Pearl Jam Spins the Black Circle, Jams With Jack White at Surprise Third Man Show

In 2008, Metallica preceded their Bonnaroo gig with a little warm-up show at The Basement. And every year since, locals have speculated over 'Roo headliners who might pull off a secret Nashville club show. Last night it happened.

OK, first of all, whose idea was it to invite Pearl Jam to play Third Man Records’ Blue Room — where they cut records direct to acetate live in front of a very small, very lucky audience — without convincing the band to play “Spin the Black Circle,” even in jest? THE SPIN DEMANDS TO KNOW WHO! WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE?!

Completely blown opportunity aside, watching a world-class band like Pearl Jam (a band who has survived every ebb and flow of the music industry, a band who will perform for tens of thousands of fans Saturday night at Bonnaroo) in the cozy confines of the warped-wall Blue Room was electrifying. With only about 200 people in attendance, and not a single glowing cell phone screen in sight (using a phone would get you kicked out, TMR staff reminded us over and over again), the dream of the ’90s was very much alive at Third Man. 

After a brief introduction — because really, how much of an introduction does a band like Pearl Jam need? — Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Matt Cameron (and auxiliary keyboardist Boom Gaspar) took the stage nonchalantly, like they weren't bona-fide rock gods worshipped by the majority of people in the room. They waved to the crowd, they smiled. They said very little and got down to business. 

First, levels had to be tested. Before the Blue Room's "cutting" light could illuminate and archaic technology could live again, the band played the Vitalogy gem "Corduroy" to ensure every string was in tune and every mic was in the right place. It sounded unreal — Vedder's voice, which has been with us since we were 13 years old, carried us through a wormhole to Seattle circa 1994 when the band was fiercely fighting Ticketmaster and The Spin was wearing brick-red matte lipstick and begging their parents for an eyebrow ring. With an OK from the lathe-master in the lab coat, the real show began.

The racing "Mind Your Manners," a song that flirts with a Northwest hardcore sound, made good show of Vedder's ageless vocals. "Life Wasted" gave McCready a chance to prove his shred-skills are on lock, still and always, with a guitar solo that came complete with arena-worthy moves that threatened folks in the front row with black eyes and fat lips. After only five songs — chosen seemingly randomly from the band's catalog — the lights went dark. Panic struck the room, but only for a moment. The night was not over. Not yet. There was still a Side 2 to cut. After a very brief break — just long enough to change the acetate and for the polite crowd to begin to cheer for more — Vedder, who had been mostly quiet between songs, said the words many in the crowd were hoping they’d hear: “Welcome to the stage ... Mr. Jack White!”

And out came White, a head taller than the rest, in a black mock turtleneck, dark black sunglasses and a frayed pile of black hair spiking up off the top of his pale head. Among Pearl Jam’s effortless cool rock band style — T-shirts, short-sleeve button-ups, jeans — White stood out. It looked like the popular senior garage band in high school hesitantly invited the freshman A.V. nerd to jam with them at the talent show at the end of a feel-good teen movie, only to discover that — HOLY SHIT — the kid has some fucking chops. With the Blue Room's "cutting" light shining bright, the band and White plowed into “Of the Earth” with a four-guitar onslaught so powerful the hairs on the back of our neck stood on end. It only took a few minutes before the song evolved into a maniacal jam session — White popped his neck and strutted like a rooster and hid his smile while taking turns going face-to-face and guitar-to-guitar with each Pearl Jammer, injecting his gleeful chirps of frenzied noodling throughout the breakdown, bring things to a close by call-and-responsing with McCready on the riff to blues standard "Baby, Please Don't Go." The audience disappeared from their vision — they played with and for only one another at that point. They were just a bunch of guitar nerds delighting in one another's skills and it was the kind of moment that's rarely, if ever, seen anymore from musicians who regularly sell out arenas and headline festivals. It was a privilege to be there.

It had to last at least five minutes. Probably more. Onlookers including Mayor Megan Barry, Margo Price, Keith Urban and a woman who looked like Sandra Bullock were all there, all with jaws nearly on the floor.

How to follow that up? The night could've been called right there and all would leave happy, but Pearl Jam filled up the rest of Side 2 with "Hard to Imagine" and their Christmas song, "Let Me Sleep." The latter of which was at first a strange choice for a closer, but because it will take months for this record to be available for sale, perhaps it's timed well for those purchasing close to the holidays. No matter. Christmas in June sounds good on Pearl Jam. 

Once the “cutting” light switched off, and the one-in-a-lifetime evening was successfully sonically captured by an all-but-defunct mechanism, Vedder addressed the crowd. “I wish I had one of these in my living room,” he said, gesturing to the mechanism visible through a glass door on stage left. “You can!” someone shouted. He's rich. He probably could. “This is the only one that exists!” Vedder said. “And it happens to be in Nashville, Tenn.” The crowd cheered. He said the word "Nashville." It was not a dream. 

As the rest of the band left the stage — except for McCready, Vedder requested McCready stay by his side "so I'm not alone up here" — Vedder recalled a David Lynch quote he’s always loved, about how ideas are the best thing going. “And one of the best idea men in the whole world is Jack White,” he preached to a room of testifying fans.

“We all have ideas, we all smoke pot," he said with a laugh. "But not only does he have ideas, he sees them through.” Indeed. It's only because White built Third Man's whimsical wonderland here in Nashville that moments as magical as this exist.