Photo taken by GrungeReport.net owner Brett Buchanan

I attended RNDM’s in store performance at Fingerprints last night in Long Beach, California.  RNDM features Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament on bass/vocals, Joseph Arthur on lead vocals/guitar, and Richard Stuverud on drums.  I was able to secure a short interview with Ament following the performance.  I told him my website had the dreaded ‘G’ word in it, but surprisingly he did not roll his eyes at me!  I knew I didn’t have a lot of time, so I stuck to three topics: RNDM/solo touring plans over the next few months, Pearl Jam’s new album, and Pearl Jam touring the south.  Here is my Q&A with Jeff.

What are your plans over the next few months, some more RNDM or maybe some solo shows for your solo record?

No solo shows but I think we’re going to do some more RNDM touring probably within the first couple of months of next year.

Soundgarden are touring through February, are you guys going to finish the new Pearl Jam album in March?  I heard Matt mention that as a possibility.

I don’t know, we’re going to talk in March about that, I have no idea what’s going to happen.

You guys have recorded some songs, how many songs are recorded, are they in demo form? Do you know the rough amount?

There’s complete songs that are finished.

Is “Ole” one of them [from the new album sessions]?

Yeah.  I actually haven’t listened to those songs in a year, so I have no opinion on if those songs are going to be on the record or not.

So they all were from 2011, around PJ20 when you recorded them?

Yeah.

So do you think they might be bonus tracks if they don’t make the album?

I don’t know.  I mean I remember when we were recording them it felt like there was a handful of really good songs, but like I said I haven’t listen to them in a year so I don’t know.

When is Pearl Jam going to tour the south?

Well Ed’s down there right now taking care of business.

What about Pearl Jam, the full deal?

I don’t know, we have no plans.  I mean I would love to do a proper tour of the whole country at some point.

Thanks Jeff.

Cheers man.

So Pearl Jam fans from the south, don’t blame Jeff!  He wants to tour there!  It was very cool of Jeff to take a couple of minutes to do this interview, he took a picture with me and also signed my copy of Pearl Jam’s Ten, my Temple of the Dog CD, and an RNDM poster (all three members signed it).  I told him I had really thought about bringing my Green River CD for him to sign (left it in my car) but I didn’t want to get too greedy.  He said he hasn’t signed too many Green River albums over the years.  Jeff (and the entire band) were very kind, they signed everything and took tons of pictures.

I was a few feet away from Jeff during RNDM’s performance, it was a great experience to watch him play bass up close, it really gave me a better sense of his playing style.  It was harder to focus on Jeff’s playing at the Pearl Jam shows I attended in 2006 and 2009, especially sitting in the middle of an arena.  The performance lasted around 25-30 minutes, they sounded solid especially for playing a record store.  You could tell they were genuinely having fun up there.  They didn’t waste any time in starting the show either, they walked in and started playing “Modern Times” as the crowd was entering.  Below are some of my photos.