MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn has written the latest entry in his blog, The General Journals: Diary Of A Frontman... And Other Ramblings - Life Affirming. An excerpt follows:

"Just rented the Pearl Jam ‘20’ documentary on iTunes via Apple TV. Directed by Cameron Crowe it chronicles, first 20 years of the Pearl Jam story and even goes back quite a ways to document the pre-PJ line up of Mother Love Bone. As a long time Pearl Jam fan, I was surprised how little I really knew about this era and found it all quite informative. It is an amazing documentary, and even if you are not a PJ fan, you would be well worth it to watch this exhaustively detailed story of one the last truly great American rock bands.

Actually, truth be told, "long time Pearl Jam fan" isn't exactly correct. Big fan of "Ten" and "VS.", loved these albums, liked “Vitalogy”, but I really only know a handful of songs past these albums. I enjoyed the newer songs when I heard them, but I haven't checked out all the huge discography they’ve amassed. I was kinda Pearl Jam-ed out for a few years there but I've made an effort to catch them if they came thru, or in the rare chance we shared the same Euro Festival bill I always tried to catch their set. Simply put they are rockin' live!

And let me say that again, THEY ARE ROCKIN' LIVE! In fact, watching this documentary reminded (and I needed reminding) me of just how god damn rockin’ they were when they hit the scene back in the 90's. Watching some of the old footage from the “Ten”-era was thoroughly invigorating; they were spell-binding, goin' OFF onstage. I forgot how nutzo, and daring and exciting they truly were. Vedder hanging from balconies, the light truss, the ceiling, the water pipes, we’re talking 30, 40, 50 feet above the stage, then dropping into the crowd! That’s some serious daredevil shit back then and still now! The rest of the band seemed unaffected by this and just continued rockin, bashin' and headbangin', runnin' around doing what a “band” does, PLAY!

Anybody who lived through this era, can remember how Grunge just took over the WORLD for a minute, but watching (or re-watching) this live footage makes you remember why. The MTV Unplugged sesssion they did is fucking jaw-dropping. I was stoked to see the Unplugged DVD in the “Ten” re-issue a few years back. How they managed that much intensity acoustically?... so good.

I'll tell you my Pearl Jam story."

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