I admit an embarrassingly high degree of ignorance of the Pearl Jam catalog, and I acknowledge they didn’t build their rabid fan base with stage gimmicks. A couple weeks ago I was trimming large swaths of weeds surrounding my house when “Release” randomly shuffled through my head. At a certain point in the song I simply stopped, um, released the mower, and stood there. Stunned. Intense doesn’t really cover it.

Speaking of covers, I’ve always considered this jam with Neil Young tearing up Young’s “Keep on Rockin in the Free World” one of the best “live” TV music performances I’d ever seen.

Fifteen years later, here’s another just as good… Wear earbuds if ya got ’em…

That Pearl jam is pretty, pretty, pretty good.