name me one pearl jam song he doesnt absolutely murder the groove on..grievance..hail hail...evolution...given to fly...all far too goddamn fast. Ruins them..

discuss..

he's a fantastic technician but unlike other great ones, i don't get the feeling he speaks through his playing, at least live. while Jack Irons could have shortcomings, i never doubted he was fully, completely into the songs.
bpm is very important for a song impact/efficiency and speeding one up without significant re-arrangements is disrespectful to the song (and to your 40-something chain-smoking singer ). personnally, i don't feel pumped at all when a ugly beast of a tune is given the speedy gonzalez treatment. i'm all for sticking to the original tempo. i'm sure matt is capable of having fun with subtleties but it sounds like he took the arena-rock tag PJ has a bit too literally (with drum solos... ). i'm not saying some of this isn't entertaining, but while PJ members have grown musically over the years, he seems to have kind of regressed on his drumming creativity (thinking of Soundgarden).
i hope it didn't sound like i was bashing the guy; he's a solid motherfucker - but i think that he should contribute more intricate drum patterns to songs (just as stone should write more riffs) rather than being the stallion and/or the poorest songwriter in the band. jack irons ftw

It's gotten to be annoying..i was just listening to a show from Italy 06-verona i think and he's fuckin ploughing through the songs, it almost sounds like he wants to get done and off stage as soon as possible..From Release, where he's doin all this unneccessary playing & fills that aren't there, to the start of LBC, he's actually ruining the songs and it's a shame 'cos he's a great player..

we've often said it, Jack Irons would give you a solid no frills beat but he always would keep the groove of the song (Hail Hail comes immediately to mind) and never any speeding up or unneccessary fills or rolls.
Dave A played the same boring beat in evvvvery song..why go, evenflow, animal, daughter..all the same beat..boring.

Is it that the band are too scared to piss MC off by just askin him to slow down a bit? I mean I can remember footage of ed turning to dave a and jack & just giving a little down motion with his hand & they'd know what he means..why isn't that happening now?

Fuck the groove.

Fixed.

Yes, I agree - Matt slaughters some songs on a consistent basis.

He has definitely regressed as far as his playing goes; he was brilliant in 1998 - 2000 but has bored me a bit since then; now it's all dumber and faster. Less fills, less improvisation but more blindingly fast thrashing.

Don't get me wrong Matt fans; I think he's a phenomenally talented drummer. I just wish he'd pull out those chops he so brilliantly displayed on the 1998 US & 2000 Euro tour more often.

I still miss Jack Irons too.

No! 'cos I personally think it's important to Stone's contribution to the songs, he's a naturally angular kind of player & his songs almost always have a head rockin' kinda time to them-evolution, don't gimme no lip,..(i'm sure there's many others )
The guy seems to hammer through them with no regard for the feel of the song..it's a shame..

yeah i thik he plays fast...actually its the whole band that is faster than studio...listen the guitars in solat or severed hand...the whole band is going for it...i love the way matt plays...i think he is the drummer for the band...and since 05 he has gotten so much better live, with much room to fill....it the band attitude like they said,,,hey we must rock on...and let him do his stuff

I don't think Dave's beats were boring, I mean they were really intricate and technical and cool, but he played them robotically similar every time out. Jack kept his groove going but not ALL of PJ's songs are supposed to groove thaaat much. Sometimes he would lose the time or consistency of their straight-ahead rockers.

Matt is powerful and efficient, but yes, he waters it down waaayy too much and plays waaayy too fast (older material especially).

Blasphemy!!

fixed.

Wow! You fucking get it!

As for Matt, the upside of him driving the band outweighs the loss of groove on some songs. Stone is getting his time more and more ie. solo's for RITFW and Fuckin' Up and I think Matt, Jeff and Stone are jamming better together now than I've ever heard.

I've been saying this ever since he joined the band.

Dave A. played it right.

Jeff and Matt do not gel at all, it's like they're on different planets groove-wise.

This was not a problem with Dave or Jack.

I miss Awesome Jeff.

Evenflow is WAY too fast. I want a funky, laid back version. I'm not sure if that's Matt's fault or not, but still...

Funky, laid back? Groove? Jesus. This is Pearl fucking Jam, not Dave Matthews Band or RHCP.

Hey everyone, first post!

I would say that some of the songs that are played faster these days aren't necessarily MCs fault, for example Mike starts GTF and SOLAT, but Matt's playing does seem lifeless on occasion, like Hail Hail which has already been mentioned. This probably shows up most cos PJ have always had very groove based drummers. Personally I love Jack Irons playing, even on the older stuff cos its played with so much feeling. You can't fault any of Matt's playing on a technical level, but once you get to pro level, drumming is just as much about feeling and groove as technicality

I think it's bunk that people use the excuse that Mike or Ed begin to play their guitar intro's faster and so Matt plays fast to keep up.

Mike, Ed (or Stone for that matter) only play the intro's fast because Matt plays 'em fast, they're just adjusting to his speed. You act like Matt has no idea how fast to play SOLAT until Mike starts the intro and that's just crazy - this band has rehearsed these songs and played them live thousands of times, it's much more likely Mike is playing the intro faster to adjust to how fast he knows Matt is going to play once the drums kick in. Same for Corduroy, Given To Fly etc...

The same guitar-intro songs were always much slower with Jack or Dave, so what does that tell you? That it ain't the rest of the band who've altered the speed, it's just Matt. They're just aware of how fast he plays and adjust their playing accordingly.

I'm certainly not putting it on Mike or Ed that they play intros faster sometimes, but if you listen to GTF over the 06 bootlegs, the tempo changes alot from gig to gig, so I don't think its a permanent change, just how everyone is feeling on the night. I'm not criticizing anyone for it; if you're really charged up (as I imagine you would be playing to a few thousand people, and the crowd is pumping) you are going to play the odd thing faster, it's only natural

If Stone still wrote groovy riffs you'd hear them complimented with Matt's playing, but PJ has more punk in them than you'd think. You also have to factor in the rush that happens when you get in front of thousands of people. Most musicians play faster. I guess its the adrenaline.

I think that Neal Peart should be the band's next drummer when Matt retires.