Rant about lame fanviews

Wma31394

Dumb

PJfanwillneverleave1

BrokenGlass said:

If ever there was a poster child for how narcissistic our world has become, the so-called "fanviews" on this board are definitely it.

I, like most Pearl Jam fans, am obsessed with knowing what happened ONSTAGE at the shows. That's why so many of us follow the setlist threads that were spontaneously invented with the help of generous relayers at the shows. We sit at our screens with baited breath, vicariously living the show with the lucky ones who are actually there. But, of course, all we get to see are the song titles as they are played.

So, when I come to read the fanviews the next couple days after the shows, I eagerly look forward to reading reports ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED ONSTAGE. Now, all I read are either: 1) comments from people who weren't there, usually jealous about it and bemoaning the fact that someone else got to be at that show; 2) lame one sentence posts, like "I was so stoked. The pit was awesome. I had a great time." or 3) long pieces of blather about where YOU sat, how much YOU had to drink, what songs YOU finally "got" that you hadn't yet seen (like your childhood obsession with collecting every Happy Meal toy or Pokemon card has carried over to adulthood), who YOU met, what number show this was for YOU, how far YOU traveled, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Here's a request: if you're going to take the time to actually type something, TRY TO MAKE IT BE ABOUT THE SHOW. Those of us who weren't there would LOVE to hear what Eddie said between songs, what particular Mike solo killed, how long RVM lasted, whether any of the lyrics got messed up or changed, any cool tags at the end of songs, which basses Jeff used, how much Stone rocked out, etc., ANY and EVERY thing that happened ONSTAGE. In contrast, we could give a rat's ass about YOU and your personal experience. Newsflash: we all know how much fun it is to go to a show, get drunk, and meet people, and don't need you to remind us. Get over yourselves. Save that shit for your tweets and twitters and facebooks and IMs or whatever. What we DON'T know and what we want to hear is what actually went down ONSTAGE. You know, your view as a fan, i.e. "fanview".

Thank you. End of rant.

veddertown

My first PJ show; Dublin 2010. PJ took to the stage with Metamorphosis 2 playing and we were waiting with baited breath to see what kind of start we would get. Long Road was to be our answer. The singer Eddie Vedder had his Fender Telecaster with the minor ding on the neck and he strummed a D chord for, well ages really. Eventually he changed to a G chord before returning to D with the occasional use of C and Em and the aforementioned D. The other members kept in tune and time with their assorted intruments, a shiny new checkerboard Thunderbird bass, another Fender thingy and one of those hollow guitars that folk musicians often play and they sounded very nice together. I think the drummer was actually him out of Soundgarden which was unusual and I didn't see Jack Irons anywhere? Some hairy dude possibly who hadn't actually left the stage since a Grateful Dead concert many moons ago was camped out with some keyboards and they even let him join in although he was pretty whacked out on weed. The song faded to an end and we even helped Eddie to sing a little bit. Watch this space for my review of the next song in the set which was Once... 8-X

Othneil

Lame rant. Here's an idea, skip the fan views you feel are unworthy. Seriously. Your mentality is really close minded.

Wma31394

veddertown said:

My first PJ show; Dublin 2010. PJ took to the stage with Metamorphosis 2 playing and we were waiting with baited breath to see what kind of start we would get. Long Road was to be our answer. The singer Eddie Vedder had his Fender Telecaster with the minor ding on the neck and he strummed a D chord for, well ages really. Eventually he changed to a G chord before returning to D with the occasional use of C and Em and the aforementioned D. The other members kept in tune and time with their assorted intruments, a shiny new checkerboard Thunderbird bass, another Fender thingy and one of those hollow guitars that folk musicians often play and they sounded very nice together. I think the drummer was actually him out of Soundgarden which was unusual and I didn't see Jack Irons anywhere? Some hairy dude possibly who hadn't actually left the stage since a Grateful Dead concert many moons ago was camped out with some keyboards and they even let him join in although he was pretty whacked out on weed. The song faded to an end and we even helped Eddie to sing a little bit. Watch this space for my review of the next song in the set which was Once... 8-X

Waiting patiently for once.. Best review I have read...except for the one from LA2 back a few years about the crazy blonde bitch in the GA line.

WhatYouTaughtMe

Gern Blansten said:

BrokenGlass said:

RS151862 said:

Can you direct us towards what I can only imagine are truly epic fan views you have written so we can get a sense if what is required. Thanks.

Sure. Here's my fanview from the Cleveland show in 2006. Take notes. Oh, yeah, it's "sense OF what is required" not "sense IF what is required." You're welcome.

10c #178xxx - seats in Flr 2, Row N

After seeing the setlist from Grand Rapids Friday night, I was afraid we were going to get shortchanged in Cleveland. Boy, was I wrong.

Y'know how they always call the Stones "The World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band"? Saturday night in Cleveland, Pearl Jam took the crown. This was not a show for the faint of heart; it was the polar opposite of Benaroya.
Ed's preshow is always a treat. Last Kiss was better solo unplugged than with the band, I think. And when Ed sang "It Makes No Difference" with MMJ, I was thrilled. That's always been my favorite (of many) Band songs, and they really did the song justice. MMJ are serious musicians and they rocked the house with their set. Best opener band I've ever seen at a PJ show.

The crowd went nuts when the sounds of Master/Slave began to fill the arena and the boys took the stage. Personally, I would have been thrillled if they played the new album front to back, so when they opened with Betterman, I was a little apprehensive. Ed let the crowd sing the entire first verse, and my wife pointed out he was probably saving his voice! Given to Fly was solid and started the band firing on all cylinders. From the point on, it was like being transported back to 1994 or so. I have NEVER seen Ed so animated on stage. During STBC, he had the mike stand planted and ran circles around it. You've seen the set list. In a word, relentless. Mike and Jeff were all over the stage. We got a beautiful Mikey solo to Immortality, but I agree with another poster who said Mike was too low in the mix. I could only really hear his solos in songs where the rest of the band is relatively quiet. I hope the boot is mixed better. I hope you all get to hear Inside Job live - it's a masterpiece. Same with Gone - it's like hearing the Who do a song from Quadrophenia! Severed Hand is fierce live. Matt's drum and cymbal work is masterful in Unemployable.

Other highlights: Faithfull was beautifully rendered. Wait till you hear Ed's falsetto tag at the end of Black, including the "we belong together" tag. Absolutely chilling. The crowd did the "do-do-doo-do-do-do-doo"s for a long while, egging Ed on. He was conducting us with his empty wine bottle. Porch was like being at a PJ house party. And in "Alive", Ed sang a line I've only ever heard him sing once before (memory fails me as to when and where): "She walked slowly into a young man's room, said I'm ready to fuck you..." Intense moment, to say the least. During Alive, Ed was everywhere, standing atop the PA cabinet on stage left, then running over to Mike who was now on our side of the stage, headbutting Mike and grabbing the whammy bar on his old Strat while Mike was soloing. Ed asked if we wanted to hear the dream he had the night before. I think a professional psych could have a field day interpreting that one. Then to wind things up, Mike played THE ENTIRETY of Ledbetter behind his back! The only other guitarist I've ever seen do that was Stevie Ray Vaughn.

A loud, raucous, balls-out rock and roll show happened in Cleveland Saturday night. Thanks guys, and thanks 10c for taking care of us.

TLDR

)

JH6056

veddertown said:

My first PJ show; Dublin 2010. PJ took to the stage with Metamorphosis 2 playing and we were waiting with baited breath to see what kind of start we would get. Long Road was to be our answer. The singer Eddie Vedder had his Fender Telecaster with the minor ding on the neck and he strummed a D chord for, well ages really. Eventually he changed to a G chord before returning to D with the occasional use of C and Em and the aforementioned D. The other members kept in tune and time with their assorted intruments, a shiny new checkerboard Thunderbird bass, another Fender thingy and one of those hollow guitars that folk musicians often play and they sounded very nice together. I think the drummer was actually him out of Soundgarden which was unusual and I didn't see Jack Irons anywhere? Some hairy dude possibly who hadn't actually left the stage since a Grateful Dead concert many moons ago was camped out with some keyboards and they even let him join in although he was pretty whacked out on weed. The song faded to an end and we even helped Eddie to sing a little bit. Watch this space for my review of the next song in the set which was Once... 8-X

"...and they sounded very nice together." LOVE IT! Maybe to make the original poster happy we should all just go through each song they played and say "and they sounded quite nice together. And then they did Once, and they sounded quite nice together. And then they did all of No Code... and they sounded quite nice together."

EnterThanman

No one is trying to be a professional writer here. Holy shit could I ever not be bothered to take the time to write a fan view/review the length that you did, that at most only a couple people will read. Kat's set list with a couple notables is plenty.

BrokenGlass

Reflecting upon the comments and criticisms to my rant, I have a slightly different perspective about what's posted in the fanviews thread. I must concede that my understanding of the purpose of the thread was too narrow minded, and that people enjoy reading and sharing everything about their show experience, not just the band's performance, and that's perfectly legit. Sorry for my misconception.

Still, I hope that some folks who are lucky enough to go to these epic shows will be generous enough with their time and insight to share some cool moments that happen onstage. Some of your comments to my rant criticized me for not thinking in the inclusive spirit of the PJ community, where all perspectives are welcomed, but I think cool people taking the time and making the effort to share insights into the performance helps the communal spirit.

Another thing these comments have made me realize is that social media is having a huge impact on how people are communicating these days. Having searched the fanviews from 2006 when someone called me out for an example of an "epic" one I posted, they were a lot longer and more insightful. That could be down to the fact that they predate twitter and instagram, and that culture now demands brevity. Proof of that is someone's comment to my rant "TLDR", which I had to google to find out that an acronym actually exists for "too long didn't read". That is sad to me, as is many of the criticisms posted here in which people are indignant that I should expect them to actually read or write something literate that is also longer than a sentence or two. (I'm sure someone won't miss the opportunity to respond "TLDR" to this post, too.)

To veddertown, I get the sarcasm of your fanview, but I'm not complaining about the fanviews being too short, I'm complaining about the content being inane. Your example is longer, but still lousy at communicating something interesting. Still, I would much rather read that kind of fanview then stuff like, "Sorry to the girls who my hammered buddy passed out on top of. Hope it didn't fuck up your show too much."

In my original rant, I wasn't claiming that I was right about anything or that there is a required format for fanviews. I was just expressing my frustration that I can read three or four pages of fanviews and still barely know what happened. It's because I love PJ shows, I wish I could have been there, and I'd love to know as much as I can about it all.

P34RL J4MM3R

Let me tell you something. Jeff was really getting cracked up by all the jokes Eddie said. Jeff could not stop laughing at Ed's jokes and Ed's rants in Milwaukee. It was fun to see Jeff having so much fun at the show. He was really laughing and smiling a lot in Milwaukee. He's usually so serious, that it was nice to see him with a smile on his face for most of the show. A nice detail that made the show extra special. Plus he just kills it on Jeremy. I love the bass work on that song.

callen

BrokenGlass said:

In contrast, we could give a rat's ass about YOU and your personal experience. Newsflash: we all know how much fun it is to go to a show, get drunk, and meet people, and don't need you to remind us. Get over yourselves. Save that shit for your tweets and twitters and facebooks and IMs or whatever. What we DON'T know and what we want to hear is what actually went down ONSTAGE. You know, your view as a fan, i.e. "fanview".

Thank you. End of rant.

Denver. In fan club section with one dude texting and posting on Facebook. Yeah he was the fan club member not his his buddy. Another guy kept taking selfies. So he'd turn around facing us and taking pictures with goofy fucking face. He was also the ten club member. Neither of these humans gave a crap about those a around them. Oh and chick videoing with her flash turned on.

Point, we unfortunately have created self absorbed idiots with technology and posts on this board will contain these perspectives.

veddertown

BrokenGlass said:

Reflecting upon the comments and criticisms to my rant, I have a slightly different perspective about what's posted in the fanviews thread. I must concede that my understanding of the purpose of the thread was too narrow minded, and that people enjoy reading and sharing everything about their show experience, not just the band's performance, and that's perfectly legit. Sorry for my misconception.

Still, I hope that some folks who are lucky enough to go to these epic shows will be generous enough with their time and insight to share some cool moments that happen onstage. Some of your comments to my rant criticized me for not thinking in the inclusive spirit of the PJ community, where all perspectives are welcomed, but I think cool people taking the time and making the effort to share insights into the performance helps the communal spirit.

Another thing these comments have made me realize is that social media is having a huge impact on how people are communicating these days. Having searched the fanviews from 2006 when someone called me out for an example of an "epic" one I posted, they were a lot longer and more insightful. That could be down to the fact that they predate twitter and instagram, and that culture now demands brevity. Proof of that is someone's comment to my rant "TLDR", which I had to google to find out that an acronym actually exists for "too long didn't read". That is sad to me, as is many of the criticisms posted here in which people are indignant that I should expect them to actually read or write something literate that is also longer than a sentence or two. (I'm sure someone won't miss the opportunity to respond "TLDR" to this post, too.)

To veddertown, I get the sarcasm of your fanview, but I'm not complaining about the fanviews being too short, I'm complaining about the content being inane. Your example is longer, but still lousy at communicating something interesting. Still, I would much rather read that kind of fanview then stuff like, "Sorry to the girls who my hammered buddy passed out on top of. Hope it didn't fuck up your show too much."

In my original rant, I wasn't claiming that I was right about anything or that there is a required format for fanviews. I was just expressing my frustration that I can read three or four pages of fanviews and still barely know what happened. It's because I love PJ shows, I wish I could have been there, and I'd love to know as much as I can about it all.

Lousy!
:((

*no offence taken*