We've known for a long time that Pearl Jam was going to host a festival-like event this summer to celebrate the band's twentieth anniversary. Unfortunately we didn't know when or where, although "somewhere in the middle of the country" was thrown out to help us narrow it down. Today the band has finally answered this question officially, confirming the long rumored shenanigans will take place at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin over Labor Day weekend. The latest anniversary celebrating is of course in addition to the numerous reissues the band has put together this year, as well as the upcoming Cameron Crowe directed documentary of the band rumored to be out in the early fall. Woo hoo, Pearl Jam fun.
As for the actual concert the term festival should probably be thrown out and replaced with "guest heavy shows" or something along those lines as each day will be ticketed separately and seemingly nothing will be all that different from a normal show than the amount of openers. Don't get me wrong the openers have some firepower in The Strokes, Mudhoney and Queens of the Stone Age, but they're also going the songwriter route with Liam Finn, Joseph Arthur and Glen Hasnard. For safety's sake we'll leave punk legend John Doe in his own classificiation. It certainly sounds like a grand old time but let's be honest, this is only slightly more appealing than your standard Pearl Jam show, which isn't exactly a bad thing.
What is a bad thing is how the band's biggest fans, those who are paid members of the Ten Club, are somewhat getting the shaft from their favorite musicians. To obtain fan club tickets you must buy tickets to both shows but you only have two options: The "Reserved/GA Weekend Package" or a "General Admission Weekend Package". "Well those don't seem all that bad!" you shout in your corduroy and flannel. Fine, maybe not to you, but what if they replace the words "general admission" with "lawn". How does that sound? Essentially all that's happening here is that if you are a member of the Ten Club and you want to go to see Pearl Jam's special anniversary show in Wisconsin you have to buy at least one lawn ticket to the show. The same lawn tickets people will be trying to give away outside because nobody ever wants to sit in the lawn unless they are under the legal drinking age. Paying for the privelage to not be able to get reserved seats to both nights is insulting, and I'm not even a Ten Club member.
