Patrick Sharp, wanting so unnatural within the inexperienced and white of the Dallas Stars, took a knee on the United Middle ice on Feb. 11, 2016, and craned his neck to observe the massive scoreboard hanging excessive above. Not too way back, there was nothing the Blackhawks cherished extra — or did higher — than rousing tribute movies to returning ex-Blackhawks, and this one was a doozy. It lasted the whole tv timeout. The gang roared with every passing spotlight of a giant purpose, every clip of a humorous off-ice bit, every of the 3 times Sharp raised the Stanley Cup over his head.
Because the video — set to Pearl Jam’s “Aged Girl Behind the Counter in a Small City,” a melancholy ode to long-lost love — constructed to its emotional crescendo, tears stuffed Sharp’s eyes whereas Eddie Vedder howled, “My God, it’s been so lengthy. By no means dreamed you’d return.”
Not lengthy after the sport, Sharp obtained a textual content. It was from Vedder, who advised Sharp he noticed the video on-line and that it was “stunning.”
“That was fairly superior,” A.J. Dolan mentioned, almost seven years later.
Was that the end result of Dolan’s feverish, myopic, borderline comical and — let’s face it — barely absurd quest to cram as a lot Pearl Jam as doable into the Blackhawks fan expertise because the group’s former senior supervisor of sport operations and leisure? Or was it the time he performed 10 — ten! — Pearl Jam songs in a single sport, on Dec. 20 of that very same 12 months, the day the band was voted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame? Or how concerning the time he received to the rink early and blasted 19 consecutive full-length Pearl Jam songs — a full live performance, mainly — over the United Middle sound system, simply because he might?
Mind of J. Do The Evolution. Eighteen and nineteen. #PearlJamCounter #ICantKeepUp
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) January 24, 2017
Sure, “Chelsea Dagger” has been synonymous with the Blackhawks for the final 14 years because the group’s longstanding purpose track. Nevertheless it’s not The Fratellis who had been the soundtrack of the best period in franchise historical past. It was Pearl Jam.
For no actual motive aside from a number of guys within the United Middle management room needed it to be.
The trick, you see, to sneaking in 5 – 6 songs by the identical, let’s say, less-relevant-than-it-used-to-be band in a single hockey sport is to get fairly obscure. We’re speaking deep, deep cuts. Had Dolan and his group been blasting “Alive,” “Even Movement,” “Jeremy,” “Corduroy” and “Final Kiss” each night time, even then-Blackhawks president John McDonough — whose solely nighty musical insistence was “Juke Field Hero” by Foreigner, talking of less-relevant bands — might need caught on. However whenever you’re throwing in “Breakerfall” or “W.M.A.” or “MFC” or “Mankind,” it’s fairly straightforward to sneak yet one more Pearl Jam track by the boss.
“If John McDonough knew I’d attempt to get to 4 or 5 Pearl Jam songs a day, he would have mentioned to cease it,” Dolan mentioned with fun. “However he wouldn’t know three of them.”
The purpose was all the time easy: One Pearl Jam track per interval, minimal. Throw in a single throughout pregame and possibly one other one or two throughout an intermission, and abruptly you’re pushing the bounds of motive.
One time — one time — Dolan mentioned his direct supervisor, vp of promoting Pete Hassen, advised him, “Dude, you’ve gotta settle down on the PJ.” Media relations director Brandon Faber, who initially employed Dolan as an intern simply earlier than the beginning of the 2008-09 season, “egged me on and cherished it.” Every so often, Dolan would get a observe from McDonough deeming the music “somewhat too hard-rock different.” Nicely, yeah. Whereas almost each different rink across the league was drowning in brain-rattling EDM or generic fashionable pop and hip-hop, the United Middle was bizarrely particular, spinning half a dozen Pearl Jam songs and two or three Instrument tracks whereas sprinkling in somewhat Rage Towards the Machine.
The United Middle opened in 1994, and by no means left.
“It was a pair years there the place we had been cranking it out so much,” Sharp mentioned. “I bear in mind. A few of the gamers didn’t prefer it. I do know I cherished it.”
Kris Versteeg rebelled towards all of the Pearl Jam by making a techno-heavy warmups playlist to torment all of the alt-rock followers within the constructing (gamers usually choose the warmup music, whereas the game-presentation employees runs the DJ sales space throughout play). Brent Seabrook, all people’s huge brother, sarcastically anointed Dolan “vp of music” for taking his job so significantly and, as was his wont, needled him relentlessly about it. Jonathan Toews would have most well-liked the Tragically Hip or Canada’s personal alt-rock icons Our Girl Peace, as an alternative, however suffered all of the Pearl Jam along with his typical stoicism.
Brent Seabrook. (Stacy Revere / Getty Photographs)
After a battle or post-whistle skirmish, the thumping “Animal” would play. When an opposing participant began jawing at a referee, Dolan pulled out maybe his most obscure tune, “Don’t Gimme No Lip,” from Misplaced Canines, a double album of B-sides and rarities. He would discover any excuse to throw yet one more Pearl Jam track in there.
“Typically, you’d discover,” Toews mentioned, barely suppressing an eye fixed roll.
As for Sharp?
“He was all, ‘Preserve it cranking, hold it cranking,’” Dolan mentioned.
How did it get to that time? Nicely, Dolan might say of his Pearl Jam fandom, within the lyrics of Vedder, that “It’s my blood.” Vedder grew up in north Chicago suburban Evanston, and Dolan’s dad was married to Vedder’s organic father’s sister for 10 years. These steeped in Pearl Jam lore know properly the story of Eddie Severson Jr., who divorced Karen Vedder when Eddie was a child. Eddie grew up believing Karen’s second husband was his organic father, solely to study the reality as a youngster after Severson died from a number of sclerosis (the track “Alive” tells this story as a part of a legendary — and fictionalized — trilogy of songs). So Dolan’s father was in truth Eddie Vedder’s uncle, and he grew significantly shut with Severson as he was dying.
Throughout an almost three-hour thunderstorm delay at a Pearl Jam live performance at Wrigley Area in July of 2013, Sharp took Dolan backstage, and Dolan received to inform Vedder about their familial connection.
“It was in all probability an amazing second for A.J.,” Sharp mentioned. “I simply stayed out of the way in which and watched it go down.”
Dolan, who left the Blackhawks in 2018 and simply began a job touring the world and operating occasion manufacturing for LIV Golf, was the driving drive behind all of the Pearl Jam, however he wasn’t alone. Employed in 2008 as a media relations intern, handing sport notes and such to reporters within the press field — “I’d have scrubbed bathrooms at that time,” he mentioned — he rapidly discovered kindred spirits in fellow Pearl Jam fan Sergio Lozano, the senior director of scoreboard operations, and Ray Kramer, the longtime United Middle audio engineer.
“We bonded over Pearl Jam straight away,” Dolan mentioned.
These had been nonetheless the freewheeling early days of Rocky Wirtz/McDonough/Jay Blunk administration, and jobs had been fluid. (Dolan was within the room when advertising intern Matthew Benjamin pitched “Chelsea Dagger” through the 2008 preseason when Blunk, then the chief vp, put out a name for a brand new purpose track.)
Inside a pair months, Dolan was within the DJ’s chair throughout video games. By 2011, he was calling the entire present, operating sport ops. McDonough famously ran a really button-downed operation. And in case you’re going to need to put on a go well with and tie each night time simply to blast some music, you may as properly attempt to have some enjoyable with it and see what you will get away with.
“It was a really, very conservative group,” Dolan mentioned, laughing. “Music was our outlet of riot.”
They usually received away with so much. McDonough and Blunk got here from the Cubs and Wrigley Area, the place just about the one music being performed was on an organ. So whereas Dolan, Lozano and Kramer often would get nudged in a single route or one other — “not poppy sufficient” or “too laborious” — Dolan mentioned they had been left alone “95 p.c of the time.”
It began with a Pearl Jam track each interval. However inside a few years, there have been almost 50 Pearl Jam songs in common rotation. It turned a operating gag amongst followers and on social media, one totally embraced by reporters, specifically. The band caught wind of its shocking connection to Vedder’s hometown group as followers routinely tagged Pearl Jam on Twitter and, largely via Sharp’s superstar, received to know the group a bit.
The ridiculousness and the how-do-we-keep-getting-away-with-this nature of the playlists solely fueled Dolan, Lozano, Kramer and finally Mike Horn — who was employed as sport presentation supervisor in 2016 — to play increasingly more, culminating with the night time the band was voted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame.
The playlist that night time included almost the whole “Vs.” album. A little bit extra mainstream than typical, however hey, it was a particular night time.
“We checked out one another and we’re like, ‘We’re attending to 10,’” Dolan mentioned. “I don’t know the way we’re going to do it, however we’re going to do it.”
Leash. TEN! A brand new document. #PearlJamCounter
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) December 21, 2016
Dolan left the Blackhawks to take a job in North Carolina within the fall of 2018. He got here again to Chicago for Thanksgiving that 12 months and dropped in for a sport, and his previous buddies within the game-ops sales space serenaded him with 4 Pearl Jam songs, together with his favourite, “Breath” — “the most effective track ever,” Dolan mentioned. The music actually hearkened again to the Blackhawks’ glory days higher than the 8-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights did.
You’ll nonetheless hear Pearl Jam on the United Middle today, however often simply as soon as per sport, and often some mainstream hit. Apart from a mysterious Pearl Jam-heavy sport on Nov. 3 of this season, gone are the times of listening to “Breath” or “Rats” or “You Are” or “Unemployable” enjoying to a largely befuddled Blackhawks crowd. Nonetheless, the band and the group are eternally linked now. Sharp continues to be tight with the band. Vedder was even on the marriage ceremony of Blackhawks broadcaster Caley Chelios, a household buddy via his friendship with Blackhawks nice Chris Chelios. The ties between band and group gained’t be minimize so simply. Nevertheless it’ll certainly by no means be just like the 2010s once more.
The #PearlJamCounter will get a shout-out. Now if provided that was again within the 6-7 vary each sport just like the previous days! Clearly the important thing to the group’s success. pic.twitter.com/gyv5uhsBn7
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) January 30, 2021
Most followers chalk up the Blackhawks’ downturn to age, the wage cap, poor roster administration, years of go-for-it trades depleting the prospect pool, to inevitability and the inexorable march of time. In spite of everything, glory and championships, like so many hearts and ideas, fade away.
However look somewhat nearer and also you see that the Blackhawks’ rise and fall coincided nearly precisely with the rise and fall of Pearl Jam music being performed at video games — one of many nice and most ridiculous operating gags in game-ops historical past.
“Folks knew that Pearl Jam was performed an absurd quantity at Blackhawks video games,” Dolan mentioned. “And I took nice pleasure in that.”
(Prime picture of Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam: Kevin Mazur / Getty Photographs)
