Pearl Jam returns for its first Honolulu show in 14 years on Saturday, ending its 2006 tour behind its return-to-form-and-platinum-selling eighth CD "Pearl Jam" at Blaisdell Arena. After hanging around town for a week, they'll open for U2's "Vertigo Tour"-ending show at Aloha Stadium Dec. 9.

So we've got a quiz (and a brief interview, below) for you followers of Mike McCready, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Matt Cameron and frontman/part-time Hawai'i resident Eddie Vedder.

If you're a casual Pearl Jam fan, you'll probably get the first few questions right. Members of Pearl Jam's Ten Club — also known in fan club lore as the "Jamily" — may even get all of them right.

Anyone who maybe heard "Jeremy," like, a couple of times on the Big Kahuna last week and thought, "Man, Dave Grohl was better in Pearl Jam than he is in Foo Fighters!" should simply turn the page.

Pearl Jam landed on O'ahu earlier this week after a tour of Australia, and band members soon scattered to enjoy the Islands.

However, lead guitarist Mike McCready found some time to e-mail answers to questions we sent the band:

Do you spend much time in Hawai'i? Surf? Hang out with the other musicians on Maui?

My wife and I spend as much time as we can on Maui. We got married there, we love it there. I like ... to body surf, Boogie Board and swim.

What are you trying to get across with your latest record? How would you describe the music, and the message?

The latest record is an artistic example of what all the members of the band were going through while recording it. I think there are many levels that we are trying to get across, but we prefer the listener to find them and make up their own mind. ... I personally would describe the music as passionate, hard rocking, emotionally charged, political hard rock.

How has your music and the creative process as a band evolved over the years, since those early Seattle days? Anything you miss from the early days? What's most pleasurable now?

I think we act as more of a democracy than in the early Seattle days. Stone (Gossard) wrote mostly all the early music, and Ed (Vedder) all the lyrics. We now all share those duties.

I think we can read each other and take suggestions better now. We are way better musicians and brothers now.

I don't miss anything about the early days — it was confusing as much as it was exciting.

(Pleasures include) the fact we can still make music and people will still take time to listen to it. Also being able to still make a living doing what I love.

What's the scoop on (opening act) Kings of Leon? Will they put on a dynamite show?

The Kings of Leon are the future of rock 'n' roll, I hope. They have a deep soul to their music. I know they mean it by watching them. Their show will treat you right, they give 100 percent.

Rock 'n' roll has been in resurgence lately, with strong bands such as the Kings of Leon making an impact. But here in Hawai'i, the economics favor DJ shows, and hip-hop, of course, is everywhere, worldwide. How do you see the state of music today, and do you feel you have to strive — or evolve — to be relevant?

I believe that the people will tell you what is relevant. That being said, to quote Joseph Campbell, one must "follow their bliss!"

PEARL JAM QUIZ

1. Which one of these tracks is NOT from Pearl Jam's debut CD "Ten"?
a) "Porch"
b) "Alive"
c) "Even Flow"
d) "Daughter"


2. Finish this Pearl Jam lyric: "________________, thoughts arrive like butterflies.
a) Courtney Love
b) Even flow
c) Tattooed everything
d) Have I got a little story for you


3. At more than 12 million copies sold, what is Pearl Jam's
biggest-selling CD?
a) "Ten"
b) "Vs."
c) "Pearl Jam"
d) "Vitalogy"


4. Which of these Pearl Jam CDs hit No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart?
a) "Ten"
b) "No Code"
c) "Pearl Jam"
d) "Binaural"


5. What was the first single released to radio from Pearl Jam's 2006 self-titled eighth CD?
a) "World Wide Suicide"
b) "Severed Hand"
c) "Life Wasted"
d) "Marker in the Sand"


6. Who first befriended full-time Pearl Jam keyboardist since 2002 — and full-time Hawai'i resident — Kenneth "Boom" Gaspar?
a) Stone Gossard
b) Mike McCready
c) Eddie Vedder
d) Jeff Ament


7. A buck from each ticket bought for Saturday's show will be donated by Pearl Jam's nonprofit Vitalogy Foundation to what local after-school educational program supported by "Boom" Gaspar and his wife, Pinky? (No looking at the story on Page 18!)
a) Waimanalo Surf Kids
b) H20
c) A+ After School
d) Hui Malama o ke Kai


8. What was Pearl Jam's original band name?
a) Puget Soundboard
b) Teddy Ruxpin
c) Bellingham
d) Mookie Blaylock


9. Which one of these dudes is NOT a former Pearl Jam drummer?
a) Dave Abbruzzese
b) Jack Irons
c) Jimmy Chamberlin
d) Dave Krusen


10. Pearl Jam was formed by Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard soon after the death of lead vocalist Andrew Wood ended the band they were in. What was the name of this seminal Seattle band?
a) Mudhoney
b) Mother Love Bone
c) Soundgarden
d) Temple of the Dog


11. Eddie Vedder wrote the lyrics to "Alive" and "Even Flow" while ...
a) surfing
b) reading Bret Easton Ellis' "American Psycho"
c) recovering from a hiking
injury
d) tossing salmon as a Pike Place Market fishmonger


12. Several members of Pearl Jam played members of a faux Seattle rock band led by Matt Dillon in director Cameron Crowe's 1993 film "Singles." What was the name of the fake band?
a) Stillwater
b) Alison Chains
c) Tully's
d) Citizen Dick


13. Who directed Pearl Jam's award-winning "Jeremy" video?
a) Mark Pellington
b) Cameron Crowe
c) Ridley Scott
d) Samuel Bayer


14. On what day was Pearl Jam's first-ever Hawai'i show and at what venue?
a) Sept. 26, 1992, at Andrews Amphitheatre
b) Sept. 25, 1992, at Andrews Amphitheatre
c) Sept. 23, 1992, at Maui War Memorial Gym
d) Sept. 27, 1992, at Maui War Memorial Gym


15. What stunt did Vedder famously pull at one of the Andrews Amphitheatre shows?
a) Performed the entire show with his back to the crowd
b) Called the White House and asked for President Clinton
c) Demolished Stone Gossard's guitar
d) Climbed the stage scaffolding onto its canvas roof and dived 20 feet into the crowd


16. On what U2 tour did Pearl Jam first open shows for the band?
a) "Pop Mart"
b) "Vertigo"
c) "Zoo TV"
d) "Elevation"


17. Pearl Jam first made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in 1993. Who famously
interviewed them?
a) Neil Young
b) Richard Linklater
c) Kevin Smith
d) Cameron Crowe


18. Who has Vedder admitted to sharing a slow dance with under the stage of the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards while Eric Clapton played "Tears in Heaven"?
a) Bono
b) Kurt Cobain
c) Chris Cornell
d) Tabitha Soren


19. At 44, who is the oldest of Pearl Jam's five core members?
a) Matt Cameron
b) Stone Gossard
c) Eddie Vedder
d) Jeff Ament


20. The tape of instrumentals that fell into Vedder's hands prompting him to start writing lyrics for the then-in-search-of-a-lead-vocalist band was labeled ...
a) "Ten"
b) "Tracks"
c) "Stone Gossard Demos '91"
d) It had no label.

RATE YOURSELF!

180 to 200 points: Man of the Hour! Are you in the freakin' band or what?
150 to 170 points: Hail Hail! You're in the Jamily. Ask nicely, and maybe Eddie Vedder will let you surf with him.
100 to 140 points: Better Man! You probably own most of Pearl Jam's CDs. Except that one with the interstellar eye
on it.
40 to 90 points: Not For You! No "Black" or "Yellow Ledbetter" for you on Saturday.
0 to 30 points: Nothing Man! Did you get lost looking for the Sudoku puzzle?

SCORE YOURSELF! (10 POINTS FOR EACH CORRECT ANSWER)

1. d, 2. b, 3. a, 4. b, 5. a, 6. c, 7. d, 8. d, 9. c, 10. b, 11. a, 12. d, 13. a, 14. c, 15. d, 16. c, 17. d, 18. b, 19. a, 20. c

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.