Battle of the Grunge: Pearl Jam vs Nirvana vs Alice in Chain
 

As if it's really a competition:

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Pearl Jam.

Never really did like Nirvana.

I personally prefer Cracker over all of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAXnEI6-4ag

Pearl Jam.

Nirvana all the way. (PS Francis Bean has an album coming out soon)

pearl jam

Yeah, this isn't close - Pearl Jam's relevance is entirely predicated on Nirvana, and the fact that PJ has released approximately half a good album's worth of material since the 1990s shouldn't earn them bonus points.

Nirvana is somewhat overrated, sure, but they're still the top of this pile. For proof, check out the "Live at Reading" reissue - just unfathomably good.

I get the appeal of Pearl Jam, and they're a generation's "Favorite Band"-type of band, but Nirvana did more with markedly less (and I'll admit Nirvana may benefit from not being around to suck in their later years).

Totally agree with this. I've always said that if Kurt hadn't died that Nirvana would not be nearly as big. His death pushed the band into a "legacy" status.

I am a HUGE Pearl Jam fan. Own all the albums, been to four concerts, use to have an Eddie poster on my bedroom wall in high school...lol. Their newer stuff has been kinda meh but their live shows are still amazing to this day. They can still rock out.

-ZTAngel aka the girl who drove 11 hours to Florida to see Pearl Jam in concert since they weren't coming to Atlanta on their latest tour and got all misty-eyed when they played Yellow Ledbetter. Yes, I am a dork.

My ♥ is always with Nirvana

I never have and never will like Nirvana. I'm gonna catch hell for this, but I think they are completely overrated.

Is AiC grunge? I would have put them into heavy metal...

In any respect, out of the three listed, I'll have to go with Pearl Jam. One word: Epic.

yes, they're a little more metal than grunge.


Alice in Chains

Yeah - it's hard to separate those factors though . . . after all, Pearl Jam benefited immensely from Vedder being attractive, from 'popular' politics/GWB, and from a sort of populist slant that could have only happened then (I mean, Ticketmaster wasn't available for the Who to rail against) . . . it makes for a tough comparison.

This is also a good point, and definitely something to be considered - I don't think live work has gotten enough love in these threads (also why I brought up Live at Reading - just a superlative live show). Pearl Jam is a notoriously solid live band though, while Alice in Chains got a 20 year old Layne Staley impersonator to tour with.

I would never kick Eddie Vedder out for eating crackers in bed, that's for darn sure.

I would have to go with Pearl Jam first, they completely kick ass in concert and their latest album, Backspacer, is reminiscent of Yield, which is my favorite PJ album.

AIC is next. Jar of Flies is one of the best albums of the 90s, even though it's not typical AIC.

I like Nirvana and know they were the poster band for the grunge movement, but I never got into them as much.

You should have just called this "Battle of the Seattle Bands." You're missing one big band that is almost always mentioned with these other three - Soundgarden! As a Seattle girl, it's hard for me to choose between these - Singles is one of my favorite movies.

I was also not a huge fan of Nirvana. I feel like they were just really taking off when Kurt died. Still remember the mourning in this city the day he was found.

Alice in Chains was helped and hurt by Layne Staley. I don't know what "20 year old Layne Staley impersonator" KSig_RC is talking about, but their current lead singer (who has been with the band for five years) is anything but. I got to meet the band a couple of weeks ago at the GRAMMYs and found out they're back to touring and recording (just released a new album a few months ago). In fact they put my name on a VIP list for the Seattle show they just had a week ago and it was GREAT. They're really nice guys.

Pearl Jam still has Gold-like status here, and Eddie Vedder routinely shows up to play with other musicians/bands when they come to town. For instance, when I went to the local Tom Petty/Trey Anastacio concert a few years ago, Eddie Vedder (and Stevie Nicks) came out to do a few songs with Petty. One of the best concerts I've ever been to. Yeah, I still like Pearl Jam.

As for Soundgarden...they really were the first big success out of the Seattle scene. Other bands came before them (Mudhoney, etc.) but Soundgarden's success really paved the way for the others.

I am a die hard Nirvana fan.

Although, one band that almost never gets mentioned alongside Nirvana and Alice in Chains, and should be, is Soul Asylum. They were great. They put out like 5 albums before having a hit single, their next album was great, and then they went back to relative obsurity, but I think they're still around. Great work, absolutely great work.