Pearl Jam gets happy!

First the personal:

The first song I ever played in a band before a live(and pretty big) audience was Pearl Jam’s “Alive.”

It was at the year-end senior talent show at Bristol Eastern High School and the band was composed of me (on bass) Bill Barnabucci (vocals) Colleen Barry (lead guitar) Stan Dobek (Guitar) and Adam Malic (drums).

The band was a one-off for a group of friends that had been rehearsing for the occasion in Adam’s garage.

I don’t think a tape of the performance exists... maybe it does... But I remember the performance went off well. We killed it. And Pearl Jam was at this time just beginning to become a big band. This was well before “Jeremy” hit the airwaves. Many in our audience, inconceivably, hadn’t heard the song before.

It’s been a long time since that high school show. 17 years. And Pearl Jam has, miraculously, a new album out. But it’s been nearly as long since I, and many other rock fans I know, lost interest. Pearl Jam has always been a band whose ethics I liked -- they decided to stop making music videos at the peak of their popularity, fought Ticketmaster (and lost) and had no reservations about taking political stands. They behaved a lot more like a rock band than most of their contemporaries.

But the band’s music hasn’t been exciting to me since “Ten” arrived with a sea of new, dark rock music that changed things up pretty good from the likes Warrant, Bon Jovi and Ratt that represented rock in those pre-indie days (never mind the steady dose of C&C Music Factory and Bel Biv Devoe-like stuff that dominated pop radio then).

Pearl Jam put out seven albums between that first one and this new one, “Backspacer.” Each contained decent songs, a great rock sound, but by 1995, when Pearl Jam was actively deciding to pursue ground already well-worn by Neal Young, new bands like Sunny Day Real Estate, Weezer and Radiohead (to name only the best known few) were already busy making grunge and its classic rock sound obsolete.

But none of this seemed to matter to Pearl Jam. They sounded like a band that had retreated to a cabin in the Washington woods -- somewhere without access to radio, TV or the Internet -- and continued to crank out somewhat interesting but never exciting albums full of dark and ponderous, brooding rock. They never managed to be more than the sum of their talented parts.

So it is a shock to the system to hear the opening few songs of “Backspacer,” which unlike any Pearl Jam outing before it, is full of palpable joy. “Gonna See My Friend,” the album’s first track, is about the bounciest thing the band has ever recorded.

As the album continues through “Got Some” and the catchy “The Fixer” a weight is audibly lifted from the band that had certainly “rocked” in the past, but never with so much concentrated bliss. The reason for this is still a mystery. Maybe they’re thrilled that Bush -- a frequent target of the band -- is finally gone. Who knows? Whatever the reason, it’s as if they finally figured out, “Hey we’re a rock band. Let’s have some fun.”

Unfortunately, the fun doesn’t last. The album soon coasts into rock mediocrity and by the time track 6, “Amongst the Waves” begins, I’m a little bored. There’s something about the up-tempo numbers that energizes this band. They get back there on track 8, “Supersonic,” but slow it down for the rest of the record.

When you boil it down, Pearl Jam is essentially a band of classicists. Which is fine -- they do it better than almost anyone -- it just feels like you’ve heard it all before.

Overall, “Backspacer” is mostly an enjoyable rock romp. At least half of it is very good. It’s not breaking any new ground, but they’re having fun. Finally.