MC2-25: Nothing as it Seems vs. Dance of the Clairvoyants

Post by **stip** » Mon April 06, 2026 2:51 am

Nothing as it Seems vs. Dance of the Clairvoyants

Post by **stip** » Mon April 06, 2026 2:52 am

Two worthy songs for a half bracket final.

Dance gets my vote for its singular brilliance. Pearl Jam has nothing else like it, and for their first time playing around with a song like this it is phenomenally good. NAIS is great, but it was never revelatory

Post by **epilogue** » Mon April 06, 2026 3:02 am

It's Dance

Monkey_Driven · Post by **Monkey_Driven** » Mon April 06, 2026 3:24 am

NAIS is great, but it's about 30-60 seconds to long.

Outside of a few cringey lyrics, DotC is perfect.

LoathedVermin72 · Post by **LoathedVermin72** » Mon April 06, 2026 3:35 am

Extremely easy NAIS vote, get real guys

liebzz · Post by **liebzz** » Mon April 06, 2026 4:36 pm

stip wrote:Two worthy songs for a half bracket final.

Dance gets my vote for its singular brilliance. Pearl Jam has nothing else like it, and for their first time playing around with a song like this it is phenomenally good. NAIS is great, but it was never revelatory

Dance and NAIS are both revelatory. I first heard NAIS on a bootleg from the 1999 Bridge School Benefit and was floored - never heard Pearl Jam do something so atmospheric- even their prior efforts at atmospheric tunes sounded nothing like this. Mike’s guitar lines here cut through the atmosphere so brilliantly. I still couldn’t give you another Pearl Jam song that sounded like that to that point. The closest efforts at something like this since have been Half Full (a more full blown rocker comparatively), Pendulum (got the smoke but not the fire in comparison), and maybe the intro to Upper Hand though the song completely changes course after that intro. I’m voting for NAIS understanding that Dance is also singular and amazing in their catalogue. Both made me believe in this band even more as an artistic force.

VinylGuy · Post by **VinylGuy** » Mon April 06, 2026 4:46 pm

its very hard, but Dance for me.

Buby · Post by **Buby** » Mon April 06, 2026 6:07 pm

This really is another tie for me.

Anders · Post by **Anders** » Mon April 06, 2026 6:37 pm

liebzz · Post by **liebzz** » Mon April 06, 2026 6:45 pm

Anders wrote:NAIS

It’s home.

wease · Post by **wease** » Mon April 06, 2026 6:59 pm

liebzz wrote:
Anders wrote:NAIS
It’s home.

I want to move

VinylGuy · Post by **VinylGuy** » Mon April 06, 2026 7:07 pm

Wease, why do you hate NAIS so much?

liebzz · Post by **liebzz** » Mon April 06, 2026 7:54 pm

I remember the old backlash to NAIS was that its placement on the 2000 tour acted as a momentum stopper - they’d play like 6 or 7 rockers and then slow it down with this, and people didn’t seem to like that. Outside of that, I am not sure what the hate is about. Kind of smoky/ominous atmosphere that matches the lyrics concerning an overarching deception, and then Mike’s guitar cuts through it like a knife - a very emotional and cathartic kind of solo, which he does twice…everything about this song is enticing to me.

wease · Post by **wease** » Tue April 07, 2026 12:00 am

VinylGuy wrote:Wease, why do you hate NAIS so much?

It’s just boring. I didn’t see the 2000 tour, so it has nothing to do with that. Everybody gets a boner for Mike’s solo and he’s played much more interesting things over many other songs. The bass line just drones on and on and there’s nothing exciting about it at all. The melody of the vocals is just flat and lifeless. Just a completely tedious dud in a spectacular catalogue of compositions. I know art is subjective and I’m in the overwhelming minority with this but I just can’t find anything to like or feel connected to at all with it.

lvc · Post by **lvc** » Tue April 07, 2026 12:02 am

wease wrote:
VinylGuy wrote:Wease, why do you hate NAIS so much?
It’s just boring. I didn’t see the 2000 tour, so it has nothing to do with that. Everybody gets a boner for Mike’s solo and he’s played much more interesting things over many other songs. The bass line just drones on and on and there’s nothing exciting about it at all. The melody of the vocals is just flat and lifeless. Just a completely tedious dud in a spectacular catalogue of compositions. I know art is subjective and I’m in the overwhelming minority with this but I just can’t find anything to like or feel connected to at all with it.

I kind of agree that once you get past the departure-from-earlier-Pearl-Jam rush, it’s actually not an extremely interesting song.

But with no mention of dicks it gets my vote.

VinylGuy · Post by **VinylGuy** » Tue April 07, 2026 1:04 am

i remember the hatred in the 2000s tour and even when it was released as a single. I loveeed it. I fucking adore the bridge, is awesome, very hard and tight, kinda like Radiohead meets Pearl Jam meets Floyd.

wease · Post by **wease** » Tue April 07, 2026 1:10 am

I bought that single. Insignificance became my favorite tune from the album before the album even came out.

Post by **stip** » Tue April 07, 2026 2:08 am

Nothing as it Seems wins 16-15

Red Mosquito