It was late summer of 93. I was working at as a busboy at a local steakhouse. I had recently got my driveway basketball buddy a job with me (see the ten thread). We spent most of our days talking about Bball and Pearl Jam. I still wasn't fully on board with him about this being the greatest band ever, but I was getting there. One night after work we went back to his house to watch the MTV video awards..mainly to watch PJ. When they came on stage I was expecting Jeremy or Evenflow, but instead I had the wind knocked out of me. When they ripped into Animal I was overcome with a feeling I had never had. The aggression and emotion really got to me. Stones driving riff put me in a trance.

The next day we went to just about every hole in the wall music shop in search for anything Pearl Jam. We found what we were looking for...CD warehouse. They had a wall with about 10 different PJ boots on it. We were looking through the boots when one of the store clerks came up to us and told us about the early release they would be doing on the new album. He called it Midnight Madness.

So a month later there we were..at about 10pm. We waited in line. They opened the doors at midnight. There were quite a few people there...some were there for mariah carey's new album We found the new PJ record. After we got it to the car and got the stupid plastic fortress removed from it...I saw something I had never seen before..I cardboard CD case..not the usuall plastic jewel case. I later lost it

I had recently gotten a second job delivering news papers out of my car..so this night my buddy went with me on my route. Right off the bat we were kicked in the nuts.. Never before had two songs worn me out in such a way. The Go/Animal intro, to me, is still unmatched. Daughter..Glorified G..WoW Finally it got to track 8. Holy Shit...RVM was instantly my favorite song of all time. It became my paper tossing theme song. I listened to it over and over. Animal has since surpassed it as my favorite, but for a very long time I didn't think it could get any better.

I think the best thing that came out of this release was a really cool tradition. Every PJ release I go to CD warehouse with the same friend and we buy the record. We'll drive around town and listen..talk about the old days at the steak house and that night on my paper route listening to Vs. for the first time. We missed a few years while I was in the army, but even then durring the No Code, Yield releases..I called him up and we talked about and listened to the records together for the first time....long distance style. Next release I'm pretty sure you'll find us at CD warehouse checking out the boots, laughing at the funny looking orange raised polka dot pet shop boys cd...that we would have never known existed if not for our constant checking of the pearl jam section at the music store... oh yeah.. also wondering if pennywise is any good.

Excellent story, PB.

I remember getting my first copy of Vs. on cassette. It was a rare copy, as it was titled "Five Against One" on the tape. Unfortunately it got ruined after playing it so much back. "Go" and "Animal" was the greatest 1-2 opening punch I had ever heard at that time.

Back in the day, I couldn't get into the softer songs, so I would normally skip "Daughter" and "Dissident". And I rarely listened to side 2, it was always "Go" and "Animal" for me.

The first PJ cd I ever owned I actually stole from a friend, who used his allowance money to recently buy the record. Back then, I was a lot into early 90's pop music and hip-hop, but the CD still stuck with me even for the taste of music I had back then. The same thing is said about Nevermind and BSSM.
My favorite song upon first listen was blood, for some reason.

Great first post

Hmm let's think about my first time with Vs... Um I don't really remember the listening experience as much, but I remember Pearl Jam was my favorite band at the time thanks to Ten and assorted other songs I had heard here and there, but mostly Ten, and it would've been my 12th birthday, July 20, 2002, or somewhere right around there. I was up at my grandma's for my family birthday party and my aunt wanted to get me something so she took me to a store(for the life of me I can't remember where...) and I still remember how the scene looked but I can't describe it... Anyway, I saw the cover and thought it was quite odd, but sort of cool. So I said that's the one I want and got it. I got it back to my grandma's but couldn't listen because there was no CD player available. Anyway I showed my grandma the CD and she commented on how ugly it was . Hmmm, now about the actual music, I don't remember any of that. I remember I loved the album, but not as much as Ten. I think Ten held on to my top album position until I got Riot Act that next Christmas. I don't remember loving Indifference so much, probably neutral on that one, but I think Daughter was probably my favorite song, with Small Town close behind. Just a guess from fuzzy memories, but I always loved Daughter. I didn't especially like WMA either. I think I loved Dissident. Maybe GG too. Probably all the songs I didn't mention I loved.

100% agree. That first listen was insane. It was hard as hell. It almost made me think the rest of the CD was going to be like that.


iiiiiii took a drive today....MORNING MA'AM!

I'm pretty sure I bought Vs. and Ten on the same day. 'Twas the beginning of a love affair 'twould never end.

ballsy debuting this thing on a Thursday evening



My first Vs experience was hearing WMA at a going away party in 7th grade for Lindy Bennet, an ex - girlfriend of mine

I remember getting all the records(Vs.-Binaural) at Christmas time 02, and I remember Vs. immeadiately sticking out. The Go-Animal combo was just insane. RVM...Blood...Dissident...Leash...holy shit I remember being blown away. Indifference didn't really hit me until later, but I loved this record right off the bat. Easily the best intro to PJ record.

I also bought Vs at a midnight madness sale, at a little indie record store in Bethlehem, PA. There were three notable albums coming out that night including Rush's Counterparts, and a third one that currently escapes me, but my friend's girlfriend bought it.

They were playing the Rush album when we got there, and then while we were waiting on line (probably a 30 minute wait just snaking around the store to get to the cashier), they started playing Pearl Jam. I only remember the first three songs, and being a bit annoyed that I wasn't going to get to listen to the album on my own terms when I heard it for the firs time, my own terms meaning in my room on the good stereo and stoned out of my gourd.

Anyway, we didn't have a CD player in teh car, but I had two friends who had the midnight to 2 am radio show at school, so we stopped by the radio station on teh way home and I asked them to play a song. We didn't know which one, so we just picked one at random. It was Blood. Kinda rocked my world, because it was by far the hardest shit I'd ever heard from Pearl Jam, so angry and harsh. I dug it immediately, my DJ friends, not so much.

I don't remember when I listened to it straight through for the first time, that night or the next day, but I can remember that by the end of the week, it was constantly playing out of somebody's dorm room window wherever you went on campus.

Also, I have one of those shitty ecopack CD covers that came with the first pressing, and that shit broke within the first week. Total crap that is.

I first heard Daughter a long time ago on the radio (probably 2003 or 2004).

Finally got around to buying Vs. 2 or 3 years ago, got the old school "eco-pak" one for $2.50.

I still the the TAPE that is titled five againts one.

Double Post...

Man, at 24 I already feel like an old dude (not that I mind).

I knew there was a reason I stumbled into this thread...Vs was my first Pearl Jam record! My cousin was always playing plenty of Pearl Jam and had Ten plus a boot or two and he certainly turned me onto both Nirvana and Pearl Jam back when I was an impressionable little snot.

I remember really clearly sitting in the hospital with my dad when he was recovering from his operation to remove a brain tumour right around the release of the album and listening to the radio on my Walkman and being excited as they played What's My Name by Snoop Doggy Dogg and Animal by PJ and I loved them both.

I know for sure that I bought it from the David Jones (big department store in Adelaide) music department, which used to smell great because it was right next to the gourmet foods section/cafe. I can be pretty positive that I bought it with cash for my birthday that year, the record came out on October 19th and my birthday is the 27th. It's hard to remember my initial impressions of individual songs now that it's been 14 years and I was pretty young at the time, apart from thinking "this fuckin' rocks!". I remember loving Animal, W.M.A., Rats and Indifference though (I still do).

Great record, they've made better since, but it sure was a hell of a way to begin my fandom.

Oh, and Doggystyle by Snoop Doggy Dogg is another great record too.

Vs. came out when I was a sophomore in high school and there was a pretty good buzz at school about the "new" Pearl Jam album coming out. I was on the basketball team at the time and found out that the album would be realesed when I would be out of town for a tournament. I was pretty diappointed thinking that I wouldn't have a chance to get it on the day it came out. But as luck would have it, I got a chance to run to the local record store a grab the CD. I was awed by this new cardboard, triple fold CD case with no title. But that was just the begining.

I was able to listen to album a couple of times on the 4 hour bus ride home. It turned out to be a perfect place and time for me to completely search out every song. What a trip. I can remember it so well.

I think i first listened to vs in the winter of 93, maybe 94
i live in argentina and pearl jam become big in that year. and the whole grunge scene was really big in tv and radio in 1994.
i had listened to ten earlier, i had it taped on cassette and while i love it, i was really surprised with vs.
go, animal, daughter...those three were soo much for me. It was straight rock and roll punch in the face music and it had the emotion i needed.
i always thought that Vs was the most energetic record of the band, and the proof of is that after so long you can listen to it without knowing what year was, it could be released as new today.
there are songs there that always has new meanings for me, specially RVM and Leash, there are something with those two...the feeling, the lyrics...

i remember lots of hype on the radio for vs. the first time i heard anything on this album, i was in my dads old blue pick up w/ my brothers. they played "go" and obviously, i thought it was awesome.

the first time i heard it was the morning it came out. my brother went to a midnight sale (i was 10 or i would have went too) and i remember waking up that morning early before school so i could listen to it. my parents yelled at me for waking them up so early i think my first thoughts of the album was that it was kinda scary. listening to go/animal and looking at the devil face inside kinda freaked me out.

anyway, this is still a top 3 album for me. i love it

Great post p-ball and others, and kudos once again for Badradio for this thread idea. I love reading these stories

I got Vs shortly after it came out (I don't recall if it was the first day), and this was right around the time I was becoming a music fan, so Vs (and In Utero--didn't these come otu the same day?) was the first time I ever bought an album with expectations based on a previous listen.

I remember liking it on first listen, but not as much as Ten--I was actually somewhat unprepared for the rawness--the screaming in go and blood and the like--and the acoustic songs took me by suprise. It took me a few listens to get used to it, and I may have actually liked In Utero a bit more at first. But obviously I got used to it pretty quick and for many many years this was my second favorite pearl jam record behind Vitalogy

This is the record I have the fewest memories of coming out

In Utero came out a few weeks later, if memory serves.

breakdown records, bayside, queens. first day of release. i bought the album and the tape.

awesome, awesome, awesome! as i knew it would be

FINALLY. I don't have a great story, though. A few weeks after purchasing Ten and Vitalogy, I went out to my local Newbury Comics to see what else they had. I didn't know any PJ songs but the ones on those two albums. I ended up buying the 07/08/03 MSG show because it had Crown of Thorns and Baba O'Riley. I had been into Mother Love Bone even before PJ. I got the record home, turned on the disc with the covers on it and heard Daughter. Holy shit. I wasn't familiar with Ben Harper at the time, so I assumed With My Own Two Hands was just part of Daughter. I ordered the Daughter single and was a little disappointed by the studio version, which obviously did not contain the expected lines from With My Own Two Hands. The second time I listened, I was not disappointed. I loved it and soon after that, I went out and bought Vs. Again, I was a little disappointed. I didn't really care for Go, Animal, Glorified G, Dissident, W.M.A. or Indifference. To this day, I still don't enjoy Glorified G or W.M.A., but I like everything else. Awesome album.