Dumb Philly Inquirer review
Anon
Posts: 11,175
UUUUUHHHHHHH Dude......they aren't booing.....the keyboardist's name is B-O-O-M.
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.
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.
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Comments
Mihi cura futuri.
The elements they speak to me.
http://espn.go.com/espnradiostations/NewYork1050/gallery/35218855.html
so cute they are
doesnt seem to have an email account to let him know its not booing!
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/14690977.htm
boooooooo, haha. poor clueless keith.
i'll give it a shot
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/contact_us/contact_list/newspaper_staff_np1/#admin
I emailed
let him know he is a silly head
and perhaps should confirm band member names next time
o no it was just returned.
Mihi cura futuri.
The elements they speak to me.
http://espn.go.com/espnradiostations/NewYork1050/gallery/35218855.html
so cute they are
Mihi cura futuri.
The elements they speak to me.
http://espn.go.com/espnradiostations/NewYork1050/gallery/35218855.html
so cute they are