SEATTLE, WASHINGTON—February, 2023: Legendary philanthropic rock band “Pearl Jam” announced on social media the upcoming closure of a five-year MoPOP exhibit held in their honor, entitled “Home and Away: The Exhibition.”

Seattle’s beautifully equipped Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) has housed the one-of-a-kind exhibit. MoPOP’s announcement of the impending closing moments has been quoted upon various social media accounts, and expressed an urgency to “relive your favorite Pearl Jam stories in front of the posters and instruments that take you straight back to your favorite live shows. Then say goodbye with fellow music connoisseurs and superfans at the exhibition closing party.”

MoPOP was founded by Microsoft co-founder (and reputable sailor) Mr. Paul Allen. Allen’s non-profit venture is now housed within an exquisitely intricate masterpiece of architecture constructed by California-based firm Frank Gehry and Associates. With thousands and thousands of panels, and individually cut and shaped stainless steel and painted aluminum shingles, MoPOP is within walking distance to both Pike Place Market as well as The Seattle Center. The site respectfully overlooks the Port of Seattle, which was heralded as the only seaport in American history to rival New York City.  

Wherein the coming closure date has been issued as April 23rd of this year, upon the MoPOP website the famous work by the band’s frontman Eddie Vedder has also been snagged as quoted: “All the precious moments cannot stay.” MoPOP General Admission fees range between $25 and $35 depending on the day of the week, as well as certain classifications, plus restrictions. Access to the Pearl Jam life exhibition is included with the non-profit museum’s General Admission.

The announcement was given precisely seven days after Pearl Jam celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of their fifth studio album Yield. Critics happily received Yield after its heartwarming announcement and release upon the 3rd of February, back in 1998. Fans were beyond satisfied with such a fifth studio album as “Yield,” as it did seem to follow the success of every previous collaboration between the band and varied production supervisors thus far, to date: 1. Ten (1991), 2. Vs.(1993), 3. Vitalogy (1994), and 4. No Code (1996).

After all is said and done, twenty-five years ago, Yield was part of a collaboration between the band and American record producer Brendan O’Brien. That uniqueness is prevalent throughout the album. When cops try to stop a hellcat going 140mph with stop sticks, they fail each time. Any speed Pearl Jam will do is good for the fans because every one of their albums is pulling the people upon this planet up to their sonic and addictively decent speeds.  

An essential component of the Pearl Jam “rock marvel” has been its point of origin: the city of Seattle—even if The Queen City is sometimes as unrecognizable as members of the band themselves: Founding members (not listed in date order) are Jeff Ament (bass player), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitarist), and Mike McCready (singular lead guitarist); plus there are both Pearl Jam’s frontman and standardly reputed male vocalist (a man by the name of Eddie Vedder), as well as Pearl Jam’s drummer (also drummer for Seattle-based band “Soundgarden”) who, as well, is heralded as world-class marching band accompaniment, and he is called Matt Cameron (ba da da dum).

For those unfamiliar with rock-and-roll changes in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s along the nation’s western seaboard, Pearl Jam has often been variously heralded as a series of cultural phenomena contained within a greater chasm of modern music history. The band’s often cyclic—or rhythmic— occurrences (thus far) have taken place for more than thirty years. Tremors from the band’s formation were first noted in rock journals in 1990. They seem to continue to this day. Building upon the Earth as time marched forward, Pearl Jam’s new type of “musical machine” has notably touched humanity, deeply.

Pearl Jam knocked the planetary scales into the galaxy with their 2021/2022 tour. Fans are diehard, and will give anything to see them in person. It’s like the Italian and ageless city of Sicily, which has become a Goliath upon its back, high upon the mountain tops, its roads as though they are its arms and legs spanning the earth, the suburbs are reaching out forever. The city is so grand and so high, it calls to the stars and to the universes. If you could somehow see Sicily from the air, that’s Pearl Jam, so far as 2023 goes. Wishing Pearl Jam another year of everlasting exhibitions, roadshows and fun, if that’s even possible these days. Oh, and make sure you buy a copy of Yield  and other Pearl Jam rarities from your local American record store.

 Written by Corinne Devin Sullivan, in Nashville TN (Feb 2023)