Word on the Street by Kevin Carty
So . . . here I sit on my way home from what can only be explained as one of the most unique, COOL and special “jobs” I have ever had the opportunity to work on.
A few weeks ago, I described it as a “bucket list” project. But it really became so much more than that. What once started out as a bucket list project quickly turned into one of the longest, hardest and most personally gratifying project/event I have ever been a part of.
PJ20 was the name of the project: A Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Pearl Jam. Click Here to see photos.
20 years ago, Eddie Vedder was living in San Diego, writing music, and performing without really much of a band when he submitted a demo tape called the Mommason Demo to Jeff Ament and Stone Goddard of Mother Love Bone. MLB was a local Seattle band that recently suffered the loss of their lead singer Andy Wood.
After receiving the demo tape, they listened to it and heard for the first time tracks such as “Once,” “Alive,| and “Footsteps,” foundational tracks that would later become hits for Pearl Jam. They invited Eddie to Seattle to jam with the band which consisted of Jeff, Stone, Mike, and Jack Irons. If you remember, this was the same time the Seattle Grunge scene was exploding.
Right away, they opened for the likes of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, but at that time they did not have a band name. So they called themselves “Mookie Blaylock” after the NBA basketball player.
After several shows, they cut their first album, again a foundational album of Rock and Roll for the era. The album was called TEN and they came up with the band name Pearl Jam. And 20 years of great music began, music that was written with the times and their fans in mind.
I was 19 when that album came out, and I will never forget the first time I heard it. It was on cassette, and I was in my car driving around getting ready to make a move to New York. The music spoke to me, moved me, whatever clichés apply. I connected with the music instantly, and for this geek fan, a long-lasting passion was born.
Fast forward 20 years and 58 performances personally witnessed to August 4, 2011 at 1 pm. My cell phone rang. It was Kent Jean from Evo Exhibits in Chicago, a Classic Exhibits Distributor. And what he asked me blew me away. He asked if I was interested in designing and building a museum to celebrate 20 years of PJ. I of course accepted gladly, hyperventilating all the way to my office from the shop floor where I took the call.
The museum was to be deployed at historic Alpine Valley Amphitheater in Wisconsin at the PJ20 Music Festival over Labor Day. It was a tall task. The footprint was to be approximately 40’ x 60’, but quickly grew to 50’ x 100’ and included a front area to highlight all the poster artists who had become legendary for creating the concert posters for PJ shows over the past 20 years.
So over the following two weeks, we had multiple conference calls discussing what this space was going to look like and how it was going to function. One thing was made VERY clear out of the chute. This was for the fans, not a PJ advertisement. It was to show off the things that geek fans like me would like to see from the private collection that the band had gathered over their 20 years of touring and making albums.
Seems simple I know especially since I am such a fan. But I had to keep the business side of me check since the band didn’t want a marketing piece. They wanted an “experience” that would speak to the wishes of their fans . . . nothing else. So once I got out of “work mode” and shifted totally to “fan mode,” we were set and ready to go. But now, we only had two weeks to pull the whole thing together.
Fast forward to the last full week of August. With the help of great employees like our entire shop crew and Edie Arambula in Project Management, we were able to get the entire structure essentially cut, prepped, and shipped by Aug 26. But it was not just Classic folks who helped make all this happen. The phenomenal help of vendor partners like Optima Graphics, Dan Stefl and Emily Lutes in particular, really made the Classic portion come together on time.
And certainly it was not just Classic Exhibits Inc. and its vendors. Evo Exhibits and Kent Jean deserve much of the credit for allowing this dream job to happen. Kent recruited from his base of close friends, who jumped at the opportunity to be a part of this experience. Although I am not sure any of them knew what they were getting themselves into.
Once we got to Alpine Valley on August 30 (Tuesday), the work began. And I mean WORK!! Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we all worked from 7 am to midnight or 1 am every night. The display itself only took about two days. But then we had to carefully merchandise the entire space with some of the most valuable memorabilia we had ever encountered. Items like Joey Ramone’s Leather Jacket (a gift from Joey to Eddie), the original Mommason Demo tape, all the American Music and Grammy Awards the band had won, a personally signed George Jones jacket worn by Neil Young given to the band as a gift . . . and so much more. Well, we definitely got it all done. And it looked great, finishing in time for the band to walk through and see it for themselves after their sound check.
All of which leads to the “cherry on top” moment of the weekend for me personally. Right after the sound check at approximately 10 pm, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready came into the museum. They looked around with amazement. They were happy. Their comments ranged from “Wow” to “This is so f-ing RAD.” (Sorry but it’s what Mike said.)
Then about an hour or so later, Eddie Vedder came through with the band’s management. At the time, we were merchandising a display case that was holding all the memo books from Eddie containing the handwritten lyrics for most of their music.
He got down and helped with the merchandising, wanting it to look just so. Then he stood up and introduced himself to Kent and me. After getting to speak to him a bit, he reached out his hand once again to say thanks and pulled Kent and me in individually saying, “Thanks so much Kevin, you sincerely blew my mind. This is so much more than I could have asked for.”
Slam dunk! Bucket list item checked off.
I want to say a special thanks to Kent, Andrew, Doug, Mark, and Kathy for being such a great team to work with. And I also want to say thanks to Adrien and Kevin from PJ whom we got to know and work with throughout the setup and tear down.
Lastly, I have been asked by family and friends what was the coolest story from the week. Easy answer! Thursday night late during set up, I was speaking to Kevin from PJ, the bands archivist. I asked him how he came to collect so much of the great memorabilia. His answer was so cool to me. He was a young guy in Seattle back in 89-90 and wanted to get into the music business. So he would sit outside clubs with his VHS camera and offer to videotape the bands for free if they would let him into the performances and get up close. In doing so, he was able to videotape the explosion of what came to be known as the Grunge Movement. He videotaped the likes of Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam before they were even known on the local landscape. Then, when PJ hit it big, he was asked to come on board as a drum-tech. Since then, he has been responsible for not just pre-show prep for instruments, but also filming and editing duties for many of the DVDs the band has produced over the years. And over the years, he has collected everything!!! And I do mean everything. And as a fan . . . I am so glad he did.
So, project of a lifetime is complete. And I am still processing it all to be honest. But it was truly amazing. And as you can see from some of the photos, the band rewarded us with great seats and all access throughout the weekend.
Click here to see many more photos of the Museum, the Concert, and the Events.
–Kevin Carty
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