where did they get the name pearl jam
Pearl Jam With the addition of Dave Krusen on drums, the band took the name Mookie Blaylock, in reference to the then-active basketball player Mookie Blaylock.[13] The band played its first official show at the Off Ramp Café in Seattle on October 22, 1990.[14] They opened for Alice in Chains at the Moore Theatre in Seattle on December 22, 1990,[15] and served as the opening act for the band's Facelift tour in 1991.[16][17] Mookie Blaylock soon signed to Epic Records and renamed themselves Pearl Jam.[6] In an early promotional interview, Vedder said that the name "Pearl Jam" was a reference to his great-grandmother Pearl, who was married to a Native American and had a special recipe for peyote-laced jam.[18] In a 2006 Rolling Stone cover story however, Vedder admitted that this story was "total bullshit", even though he indeed had a great-grandma named Pearl. Ament and McCready explained that Ament came up with "pearl", and that the band later settled on "Pearl Jam" after attending a concert by Neil Young, in which he extended his songs as improvisations of 15–20 minutes in length.[1]
Polka dot It is likely that the term originated in popularity of polka dance at the time the pattern became fashionable, just as many other products and fashions of the era also adopted the "polka" name.[1]
Tony! Toni! Toné! Originally, the band went by "Tony, Toni, TonÃ©" as a joke, until they realized it had a nice ring to it.[1]
Arcade Fire When asked about the rumour that the band's name refers to a fire in an arcade, Win Butler replied: "It's not a rumour, it's based on a story that someone told me. It's not an actual event, but one that I took to be real. I would say that it's probably something that the kid made up, but at the time I believed him."[16]