I saw Pearl Jam last night...

I will be seeing them myself there tonight. Is My Morning Jacket worth showing up early?

Dave

pearl jam is a great band, but bands and performers who shove their politics down the audiences throat are a big turn off for me, just because someone can play a guitar or carry a tune does not influence me to agree with their political views.

Reminds me of when I saw the Clash at Bonds in NYC touring Sandanista ~1980. When Strummer started talking politics over a backbeat, the crowd pulled ice cubes from their drinks and pelted him. He walked offstage; show over. End of story.
The good news was they had played about 90 minutes before the incident. Cheers,
Spencer

Yep- Musicians and Actors- please shut up. Your Egos exceed your intelligence all too often.

Pearl Jam is irrelevant anyway... they haven't made a good record since the first one. posers.

Musicians that have this need to stop during portions of their shows and shove their own political or ethical views down thier audiences throats is a huge turnoff to me and probably the vast majority of folks that paid their money to hear a show, not an infomercial- with Springsteen and U2 being the largest big ticket offenders.
Maybe these worldly problem solvers should tear a page out of the Grateful Dead playbook, for 30 years, just shutup and let the music deliver their message, then let the people do with it what they want, or don't want.

Yes, My Morning Jacket is a great band live -- definitely get there early.

Jackson Browne is another big offender. I pay my money to hear an artist perform their songs, not listen to their politics.

Personally I would rather see My Morning Jacket than Pearl Jam these days. The whole politics thing bothers me as well. A few friends and I recently saw Glen Philips from Toad the Wet Sprocket live and playing acoustic. It was a great show except for him discussing his political views.. It just took away from the mood of the show. One person in the audience even yelled at him to just shut up and sing..Sad..

Chris

The title of Laura Ingraham's latest book "Shut Up and Sing" says it all. Your politics Eddie, Barbra, Neil, Dixie Chicks, et.al. do not interest most of us.

Samski, Amen. NEVER should the two be mixed. Music is to be enjoyed, the stage shouldn't be a pulpit.

Pearl Jam is a great band but commercial radio ruined them for me...massive overexposure. In fact, Pearl Jam is the reason I don't listen to commercial radio in my car anymore

Their latest CD is quite good. "Comatose" and "Life wasted" are great rock tunes.

the politics of rock music have been around since rock itself. jeez....if 'artists' cared about offending folks, they wouldn't really be 'artists' anyway.

A band having a political, usually divisive, "cause" generally means that they'll soon be entering the dowside of their careers. That's fine with me. I listen to music to entertainedand relax, not to get a drug-addled, poorly conceived, leftist political lecture.

Pearl Jam is a great band and I encourage anyone one who enjoys rock in it's purist form to pick up their latest album simply called "Pearl Jam". If you like good music you will love this album.
I don't get it. Isn't the best rock music about politics? We wouldn't have Bob Dylan if not for Blowing in the wind. The Stones gave us Street fighting man. The Beatles wrote Revolution. The list goes on and on. Take your pick. Rock and politics go together.
Bruce Springsteen is a great example. Here is an artist who wears his politics on his sleeve. It's right up front. He is using his fame and fortune to reach a higher cause. To fix what he sees as wrong in this great country of ours. It is the same with most people in the entertainment world. They see their fame as a means to do well for the world. It's probably a quilt trip bought on from making all that money for doing what they love to do anyway.
Is it that their views differ from yours that you don't believe they should put it out there? I agree entertainers lean to the left and that could be discerning to some of the well-heeled members of Audiogon. I know I wouldn't like it very much if they were preaching right-wing fundamentalism but I would never criticize their right to use the stage any way they see fit.
Long live Rock.

What ever happened to Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll? I miss it..

Chris

Well said Jaybo and Dreadhead. To my other fellow audiogoners: Are you offended that Pearl Jam brought politics into their show or, is it that they brought politics that you disagree with that offends you most of all? Pearl Jam took a big risk in doing what they did. I recall the tribute to Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary. Vedder was there and sung Masters of War. The song was well received. Sinead O'Conner read poetry and was booed off the stage. And this at a Dylan concert! Point being, Pearl Jam knew the risks and took it anyway. Of course we would rather be entertained and avoid difficult issues. I do not see how wrongfully convicted prisoners are a "leftist cause." Unless, of course the right views injustice as politically conservative. Steve Earl, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Neil Young, Pete Seeger, Pearl Jam, Dixie Chicks and others, keep making your music.

The political stances don't bother me so much when it's in their lyrics. It's the speeches that are the problem!
After attending Net Aid, I felt like jumping off a bridge. Indeed it was for a great, great cause, but after a few minutes of driving home the fundraising point, everybody is just dying to hear some music.
Springsteen is one who IMHO has mastered briefly getting his point across without resembling to a babbling fool in Speakers Corner. Cheers,
Spencer

I agree that bands and politics should be separate. I also think that most offenders secretly agree and are simply introducing political speeches into their shows out of desperation, a "Someone has do something" mentality. I heard Sanatana last summer, and he took a brief moment to promote world peace -- but in an apolitical way that was not offensive to anyone. No one booed but not everyone clapped, and all left happy.

Barry309, the Dylan 30th anniversary show is a great disc that I still listen to evey now and again, but Sinaed O"Conner wasn't booed off the stage in tears because she was reading poetry, it was because she had refused to play at one of her own shows until a raised American flag was removed at a venue in our own country.
I'm not a fan of unruly behavior at shows, or booing artists offstage- but she did that one to herself.

I saw PJ's second show in Camden last night. No ex-prisoners in sight and barely a bathroom break for the band during a long & great show. Up there with Radiohead & NIN as one of a handfull of extraordinary arena-scale performances I've seen in the last few years.

My Morning Jacket from Kentucky was also good-- to my ear a synthesis of Allman Bros. Band in its prime, with some perhaps too obvious debts to Mercury Rev.

My Pet Peeve: What is it with the dweeby frat-boy fans who need to get out their cell phones during the best moments of a rock concert and bring their friends on-line with the experience?

Dave

I'm amused to hear the hand-wringing explainations of how "brave" these entertainers are to "take a risk" on an issue. Freeing innocent prisoners is not a "leftist cause," but many (usually ignorant--in the true sense of the word) entertainers tend espouse liberal "causes." Anyway, nearly everyone in prison claims to be innocent. There's no country on Earth that an accused has more opportunities to prove their innocence that in the United States. Maybe Eddie Vedder should take his cause on the road to great places like Iran, Sudan, China, North Korea, Cuba, etc. where there are "innocents" in prison for only expressing an opinion about something! SHEESH!

Okay- The censors will pull this thread if it gets any hotter :)

BTW, PJ closed the Camden concert with a strong cover of The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again-- reappropriating this anthem for my generation from #1 standing with the American Idol fans at National Review.

Dave

For anyone interested, here is the list of this week's beneficiaries of Pearl Jam's activism on this tour. The Innocence Project was on stage that particular night because they are located in the host city. Other nights might highlight the efforts of a local group that feeds the homeless, etc., with $1 per paid ticket going to each respective non-profit organization.

From the perspective of this self-serving, lazy, complainin' mofo, I'd have to applaud their contribution. And if I was an innocent in prison, I'd thank my lucky stars that someone on the outside gave a damn.

I thought everyone in prison was innocent! PJ better get busy.......

I thought everyone in prison was innocent!

That is true. And don't forget, everyone at the wheel is a good driver, all ex's are psychotic, and every audiophile has excellent hearing.

Pearl Jam is a joke, would rather watch "Eddie and the Cruisers"!!!!!!

Hey, It looks like Pearl Jam has some really worthy causes on their list of charities. I'm happy so see some of the other charities address children's needs. I'm not so sure about the puppet theater though. Anyway, I love to follow a controversial thread!

Hey Jackaroe: I thought Sinead was booed because she ripped up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live some weeks before. Never heard the story about the flag. Was the flag incident well publicized? I don't remember hearing about it, but maybe many others had as there were a lot of boos in that audience (probably a lot of booze too).