I saw Pearl Jam since we last talked.
If you’ve read installments 78 and 314 of this email (I’m making that up, but I definitely wrote about it), you know Pearl Jam is my all-time favorite band – the soundtrack of my teenage years. Our band covers three of their songs (Black, Alive[hl], and Betterman). I play and sing two others on the acoustic (Elderly Woman and Nothingman).
Last fall, when they announced they were closing their latest tour with two shows in Pittsburgh – their first time here since 2013 – the tickets sold out in hours. With all the then-unknown crew races, prom, banquets, and other events surrounding my daughter’s upcoming graduation, I couldn’t commit.
Then, miraculously, a week before the show, my bandmate Mike called. He had an extra ticket – in a suite no less. It was only the second time in 22 years of marriage I can recall saying ‘yes’ to something like that on the spot, with complete indifference to my schedule. The first was an invitation to play Pine Valley ten years ago.
Put simply, the show was awesome – top three concerts I’ve ever seen – and I say that without an ounce of nostalgia or recency bias. It was an absolute jam, indistinguishable from the first time I saw them 30 years ago. Better, maybe. More soulful.
If you’ve never enjoyed the final show, the last kiss of a major tour, it’s almost always the best. The band plays a little longer, lets loose a little more. And, when they’re 60, not knowing how many more times they’ll get to do it, the vibes ratchet even higher.
Throughout the Dark Matter tour, Pearl Jam played over 80 different songs. Nearly half were never played twice. Every setlist was different, making it feel like a once-only show just for you. While Porch and Jeremy were on my unmet wish list, hearing Hunger Strike on the anniversary of Chris Cornell’s death made up for it. Eddie whipping the crowd into a frenzy with Even Flow was a deeply religious experience.
Unlike the Black Crowes show I saw in November – where I was in the youngest decile of attendees – the Pearl Jam crowd was remarkably age-diverse (if skewed 40+). It made me happy and melancholy at the same time.
The era of stadium-filling rock bands will soon be in our rearview mirror. It’s nearly impossible for one song to reach mainstream today, let alone multiple albums required to fuel a three-hour show. Sure, there will be unicorns like Taylor Swift, but 7 of the other 9 highest-grossing tours of 2024 ranged from Pink at age 45 to the Rolling Stones in their 80s – all who came along before tent-pole-enabling terrestrial radio began to fade.
I’m glad all those young people had the chance to experience it while they could. Rock’s fleeting immortality is in their hands.
Here’s what we’re seeing:
Economic sentiment surged last week. For the first time in forever, the old-school consumer confidence purveyors beat me to the punch – only because I didn’t write last weekend. In the May 21st (days before everyone else) release of our Economic Sentiment Index, we revealed a steep improvement in Americans’ outlook following the U.S.-China tariff reprieve. All five indicators surged, led by confidence in making major purchases. Just keep it in perspective – we’re still way down from where we began the year.
Come hell or high water, consumers are finding ways to buy the things they want the most. Both usage and intent to use Buy Now, Pay Later programs have been on a steady rise since the beginning of the year, going toward everything from summer concert tickets to basic groceries. No surprise, these BNPL users skew lower income and correlate highly with fears around the potential impact of tariffs on their household expenses. More surprising (and disconcerting) is that emerging BNPL “intenders” skew much more brand-centric, less price-sensitive, and more likely to be leisure travelers. All that means they’d rather take on high-interest debt than curb their spending in the slightest. What could possibly go wrong?
Streaming services (in the aggregate) are feeling the strain of consumer pullbacks. According to a big and juicy study we published last week, Americans are increasingly shedding the number of streaming subscriptions they carry, either due to cost pressures or sheer fatigue. While cord-cutting continues to climb at a modest 1% per quarter clip, growing the overall number of streaming-only households, the average number of services-per-streamer is declining, even among the most affluent households. The numbers are bleakest for Apple TV+, if only because their users are the most likely to express tariff and recession concerns.
People aren’t feeling very secure in their jobs. In this week’s 3 Things to Know, we examined U.S. workers’ growing sense of uncertainty across a variety of different job types. Most categories show spiked uneasiness this quarter, especially those in white collar, healthcare, and education jobs. People in hospitality services and trades are feeling better. We also took a closer look at the pressures hitting airlines right now. Travelers aren’t just cutting back for financial reasons. Safety concerns, particularly among Baby Boomers, are a major deterrent as well. Lastly, we studied how economic headwinds are impacting date nights – long story short, couples are going out less, staying in more.
Dog owners pamper their pets more than cat owners do, because they should. As someone who is professionally obligated to check my biases at the door, I’ll readily admit I love dogs and strongly dislike (most) cats…my awful allergies to the latter a primary reason. With that said, both types of pet owners are feeling the brunt of economic strain, with nearly a third saying they avoided a necessary trip to the vet in the last six months due to cost. In fact, cost across all pet product categories is driving purchase decisions much more than it did two years ago. Although notably, when buying food for their pets, dog owners still prioritize nutritional value and ingredients, while cat owners value price over all else.
Two weeks’ worth of extra awesomeness from the InsightStore:
- The rapid rise of talk therapy has slowed ($), bingeing TV is the new stress-eating, and other key insights about the state of mental health in America right now;
- In last week’s 3 Things to Know, we looked at shifting feelings of U.S. patriotism and their impact on spending (see: tribalism), family outlays for kids’ summer camps, and graduation gift trends;
- Steak and grilled chicken were on the upswing for Memorial Day this year (same here), while drinking continued its downswing (not same here);
- Five notable insights about today’s WNBA fans;
- Gen Z is the most optimistic generation, smartphone switching is on the rise, and other free tidbits from our latest Economic Uncertainty webinar.
- Join CivicScience President and Chief Operating Officer Gretchen Tibbits for the next installment of our Uncertainty webinar series, where she will discuss how forward-thinking publishers can transform industry headwinds into strategic advantages through data-driven audience intelligence. Register here.
The most popular questions this week (and last):
If you won $1 million in the lottery, what’s the first thing you’d do?
Do you think more schools should have therapy dogs?
Have you ever buried a time capsule?
Do you generally think Americans have a good or bad reputation abroad?
Do you think competitive eating is a legitimate sport?
How much do you enjoy the smell of rain?
Answer Key: Invest it; Hell yeah; Yep; Right now, no; Sure, why not?; It’s not my favorite.
Hoping you’re well,
JD
PS- Whoever can find the most Pearl Jam song titles hidden and not-so-hidden in today’s intro wins a gold star. No using ChatGPT. (Hint: there are 20 of them).
