POP MUSIC REVIEW : Vedder Lowers the White Flag : Pearl Jam Launches Its Alternative Tour With the Band Promising No Surrender to Ticketmaster

Rock ‘n’ roll’s heavyweight championship fight isn’t over after all.

Before singing a note at the opening stop of Pearl Jam’s first tour in more than a year, Eddie Vedder stepped to the microphone Friday at the sold-out Casper Events Center to make it clear that the nation’s most popular band hasn’t thrown in the towel in its bitter dispute with Ticketmaster, the nation’s leading concert ticket distributor.

“I guess you’ve heard . . . they are saying in the papers that we surrendered to Ticketmaster . . . and that didn’t happen,” Vedder said. “And take my word, that’s not [going to happen].”

As the audience cheered, Vedder and the band went into a nearly two-hour set that delighted the crowd of 9,000, more than half of which had driven hours to get here, an Events Center official estimated. “Pearl Jam or Bust,” read one sign on the window of a car with South Dakota plates.

Vedder’s comments were in response to press reports in which Pearl Jam’s manager, Kelly Curtis, said that the group had given up its attempt to bypass the Los Angeles-based ticket firm after finding it impossible over the last year to book acceptable venues in certain cities without the ticket giant. He suggested the group might work with Ticketmaster if it was the only way to play an area.

Backstage here Friday, Curtis said his remarks were made out of frustration after the band canceled its June 26-27 shows at the Del Mar Fairgrounds because last-minute safety concerns were raised by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

Curtis said he mentioned the idea of turning to a Ticketmaster venue as a last resort on the spur of the moment, out of his desire to reschedule the shows quickly to avoid disappointing fans in the area.

“[Bassist] Jeff [Ament] and Eddie were furious after reading reports that we had changed our policy, because that was not their intention at all, and we are all in agreement that it is not what we are going to do,” Curtis said.

Mike McGinley, the tour consultant who works with the manager and the band, also said he is exploring additional non-Ticketmaster venues for additional dates this fall, but that no itinerary has been confirmed.

Pearl Jam, which maintains that Ticketmaster charges fans excessive service charges, filed a memorandum with the U.S. Justice Department in May of 1994, arguing that the company holds a monopoly over ticket distribution in the $1-billion U.S. concert business. The government subsequently launched an investigation--still ongoing--into the ticket distribution industry.

For its current 12-city tour, the band turned to some of the few venues that do not have exclusive agreements with Ticketmaster, using Irvine-based ETM Entertainment Network to handle tickets.

As it turned out, the band was able to switch the Del Mar dates to the San Diego Sports Arena, which has an exclusive contract with Ticketmaster, using the tickets that had been sold through ETM. The San Diego Sports Arena will pay the ticket company an undisclosed fee to allow the shows to proceed. Ticketmaster said it will donate that fee to charity. The band did not participate in that process, Curtis and McGinley said.

Informed of Vedder’s onstage comments, a Ticketmaster representative in Los Angeles said Saturday, “It seems like Eddie’s frustration should be directed at his management since the band would not be able to play the San Diego Sports Arena shows without Ticketmaster’s cooperation.”

Though fans questioned before the Casper concert said they think Pearl Jam’s Ticketmaster stance is worthy, they expressed frustration over not being able to see a full-scale national Pearl Jam tour. Some worried that Vedder was becoming obsessed with Ticketmaster at the expense of playing shows. Vedder nodded when the comments were repeated to him backstage after the concert.

“I understand how people might think that, but we aren’t obsessed with Ticketmaster,” he said. “Ticketmaster is just one tiny detail in a series of business details that we have to deal with.

“We made a decision long ago about how we want to present our music, what we think is honorable and fair to the fans, and then we turned it over to our representatives to handle it for us. We don’t sit around in a room all day talking about it. We spend our time making music.”

Pearl Jam has been especially busy in the studio in recent months, playing on a Neil Young album that will be released June 27 as well as recording considerable material for a Pearl Jam album that is expected in 1996. Vedder also spent several weeks recently touring with Mike Watt’s band.

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As fans waited for the arena doors to open Friday, they had generally good words for the ETM system, which on this tour took phone orders and then issued tickets by mail. The band’s McGinley said there were some glitches, but labeled them minor.

Though the Events Center was the focus of the rock world Friday night, the building, with its red, Pizza Hut-style roof, has stood for years as a symbol of frustration and futility in Casper.

Built in the early ‘80s during an oil boom that pushed Casper’s population to nearly 90,000, the Center, which is on a hill overlooking the city, was designed to serve as an entertainment palace to host the world’s top entertainers. And for a while, they came: from ZZ Top to Bob Hope to the circus.

But the oil slowed and Casper’s population dropped by almost half, leaving the city too small to attract major acts. Ironically, one reason the building was free for Pearl Jam to play was that it probably doesn’t do enough business to justify a Ticketmaster contract.

“Every time I look up at that place, it reminds me that nothing ever happens around here,” one disgruntled teen said, sitting with some buddies in the Eastridge Mall.

Vedder and Co. changed that.

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After an opening set by L.A. punk stalwarts Bad Religion, Pearl Jam--Vedder, Ament, guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready and drummer Jack Irons--played with the blistering, liberating edge that makes it such a commanding force in contemporary rock.

Though Vedder has long sung with a purging-of-the-soul intensity, he has learned not to sacrifice nuance and character for mere force. Whether on something as vigorous and upbeat as “Not for You” or as quiet and questioning as “Better Man,” his voice brings an Everyman conviction and heart to the lyrics.

Pearl Jam’s songs speak frequently of emotional turmoil and youthful alienation, but the group’s music has a strangely therapeutic impact on a crowd. That’s especially true when Vedder becomes a third guitarist, bringing a punk-accented spontaneity and exuberance to the sound.

Like most rock idealists, Vedder exudes the tension and electricity of a performer constantly searching for new ways to touch the audience--new ways to reveal himself in gesture or song. One such experiment on this tour occurs after the band has left the stage.

Even before all the cars were out of the parking lot, Vedder was on the airwaves on a special frequency, hosting his own local version of the national underground radio show he put together a few months ago in Seattle.

As the rest of the band flew ahead to Salt Lake City for the next night’s show, Vedder remained and took phone calls from fans and played some favorite music--from the new Foo Fighters album and an old Pete Townshend/Ronnie Lane teaming to more obscure recordings.

In the quiet of the cool Wyoming night, Vedder, a man who has emerged from a troubled youth and has spoken about some of the same difficulties in adjusting to stardom and adulation that were voiced by the late Kurt Cobain, seemed momentarily at peace.

Things didn’t go as well on Saturday in Salt Lake City, where rain from a late afternoon storm forced cancellation of the concert at the 12,000-seat Wolf Mountain Amphitheatre.

Moments before the show was to have started, Vedder went on stage to express his regret. Because there was no power for the sound system, he spoke through a bullhorn, promising to return to Salt Lake as soon as possible and “play twice as long.”

For most performers, the vow would just be good-natured bravado, but Vedder, with all his talk about trying to humanize the rock ‘n’ roll experience, may just do it. He is proving to be a man of his word.

* Pearl Jam, with Bad Religion and Mudhoney, plays June 26-27 at the San Diego Sports Arena, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego, 7 p.m. Sold out. (619) 224-4176.