Jakarta watches ‘PJ20’

The fans made their intentions clear from the start – the film simply could not bypass Indonesia.

Pearl Jam celebrated their 20th year in the music industry with PJ20, a movie that describes every single important episode in the band’s long career.

Fans in Jakarta had their chance to see the movie in an official world screening after the capital was listed as one of the cities that would have the honor of hosting one of the most beautiful music documentaries ever made.

PJ20 [read: Pearl Jam Twenty] is a special collaboration project by Pearl Jam and Cameron Crowe, the band’s long-time buddy who has been around since the early days of Seattle’s grunge music scene.

He was a journalist at the time, but moved to Seattle to better understand the developing rock music scene there. As we all probably know, that era was filled with a stash of new wave rock music described as Alternative Rock, with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden and of course Pearl Jam leading the way.

When it was announced that the movie would be screened in cinemas for a one-night-only screening on Sept. 20, 2011, PJ fans all around the world crossed their fingers that their city would be one of the lucky ones. European and American fans were more at ease as their cities were already on the main stretch of the music circus, but Asian fans probably didn’t feel the same way.

Indonesian fans needed to push their own limits to get their chance. Pearl Jam Indonesia (PJ-ID), a massive Pearl Jam fan community, went all out to ensure the movie would be screened here.

“We’ve been waiting for so long to see Pearl Jam at home. We also know that the band was now having their 20th anniversary and there is PJ20, not only the movie but music festival, book and other things in conjunction with their 20-year marker.

“Originally, the idea was to screen the movie on the same day in various countries. Indonesia wasn’t on the list at first. But Singapore has four slots. We thought, ‘If Singapore has the chance then we should have it too’. Then, we contacted the company and talked with them with help from Bioskop Merdeka. So here we are, having our screening at home,” said Farry Aprianto from PJ-ID.

The screening itself was a success. A big cinema in Epicentrum Kuningan watched around 500 Pearl Jam fans pay tribute to the band. There were live acoustic music covers of the band’s greatest hits, a PJ20 merchandise stall, and of course a fans gathering that involved dozens of conversations and greetings between them.

Fans had to pay Rp 150,000 (US$17.1) for a ticket to the screening, arguably the most expensive movie ticket any of them had ever paid on Indonesian soil.

“I have no problem paying that amount of money just to see this movie. It’s for Pearl Jam and a tribute to PJ-ID who have worked hard to bring the movie to Indonesia,” said Yoshi Fe, a fan who has been in love with the band since the Ten album era back in the ‘90s. He watched the show with some friends from the same era.

PJ20 was probably the first music documentary screened in a big cinema here in Indonesia. The tickets were also sold out with a few people on the waiting list who didn’t make it to the film.

The film itself showcased a superbly edited film made from 1,200 hours of rare footage which wasn’t available to the public before, and new footage shot by Crowe and his crew at the band’s home in Seattle.

For all to see where the ups and downs of Pearl Jam’s 20-year career. The film showed the band’s progression from its first club show to their first gig, and then to Loolapaloza in 1995, where they drew a crowd of more than 60,000 people to their set, which was scheduled in their early 2 p.m. slot at the festival.

You also could see how brave-but-crazy Eddie Vedder climbed the rigging at their festival gigs and ended up jumping into the crowd for some crowd surfing while Jeff Ament, the bass player, watched on with concern.

PJ20 also recorded the Roskilde Festival tragedy that took nine lives in Norway back in 2000. There was a scene when Eddie Vedder cried on stage, which prompted stories about the scene from Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Mike McCready.

Also included in the film was the band’s failed lawsuit against Ticketmaster back in 1995, which saw the band take the brave decision to not play big arenas.

The film is a complete movie that all music fans can benefit from. It’s a story about a band that chose to be on the side of their fans rather than that of the major music industry.

“We’re now acknowledged by the management, the band and the world. Let’s just hope the band will finally recognize Indonesia as a tour spot, then we’d be so happy,” Farry said.

The day will come one day. Oh, if you missed the screening, no worries, PJ20 will be released on DVD sometime in October 2011.