Why did they boo Eddie?
Thoughts_Arrive
Melbourne, Australia Posts: 15,165
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EguwlTSzc80Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
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I like when a band has principles and asserts them. I loved when Waters slammed Trump. So did everyone else except for the few Cletuses that 'were offended' lol.
In answer to the question: there were some people at the show that loved their war-mongering fraud of a president. And when the band played this song as a tribute which mocked him... they didn't like that. They were likely also bitter that the band doesn't have a lot of songs praising Jesus which made them additionally mad. Some had just found out that Glorified G wasn't a song about Jesus and having a relationship with him... they were really steamed (especially when they found out what the song was really about).
They booed the band because a lot of people liked W, supported the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan and thought the song was way too political (I mean ground zero is only around 30 miles away). Looking back at it they should have just launched into the next song instead of letting Ed go off on a tangent.
So hold on a second...
... my explanation was no good?
(It would have been wild to be there).
Dude the show was insane! I was somewhere in the first 5 or 6 rows on the floor and it got ugly quick. I'd say about half the crowd was really really pissed. It could have been more but we are talking about a show that is now 15 years old and my memory about pj shows tends to get fuzzy after a while.
Lol
Thanks, buddy! I need a few around here to help me with my crappy deliveries (my message tends to get lost).
9/11 was still very fresh in our minds and George W. Bush was still in his post-9/11 honeymoon. This was during a period of about 18 months where he was not only very popular (near 90% for a while), but even a little bit of criticism of him was not tolerated, even once it became clear he was riding the wave where he took it (to Iraq). We were starting over on the whole "protest is patriotic" issue that had made America great.
And this was near NYC, which obviously had the most direct connection to 9/11. There was this odd undercurrent that not loving W was somehow unpatriotic and even lacked sympathy for 9/11 victims.
It wasn't much after this clip that W's post-9/11 honeymoon ended and he sort of became just another polarizing president. The outrage over criticism toward him subsided. Heck, I don't remember boos at the Boston 1 show later that summer (early July; not sure exactly when this show was).
The band was on the right side of history. I don't mean on any particular issue (though I think that, too) but regarding the basic freedom to criticize a person in power and the danger of blindly worshiping them.
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
If you take out 'rather'... you nailed it!
(Scruffy taught me today that we need to help each other out to successfully deliver the messages we intend to send... so I'm just doing my part!).
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
You think Ed talked about "having a voice in how the US is represented" while vacationing in Hawaii?
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Good thing those middle east wars ended in Jan 2009.
The good thing is now we may get some good material!
What was even more awesome were the 2 songs that followed this to close the show. Best ever Know Your Rights and RITFW. Wish I could have been there. The USA chants, Mike's guitar and then Ed's mic slam.
This 2003 tour was definitely crazy; the most upset I ever was at a pearl jam show was at Hershey not at Uniondale. Ed said some pretty fucked up shit that night.
That's one hell of a generalization. My cousin who was a two tour Iraqi vet was a huge pj fan and hated the fact that they released bush-leaguer. You are telling me he doesn't know what patriotism is? People have different definitions of what patriotism is, doesn't make less patriotic or wrong. You just have a lot of different viewpoints in this country.