Pearl Jam: Place/Date

The first official book from the media-shy band that redefined the musical sound of the 90s, "Pearl Jam: Place/Date" captures the raw intensity, behind-the-scenes camaraderie, and devoted fan phenomenon of today's most unconventional supergroup.

Having sold over thirty million albums since their triumphant debut with "TEN," Pearl Jam brought the hard-edged, alienated, and angst-ridden sound of Seattle to the forefront of popular culture, pioneering the musical movement of grunge. Imitators followed, and the band could have sold out to the culture of celebrity, but Eddie Vedder and the members of Pearl Jam took on the establishment. They challenged control over concert venues and ticket prices, and refused the media any access to the band-even through music videos-during the peak of the band's success.

Pearl Jam's approach has intensified the loyalty of its fans and has refocused their attention on their musical center. Despite the lack of advertising and recent shifts in musical trends, Pearl Jam concerts continue to sell out within hours to the hundreds of thousands of fans who are devoted to this rare group that continues to uphold its musical and political integrity.

Contemporary music photography suffers from a lack of unhindered contact between photographer and subject. The musicians prefer to control the process and, while one understands that impulse (would you want to see your mug turn up in print after a bad hair day?), the result is often an excess of carefully crafted but soulless images that have everything to do with publicity photography and nothing to do with photojournalism. But with Place/Date, it's readily apparent that lensmen Charles Peterson and Lance Mercer spent plenty of unsupervised time in the company of Pearl Jam before assembling this handsome, rewarding volume. The twosome collect images dating back to the group's 1991 grunge salad days and up to 1998. Kinetic shots of the band in action (Eddie leaping, Eddie sprawling, Eddie crawling) are interspersed with backstage candids of the quintet playing dominos, napping, and killing time. In keeping with the group's egalitarian ethos, the lens is frequently turned away from Vedder and company toward PJ's fans, with telling results. --Steven Stolder