Matt leaving the band

CantKeepmedown said:

I'm sure he is at a point where he and his kids/grandkids are set for life financially.  He can get away playing 70 minute sets and charging $25-30 a ticket.  As Ed has stated before, PJ is a large corporation with lots of mouths to feed. They need to play more shows/longer shows to justify how much they are charging. He likely decided he didn't want to or need to do that anymore.  

I saw Everclear a few months ago. The set was exactly an hour. It felt so very short, was just getting warmed up!
My first Weezer concert was the same back in 2001. Anything less than an hour and half I feel I got shorted, especially with ticket prices now. 

CantKeepmedown said:

I'm sure he is at a point where he and his kids/grandkids are set for life financially.  He can get away playing 70 minute sets and charging $25-30 a ticket.  As Ed has stated before, PJ is a large corporation with lots of mouths to feed. They need to play more shows/longer shows to justify how much they are charging. He likely decided he didn't want to or need to do that anymore.  

I always got the vibe he didn't see himself as PJ's drummer. He wouldn't expand on questions about Pearl Jam, and try to talk about Soundgarden more. This last response reflects that too, talks about how he was more proud of SG because he was there from the beginning, but came into PJ when they were already well established. And I don't blame him for that, I'd probably feel the same way. All of PJs hits are from before he joined.
Not that he didn't do a great job or that he even hated it. But I always got the vibe he wanted SG to work out more, and if he could make the same money touring with just them, he would have. PJ was his income, SG was his passion. 

mace1229 said:

CantKeepmedown said:

I'm sure he is at a point where he and his kids/grandkids are set for life financially.  He can get away playing 70 minute sets and charging $25-30 a ticket.  As Ed has stated before, PJ is a large corporation with lots of mouths to feed. They need to play more shows/longer shows to justify how much they are charging. He likely decided he didn't want to or need to do that anymore.  

I always got the vibe he didn't see himself as PJ's drummer. He wouldn't expand on questions about Pearl Jam, and try to talk about Soundgarden more. This last response reflects that too, talks about how he was more proud of SG because he was there from the beginning, but came into PJ when they were already well established. And I don't blame him for that, I'd probably feel the same way. All of PJs hits are from before he joined.
Not that he didn't do a great job or that he even hated it. But I always got the vibe he wanted SG to work out more, and if he could make the same money touring with just them, he would have. PJ was his income, SG was his passion. 

Which seems a bit odd to me. He’s been contributing to the songwriting for seven fucking records and over two decades with PJ

Following up on these observations and I got a similar vibe from Matt as well. When discussing Pearl Jam, it seemed like he'd go out of his way to not say "we" or "us" very much and it seemed like there was sort of a wall/barrier. I get it on the one hand with him not stepping in until the '98 tour but as others mentioned, he's been a part of every studio album and tour since. Since his July departure and reflecting on the most recent '25 shows that were a bit more hits heavy, I kind of wondered if MC sort of felt like he was just a cover drummer up there pounding out hits that he had nothing to do with.

I also noticed how when Ed introduced the band, he always seemed to heap more praise on MC and go a little over the top possibly in an effort to try and integrate or meld MC into the band more - which is weird to say with him being in it for 27 years.  And come to think of it, Ed generally worked in a Soundgarden reference or remark about MC being in two bands etc. Typing that last point out just now, maybe Ed did so feeling like it was necessary to recognize MC's contributions to rock outside the context of PJ given his disconnection to PJ's pivotal albums.

Whatever the case, I'm excited about a possible return to longer sets and more touring.

Spiritual_Chaos said:

he also says he gave plenty of notice

The other band members were aware of Matt’s intentions in 2024.

PJ_Soul said:

mace1229 said:

Ryan said:

JimmyV said:

Shaindli1 said:

One day we'll get together for a beer - tells me there's definitely some tension there. 

Yes, that is how I read it. 

He literally says that it was amicable, as did the band.
PJ wasn’t scratching the creative itch for Matt, he’s done with big tours and long shows.

It’s funny how people here seem to think the band members hang out a ton in their downtime; they do not.
These guys are coworkers with their own family obligations and friends and creative endeavours.  

If someone had left where I worked in July, it’s a good bet I haven’t bothered to catch up with them yet either.  

That’s true. But when you’re a coworker for 27 years, you’ve probably created a deep bond. I haven’t been working that long yet, but when my dad retired, it was a big deal to the people who were with him the majority of the time.
Then you add that they were friends before coworkers, and their experience as coworkers is vastly different from ours which would naturally create a tighter bond (I would assume), it is quite different.
Not that I expect them to be hanging out every weekend. But I would fully expect them to be in each others lives, unlike my workers that left over the summer too.

Maybe if they all lived close to one another and/or weren't travelling a lot, but all of PJ are busy with their own stuff and usually nowhere near one another when they aren't touring or working on new music. 

I have friends on the other side of the country I grew up with that I text on a semi-regular basis. I knew them less time than they knew Matt. When I said be in their lives, I mean keeping in touch. Wishing them well on special occasions, maybe even going to their kid's weddings or some other major life event. I would think they are more than just "coworkers" to each other. 

100 Pacer said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

he also says he gave plenty of notice

The other band members were aware of Matt’s intentions in 2024.

Thank you for that detail. 

Evacuation is a fantastic song!  

A wise man (Dan Mangan) once wrote “But watch out for the paraphrase…
Cause they will crown you and they will take your legs”

I take any magazine articles with not a grain, but a heaping tablespoon of salt. It’s very common for quotes to be taken out of context or rearranged to stir things up. My opinion of Matt or any musician I respect would never change based on an article. 

ekwipt said:

A wise man (Dan Mangan) once wrote “But watch out for the paraphrase…
Cause they will crown you and they will take your legs”

I take any magazine articles with not a grain, but a heaping tablespoon of salt. It’s very common for quotes to be taken out of context or rearranged to stir things up. My opinion of Matt or any musician I respect would never change based on an article. 

In interviews, the subject often get to read his quotes and sign off on them.