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List Price: $19.95 | | Publisher: Universe Publishing
Salesrank: 424727
Released: April 15, 1999 |
| Our Price: $3.98 |
| Used Price: $0.64 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
The first official book done in association with the media-shy band that redefined the musical sound of the 1990s, Pearl Jam: Place/Date captures the raw intensity, behind-the-scenes comraderie, and devoted fan phenomenon of today's most unconventional supergroup. Having sold over 30 million albums since its triumphant 1991 debut 10, Pearl Jam brought the hard-edged, estranged and oftentimes angry sound of Seattle to the musical forefront. They pioneered a movement in music and culture that quickly became known as grunge. Imitators followed, and the band could have quickly lost touch with its fans and unpretentious ideals and become simply a money-making celebrity group. Instead, Eddie Vedder and the members of Pearl Jam took on the establishment: challenging Ticketmaster's control over concert venues and ticket prices and refusing media any access to the band--even through music videos--during the peak of their success. Pearl Jam's disappearance from media and from traditional touring has intensified the loyalty of its fans and has refocused the band's attention on its original musical center. Despite the lack of advertising and recent shifts in musical trends, Pearl Jam concerts repeatedly sell out within hours for the hundreds of thousands who remain devoted to a group that continues to uphold its musical and political integrity. Allowed access to the concerts, jam sessions, and private moments of Pearl Jam's members, photographers Charles Peterson and Lance Mercer provide a heretofore unseen record of the Pearl Jam experience for new and diehard fans alike.
Description of Pearl Jam: Place/Date:
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
Pearl Jam: Place/Date Reviews:
Just Once!!!!! 
2002-03-24 - I like Pearl Jam. Really.
And I like this book. Really.
It's just that ... well ... let me be honest here: great photography, interesting camera angles, and the B&W/color shifts are stellar and create a lasting effect; I just wish that once --just once -- the focus could shift to the viewpoint(s) of every OTHER member of the band besides Ed Vedder (the only time you really see it is in the photos of the fans -- for that, the book loses a star. Sorry, folks!). Maybe a sequel would be nice -- call it "Those OTHER Guys" and make them the subject matter.
Still, this is a book worth having. Very recommended.
Perfect for Hardcore Fans 
2001-08-01 - Pearl Jam has made a career of hiding from the press and keeping a deliberately low profile. But they are known for giving goodies to their hardcore fans. I would have thought that PJ never allowed anyone to take pictures of them, but apparently Mercer and Peterson have had free range to take any pictures they wanted with the band on tour. There are only a few "publicity" shots where the band is clearly posing for the camera. The majority are onstage action shots and candid moments which provide a lot of insight into the band's personalities. There are also many great shots of the fans. Each of the four core members seems to be showcased equally, with some shots of their various temporary drummers. The funnest aspect of the book is watching the guys' image change over time - from overdressed, long-haired alt-rockers in the early days to their current scruffy low-maintenance "regular guy" look.
Beautiful Photography, Unparalleled Emotion
2001-04-09 - Mercer and Peterson have collaborated with the band to offer a glimpse into the on and off-stage lives of Stone, Jeff, Ed, Mike, and (insert drummers' names here). The photographs alternate between B&W and color and integrate a variety of vantage points, camera angles, and photography techniques, not to mention an intruiging array of subjects, including drummer Jack Iron's son, Vedder's wife Beth Leibling, and many captures of fans. It is a lovely addition to the library of any Jammer.
wonderful pictures
2000-09-06 - This book is great for any Pearl Jam fan. It has various pictures of all the band members. I got my copy of this book free from Best Buy when I bought the latest Pearl Jam album Binaural (that was back in May). However, if you buy it it would be worth the money. The book's photos are creative and they are from different years. Great photography. It would be an awesome gift for a Pearl Jam fan.
Rising above hardships, alas a chronicle of a band we love
1999-10-01 - We have all, in time, waited for Pearl Jam, just for once, to bow to the demands of being a rock and roll band. Eddie Vedder, after Kurt Cobain died, assumed this role, although reluctantly. So many photographs, so many magazines chronicled the band's struggles--from the zenith of their power to the nadir of their performance, to sheer obscurity. Peterson and Mercer's photographs embodied the character, the emotion, the mood, the camarederie of a band that started as a seed, then as a plant and then as a towering tree. One endearing scene is the bond between Mike and Eddie onstage, in which the former was having the hard time to connect in ``those days,'' from the ``VS.'' to ``Vitalogy'' days. The singer, albeit the melodrama and almost Shakespearean life, became an enigma to Mike and to others. And this I applaud Place/Date for its work. And how many times the band members change their hairstyle, their musical style, Place/Date remains as one proof that Pearl Jam is band and not a one-man show.
