Pearl Jam gets refreshingly
direct
by Keith Harris
For The Inquirer
The most "alternative" thing about Pearl Jam in 1992 was the band's hometown. Alt-rock's heavy punk-indie hybrid style was born in Seattle, so any group with four Seattleites must be alternative - even if frontman Eddie Vedder was a California surfer dude, even if their riffs were the stuff of conventional hard rock.
Throughout the '90s, however, the band struggled admirably to live up to that tag's musical and social implications, growing rawer yet more experimental, and adopting a staunch anticorporate stance.
But when a veteran band names an album after itself, they've usually chosen to retreat to what they consider their essence. On their new disc, Pearl Jam, and at Saturday night's show (the first of two this weekend at the Tweeter Center), Pearl Jam indeed pared away any distractions from their direct classic rock wallop. And the sing-along choruses of oldies like "Jeremy" or "Alive" are so familiar you can almost forget the murky third-person psychodramas the lyrics narrate.
Their audience certainly has a clear idea of what Pearl Jam is and is not. Just ask the poor auxiliary keyboardist who accompanied Vedder on show opener "Life Wasted," drawing prolonged boos. That disapproving chorus died out as the full band joined in to finish the song, and then segued immediately afterward into the frantically antiwar "World Wide Suicide."
Vedder's political statements, sometimes controversial in the past, were inclusive and nonpartisan. During the band's first encore, Vedder spoke a little about the band's support for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic that uses DNA testing to free the falsely imprisoned. When three men who had been jailed wrongly joined the band on stage to sing and play drums on a cover of the 1964 teen melodrama "Last Kiss," the crowd cheered not only respectfully but heartily. Good thing none of those guys played keyboard.
Unlike U2 or Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam has never soared toward transcendence live. Instead, they flail, trudge, and rumble forward with dogged persistence, which made "Rockin' in the Free World" a fitting closer. Both outraged and perplexed, Neil Young's song insists on plowing ahead regardless of the confused state of the world. That's the path Pearl Jam now follows, as though they had no alternative.
-they closed w/ yellow ledbetter
-boom
_________________ Feel the path of every day,... Which road you taking?,...
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:40 am Posts: 12509 Location: Pittsburgh Gender: Male
Is that from the Philly Inquirer? If so, I have to go get it
Monday's Inquirer?
_________________ "i'm the crescent, the sickle, so sharp the blade i'm the flick of the shank that opened your veins i'm the dusk, i'm the frightening calm i'm a hole in the pipeline, i'm a road side bomb..."
that is too funny! Someone should write this guy and let him know we were CHEERING for BOOOOm, not disapproving of the song.
What a nimrod. You'd think if you were going to write a reveiw you'd at least get all the information you can about the band first.
as a fan ...if i saw what was apparently a writer siting near me i would let them know what's up.... but, tenclub members would bitch if 10C gave writers tickets too close
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:40 am Posts: 12509 Location: Pittsburgh Gender: Male
myworldwidesuicide wrote:
Auggiestyle wrote:
I e-mailed the Philly Inquirer's editor about the errors. They have a page for corrections, so maybe they'll post it.
Your best bet is to send an email to their Music Editor and ask why he was not at the show. ddeluca@phillynews.com
Dan DeLuca is the name and he should have been reporting on the shows....not the no name Keith Harris.
so this was today's philly inquirer?
_________________ "i'm the crescent, the sickle, so sharp the blade i'm the flick of the shank that opened your veins i'm the dusk, i'm the frightening calm i'm a hole in the pipeline, i'm a road side bomb..."
since his byline is "for the inquirer," it means he's a freelance writer for them. whoever assigned this guy the story should be disciplined, that's just sending someone who has no idea what they are covering.
it's an embarrassment for the paper, and i say that as a journalist; not as a fan. tom moon, who was the inquirer's other music writer who left to write a book but has somehow never made it back, was pretty close to the band and was always able to get a good local pj story/interview that no on else had.
there are a lot of instances where something like this comes up, especially in sports, like with the redsox a couple of years ago with lou merloni looooooouuuuuuuuuuuu
or kevin youklis
yyyooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuukkkkkkkkkk
Joined: Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:40 am Posts: 12509 Location: Pittsburgh Gender: Male
vitalogy71890 wrote:
wow
there are a lot of instances where something like this comes up, especially in sports, like with the redsox a couple of years ago with lou merloni looooooouuuuuuuuuuuu
or kevin youklis yyyooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuukkkkkkkkkk
or michael handzus
zeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus
(another philly favorite)
_________________ "i'm the crescent, the sickle, so sharp the blade i'm the flick of the shank that opened your veins i'm the dusk, i'm the frightening calm i'm a hole in the pipeline, i'm a road side bomb..."
Pearl Jam gets refreshingly direct by Keith Harris For The Inquirer
The most "alternative" thing about Pearl Jam in 1992 was the band's hometown. Alt-rock's heavy punk-indie hybrid style was born in Seattle, so any group with four Seattleites must be alternative - even if frontman Eddie Vedder was a California surfer dude, even if their riffs were the stuff of conventional hard rock.
Throughout the '90s, however, the band struggled admirably to live up to that tag's musical and social implications, growing rawer yet more experimental, and adopting a staunch anticorporate stance.
But when a veteran band names an album after itself, they've usually chosen to retreat to what they consider their essence. On their new disc, Pearl Jam, and at Saturday night's show (the first of two this weekend at the Tweeter Center), Pearl Jam indeed pared away any distractions from their direct classic rock wallop. And the sing-along choruses of oldies like "Jeremy" or "Alive" are so familiar you can almost forget the murky third-person psychodramas the lyrics narrate.
Their audience certainly has a clear idea of what Pearl Jam is and is not. Just ask the poor auxiliary keyboardist who accompanied Vedder on show opener "Life Wasted," drawing prolonged boos. That disapproving chorus died out as the full band joined in to finish the song, and then segued immediately afterward into the frantically antiwar "World Wide Suicide."
Vedder's political statements, sometimes controversial in the past, were inclusive and nonpartisan. During the band's first encore, Vedder spoke a little about the band's support for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic that uses DNA testing to free the falsely imprisoned. When three men who had been jailed wrongly joined the band on stage to sing and play drums on a cover of the 1964 teen melodrama "Last Kiss," the crowd cheered not only respectfully but heartily. Good thing none of those guys played keyboard.
Unlike U2 or Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam has never soared toward transcendence live. Instead, they flail, trudge, and rumble forward with dogged persistence, which made "Rockin' in the Free World" a fitting closer. Both outraged and perplexed, Neil Young's song insists on plowing ahead regardless of the confused state of the world. That's the path Pearl Jam now follows, as though they had no alternative.
Joined: Sat May 27, 2006 6:30 am Posts: 89 Location: STL
sportsfreakpete6 wrote:
vitalogy71890 wrote:
wow
there are a lot of instances where something like this comes up, especially in sports, like with the redsox a couple of years ago with lou merloni looooooouuuuuuuuuuuu
or kevin youklis yyyooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuukkkkkkkkkk
or michael handzus zeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus
(another philly favorite)
Another one here in STL is "Bruuuuuce" for number 80 Issac Bruce. I dunno what your coach in Philly did but after watching Handzus sludge around the ice here for a while here im suprised he's doing well there, good for the Flyer's, always liked that Easern conf. team.
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Frank
