According to Ed, Matt remained in Arizona after testing positive. That implies that he tested positive on Tuesday. The first Oakland show was Friday. They had time to scramble to figure out how to replace him. In all likelihood, they found out about Jeff's positive test late Wednesday morning (or Jeff had tested negative but started feeling poorly on Wednesday morning). That did not give them much time to figure out how to replace him.
One thing I want to point out here, and I do intend to imply any disrespect to Matt, whose absence was clearly felt in Oakland and Fresno as exciting as those shows were, but there are four things that every Pearl Jam show in history have in common: Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. Even the infamous San Francisco show in 1995 had Eddie for seven songs. They have played many shows without Matt. They have never played a show without Jeff. If there were a show without Jeff, would it be a Pearl Jam show?
They played a show without Stone
I stand corrected. What were the circumstances? I don't remember this.
Speak for yourself, this old timer is glad the band moved on from him.
Me too. I love MFC's drumming. I think he's amazing. He's not just a cement mixer, he's technical, he has jazz root (which I love) and the band is so tight with him. That's the thing that stood out most in Oakland. They were all over the place and loose. It was cool for a show or two, but I wouldn't want that all the time.
Yup... I prefer MFC's Soundgarden work over his PJ work, as i think he was just a more dynamic drummer w/ SG, but that's also a whole different animal than PJ.
I agree with everything you said about the band being tight around him. The guys is a f'ing machine behind the kit, a true joy to watch.
For my money though, the Jack Irons albums are my runaway favorites, so by default, he's my favorite PJ drummer.
Yeah I fall into this camp too JI was my favorite period of PJ catalog
According to Ed, Matt remained in Arizona after testing positive. That implies that he tested positive on Tuesday. The first Oakland show was Friday. They had time to scramble to figure out how to replace him. In all likelihood, they found out about Jeff's positive test late Wednesday morning (or Jeff had tested negative but started feeling poorly on Wednesday morning). That did not give them much time to figure out how to replace him.
One thing I want to point out here, and I do intend to imply any disrespect to Matt, whose absence was clearly felt in Oakland and Fresno as exciting as those shows were, but there are four things that every Pearl Jam show in history have in common: Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. Even the infamous San Francisco show in 1995 had Eddie for seven songs. They have played many shows without Matt. They have never played a show without Jeff. If there were a show without Jeff, would it be a Pearl Jam show?
They played a show without Stone
I stand corrected. What were the circumstances? I don't remember this.
The Dave thing is old man. He fucked up somewhere. The whole band wanted him out. Whatever, who cares. All the Dave fan boys can go cry in a corner. Boo hoo. It was business. If you watch the 1996 Grammy acceptance speech, Stone thanks Dave Abbruzzese while smirking and Mike laughs. The whole band grew to hate him. He was lucky to get the job and he fucked up along the way. Oh well. Sucks to be him. The real question is where would the band be if Soundgarden didn’t break up and Matt Cameron wasn’t available.
👏🏻 Some great points!
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These Dave threads make me curious about royalties. Since pearl jam was in the golden age of CD sales, am I naïve to think that Dave would be set for life? I know these boards aren't about gossiping, and I don't want to speculate - I just remember a thread a while back where Mike mentioned that decades later he was still getting a few grand of royalty payments from ten.
Dave is a millionaire. Not to the extent that the other guys in the band are but, unless he's been extremely careless with his finances, he is not going to be "serving us fries" (as another poster put it) at any point in his life.
There's zero chance he's a millionaire. I bet he's been broke for decades. I know for a fact he has sold some of his original tapes (Stuffins) to fans. These are tapes of either versions of Alone, Wash, etc. You wouldn't do that if you were a millionaire.
There is not, in fact, "zero chance" he's a millionaire. There are plenty of reasons a person harboring a decades-long grudge would sell those tapes.
There was not a GoFundMe for his daughter. There was a FB "birthday fundraiser" in which he asked folks to contribute, on his birthday, to his daughter's ongoing education.
That said, being a millionaire and being extremely wealthy are two different things, so absolutely, his life is nowhere near the same as the rest of the guys in the band, but Dave is not broke, has not "been broke for decades."
Sorry, no one is going to convince me that Dave A is wealthy today for drumming on two records.
Yeah two records that combined to sell like 15 million copies. And he's credited as songwriter on every song except for Nothingman, Better Man, Satan's Bed, and Stupid Mop. That wouldn't make him "wealthy." As Chris Rock said once, "Shaq is rich, the white man that signs his check....he's wealthy." But "zero chance he's a millionaire" isn't correct either. There's a good chance he's a millionaire. Or at least he certainly once was one. Who knows about these days.
I 100% agree that he was a millionaire at some point. There is no doubt. I am talking specifically about today. What has he done with his life for the past 25 years? Anything of note? Does he have a job? Does he gig? If he had 2MM tax free 25 years ago, that's only 80k per year as of today, and he would be wiped out. Does anyone think he invested 2MM? Negative.
Your guess is as good as mine. All I know that he's done since leaving the band is....
-Something called "Green Romance Orchestra." I've never checked it out. -Some sessions for Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy record -Played Rearviewmirror virtually with a bunch of fans for the band's 30th anniversary
That's all I got.
His time with GnG predates anything considered ”Chinese Democracy” I think. He was there when Duff was still in the band. But maybe some jam that is CD connected happened at that time.
I am no GnR expert.
And the best drummer Pearl Jam has ever had is Matt Chamberlain. On the live disc that came with the To Venus and Back album. No contest.
We 100% dug into the GnR thing. Someone linked to a GnR board. It was probably you. We have the details - will find that thread at some point.
Off of memory I think he was invited to drum by Axl, they had some conversations and Dave interpreted it as he would have to run the band, and walked away. It was weird. There are some unheard demos with Dave on them though.
According to Ed, Matt remained in Arizona after testing positive. That implies that he tested positive on Tuesday. The first Oakland show was Friday. They had time to scramble to figure out how to replace him. In all likelihood, they found out about Jeff's positive test late Wednesday morning (or Jeff had tested negative but started feeling poorly on Wednesday morning). That did not give them much time to figure out how to replace him.
One thing I want to point out here, and I do intend to imply any disrespect to Matt, whose absence was clearly felt in Oakland and Fresno as exciting as those shows were, but there are four things that every Pearl Jam show in history have in common: Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. Even the infamous San Francisco show in 1995 had Eddie for seven songs. They have played many shows without Matt. They have never played a show without Jeff. If there were a show without Jeff, would it be a Pearl Jam show?
They played a show without Stone
I stand corrected. What were the circumstances? I don't remember this.
Stone was doing some charity thing I think the same day? They really did roll out a life size cardboard cutout of Stone tho Placed him right where he should be.
What did they sound like without a rhythm guitarist (who plays lead on a lot of songs)? Looking at the set list, it looks like they avoided playing the songs where he plays lead.
The situation really sucks for the band, fans, crew, venue employees, etc. To say nothing of the fact that two people are sick. But make sure to get your petty snark in, drummer number two.
A few points in rebuttal to his sort of odd statement there:
1. Obviously Dave is not shying away from any reasons he can to turn his personal dissatisfaction with having to leave Pearl Jam into insults
2. It would be much harder to "replace" someone the day of who plays a harmonic instrument - Josh would probably be the only one on standby who knows the chord changes and live arrangements of the songs but he was already tapped to fill in for another fallen member
3. Filling in for one person, manageable. Filling in for two people, plus a singer coming off of food poisoning and going on with a show with a group of people who have had personal interactions with at least two confirmed people who had tested positive? Not likely
All in all I think it seems clear to most of us this is just a display of one of the probably many reasons why Dave A. got sacked from a sweet gig. Same as it ever was
All this talk of Dave A.’s net worth, but he gets to live rent-free in the heads of some PJ fans.
He did important work with this band, but—nearly 30 years later—seems to still carry a grudge related to his firing. If he was this petty, whiny, salty, or plain agitating as a bandmember, then I can see why the other four went forward without him.
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It is really impressive the amount of financial and drumming experts on this message board. I’m neither, so thank you for dropping so much inside knowledge. Seems like Dave A was at least a pretty good drummer for PJ. But, isn’t it weird he didn’t get hired on with, at the very least, a mediocre band?
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I think what he is saying is pretty clear....why is it ok to replace the drummer and not the bass player?
I think it was about having to replace a drummer AND a bassplayer. More than replacing soley Jeff for some shows.
THIS. Thank you lol. It’s a lot easier for a good drummer/bass player to jump in at a moments notice if they are playing with a Bass player/drummer that knows all the songs like the back of his hand.
"Well, I think this band is incapable of sucking."
-my dad after hearing Not for You for the first time on SNL .
Knew someone would post this! Well regardless it’s nice to get some context, from one member’s point of view. Interesting he did reference the gun thing was a sticking point and “fitting the PJ mold” was another!!
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Knew someone would post this! Well regardless it’s nice to get some context, from one member’s point of view. Interesting he did reference the gun thing was a sticking point and “fitting the PJ mold” was another!!
To me it makes it more confusing.
it’s not about him loving guns but guns were part of why he was fired.
I didn’t know it was 22 caliber rifles either. Not exactly the gun you would want to take into the wilderness unless you are defending yourself from squirrels. “Glorified version of a pellet gun” was literal in this case.
I assumed it was handguns, so the rifle angle is interesting
Too bad the unsolved mysteries guy passed.....I would love to see a Dave A episode.....with Robert Stack saying Dave A over and over and over again.......was it supernatural that Dave is no longer in the band? hmmm
What Dave is trying to say is that he was a victim of a bro-code pact that conspired against him to boot him from the band, and it wasn’t his personality, because now look, the bro-code still exists with Matt being replaceable while Jeff is not.
Too bad the unsolved mysteries guy passed.....I would love to see a Dave A episode.....with Robert Stack saying Dave A over and over and over again.......was it supernatural that Dave is no longer in the band? hmmm
HA!!!!
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Too bad the unsolved mysteries guy passed.....I would love to see a Dave A episode.....with Robert Stack saying Dave A over and over and over again.......was it supernatural that Dave is no longer in the band? hmmm
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I hope you get to meet your hero someday, I really do.
Edit: (If I remember correctly, it was an actual photo)
He did important work with this band, but—nearly 30 years later—seems to still carry a grudge related to his firing. If he was this petty, whiny, salty, or plain agitating as a bandmember, then I can see why the other four went forward without him.
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1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
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2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
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2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
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2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
I don't hate on Dave A... if anything I feel bad for him.
it’s not about him loving guns but guns were part of why he was fired.
I didn’t know it was 22 caliber rifles either. Not exactly the gun you would want to take into the wilderness unless you are defending yourself from squirrels. “Glorified version of a pellet gun” was literal in this case.
did Dave A ever go to State?
does he own a llama?
GOSH
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