he thwarted the theft of the giant Pearl Jam banner that hung outside to advertise the final show a year ago. Scheinfeld noticed a Facebook page on which people were plotting the removal of the 50-by-30-foot, 200-pound banner. "One guy said he would rappel up the wall, and a woman offered to drive her convertible under it," says Scheinfeld, who had the banner taken down and stashed inside the Spectrum.

PEARL JAM frontman Eddie Vedder was rumored Saturday to be singing the National Anthem at Game 4 last night, but it was not to be. The band was expected to attend the game. Raul Ibanez and Scott Eyre hung backstage at Friday's Pearl Jam show with the group who dedicated a couple of tunes to the team. On Saturday, Vedder asked Bernie Parent for a hug when Parent and fellow Flyers great Dave "The Hammer" Schultz visited the band backstage before the last concert at the Spectrum.

Forty-two years after opening its doors with the Quaker City Jazz Festival, and 15 months after its impending demolition was announced, the Spectrum said the last of its long goodbyes in South Philadelphia last night. The master of ceremonies for the momentous occasion was Eddie Vedder, the charismatic rock star whose band, Pearl Jam, played the final four shows at the venue, which opened in 1967. The grand finale brought the curtain down on the storied arena, which was home to championship Flyers and Sixers teams before the Wachovia Center opened in 1996.

Just before Pearl Jam took the stage of the Spectrum on Tuesday night for the first of four shows that will bring the arena's days to an end, the band treated the crowd to a highlight reel from the venerable venue's past. Footage of the Flyers and the 76ers clinching championships was mingled with clips of the Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen, who bid the Spectrum farewell with his own four-night stand ending last week. The valedictory montage served a dual purpose: It paid tribute to the history of what Springsteen called "one of the last great rock halls," and it inserted the evening's headliners into that history.

It's all about the Spectrum. The long-awaited closing of the storied South Philadelphia venue is the unquestionable focus of the pop season. On Halloween, Pearl Jam will close the building with the last of its four shows - 42 years, 4 months and 1 day after the sports arena hosted its first event, the Quaker City Jazz Festival, in 1967. The final show by Eddie Vedder and his Seattle cohorts will cap off a doozy of an October packed with marquee acts. Pearl Jam's four shows (Oct.