Wednesday video - Pearl Jam

It is hard, and sometimes difficult, to believe that Pearl Jam's debut album Ten is twenty years old.  That also means that Nevermind is twenty years old, that I moved into my freshman dorm* at the University of Arkansas twenty years ago this fall, and that I've essentially been "grown-up"** for twenty years.  Being thirty-eight years old, married for five years, and being a father already once over (and soon to be for the second time), it is becoming increasingly more unsettling to realize that I'm approaching the fulcrum where I have more life behind me than I have in front of me.  This is not meant to be morbid in any sense -- I mean "unsettling" in the sense that there's that weird sensation, a realization, that you've lived in this world for a long while now and seen, heard, and experienced so much.  And that memories you have, such as listening to Ten (or Nevermind or Siamese Dream) for the first time happened a long time ago.  That there are "grown-up" kids that moved into their freshman dorm at the University of Arkansas this fall that were not yet born when I was air-guitaring to "Black," "Alive," or "Even Flow" -- which in 1991 and 1992 were fantastic new songs by this new band Pearl Jam!

Well, enough of all that.  As a live band, PJ have few peers.  Here's a 1992 performance of "Alive" from SNL.

And here's a bonus live clip of my favorite track from 1993's album Vs.

*  My dorm was Gladson-Ripley, which at the time was one of the co-ed Honor's Dorms.  I lived in Room 113 my freshman year with my friend Mark and in 114 my sophomore year by myself.  Glad to see that they finally got air-conditioning, which was not an option way back in 1991.
**  If the definition of "grown-up" is limited to someone else cooking or preparing your everyday meals for you that is not your mom.