http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/gig ... d=23401223

maybe if the critic would remember the US is still actually planning on being in Iraq, unlike Britian, he wouldn't have made the statement Ed's anti-war stuff seemed cliche.

Was that guy at the same gig?

'There wasn't a single song from second LP Vs'

Next time they should give his pass to someone who deserves it. Enough said?

there are so many things wrong with this review:


Ever since he scrawled "Pro-Choice" down his arm during an iconic 1992 recording of MTV's Unplugged, Eddie Vedder has served up his rock with a healthy dollop of politics.

Back then, the Pearl Jam front man was in his late twenties and, in common with bands like Rage Against The Machine, still young enough to make the ideology feel fresh after the disaffection of the Eighties.

Fast-forward 15 years to last night's show at Wembley Arena and Vedder's earnest conviction now seems horribly clichéd. Jibes at Tony Blair were always likely to raise a cheer, but when he began a second encore with a solo acoustic number built around the painfully simple, repeated refrain "No more war", the crowd seemed to shudder with collective embarrassment.

Worthy though the sentiment may have been, the blinkered naivety with which it was rendered was cringeworthy.

Elsewhere, the set favoured more recent material at the expense of arguably better known tracks from Pearl Jam's earlier albums. There wasn't a single song from second LP Vs, though Alive, from the band's debut album Ten, was a predictable highlight.

Musically, Pearl Jam showed themselves to be as gifted as they ever were. Mike McCready played most of the guitar solo for Why Go behind his head, but the band's delivery often felt perfunctory, the audience's frenzied air punching underlining the stiffness of the band on stage.

In the end, it was only the devotion of the fans that saved this show from becoming a self-indulgent love-in by a band old enough to know better.


how does this guy get to witness an amazing concert and not understand anything about it, disapointing.

I really don't know why i read that because i knew it would annoy me. He was really far off and yes, there are mistakes.

It's clear to a fan that it wasn't bombarded with the greatest hits and/or the "earlier, better known stuff".
Maybe if Evenflow, Jeremy, Black and Once had been played then it would have got a superb review and there would have been more "predictable highlight's" along with Alive.

I don't understand it.

I swear, I didn't write this.

Indifference was played! What a loser!

http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/rev ... 675856.ece

Here is another review. Positive but...why do reviewers always spend 80% of their review with the first five paragraphs of the the Wikipedia history of PJ and then put one sentence about the concert??

Lame.

As for the other review - well I'm not sure what a collective cringe looks like but it certainly wasn't during No More. In fact the whole crowd was pretty silent and I really like the song. His review really demonstrates some of the cultural difference between the US and UK though - while people in the US are able to be earnest in an approach to a given subject, people in the UK are unable to do this for better or for worse. Why is it blinkered naivety? did he listen to the story that these are words from a person disabled by the Iraq war? What a goon.

that just reads like a typical UK Press review to me and I love it.

I love the fact that the press over here are so naive about music outside of their borders because it means I get to enjoy Pearl Jam without the bandwagon jumpers following it and spoiling it just because its fashionable.

No doubt when Oasis next play down their and roll out their "classic" beatles impressions and the pished up wannabes all scream about their Wonderwall he will give it 5 stars and declare them the best band on the planet.

Gee, think he left some time before Indifference? Maybe he heard RITFW and headed for the exits.

UK media HATES PJ.

So basically this guy didn't like the setlist.

Man, Pearl Jam fans take criticism so damn personally.

Really, you have to admit this guy actually has a point. But it doesn't stop me liking 'em, y'know?

It's like how I can still love the Cure whilst also agreeing how ridiculous it is for a middle-aged portly man to slap on face paint and tease his hair like a birds-nest.

Haha...good point spenno. I only have a major problem when the criticism comes from someone who obviously knows nothing about PJ or its fans and did no research. Some of the things that guy wrote remind me of the clown who wrote the the crowd "booed" the band as they came on stage in Camden last year- we were cheering on Boom when they opened with LWReprise- but he was too lazy to ask anyone what the "booing" was about. One can dislike PJ, but if you are getting paid to do reviews of rock concerts- at least have a certain degree of savvy and knowledge about rock music!!

I posted two comments but apparently the "editors" have the right to filter the info, so we will see if the comments make it through. as others mentioned, I have no issues with people writing their opinions, but this is just retarded and so off.....

Two stars

Jon Fletcher probably gives five stars ratings to Coldplay and U2 who play all their hits every night...

You are right, this is what ruined Muse at the stadium. People went mental for 'Supermassive' then sat down for 'Sunburn' and 'New Born' and had gone before 'Stockholm'. I was like WTF?

Knew the Muse gig at the Stadium would be like that.

Finally got to see them locally earlier this year and they were quality, but unfortunately, with the arena and their popularity now there was a lot of the "oasis" types there and similar to yourself a lot of them knew nothing of their music other than the TV/Radio hits. Shame as they put a hell of a gig on.

I saw they even played Unintended again. I think I would have died if I were there. Wonder how many people actually knew the song... When I saw them last December, it was the first time in years they played Muscle Museum in Belgium. So little people knew it... Such a shame...