Red Mosquito

What qualities of Pearl Jam do you miss the most?

I miss the integrity, grit and character

Decent guitar tone

Gigaton rules, I don't miss anything anymore.

Leatherhead wrote:Gigaton rules, I don't miss anything anymore.

yup.

Dave

tree_ wrote:What qualities of Pearl Jam do you miss the most?

Having a common enemy

Nirvana?

youth

Inspirational guru Brendan O’Brien

(Did I have you there…even for a second?)

mystery

dad wrote:youth

son

tragabigzanda wrote:Probably the thing I miss most is Ed singing like he did circa No Code - Binaural.

im so glad that’s over!

tree_ wrote:I miss the integrity, grit and character

I mean, the band has had a few pivots on this. There’s the hardline they took say ‘93-‘96, and the result of that was near band break up, no true access to fans save for maybe a dozen shows a year in some out of the way places, which also admittedly were a mess in terms of operation. ‘98-‘03 they relented on touring, relented on music videos, but were politically active anyway and attacked by their fans for it - some who just wanted the hits and some who wanted obscure song lists. They got booed in Long Island, which seemed to be an inflection point since the shows from there, while still political, took to a more celebratory tone, particularly in the encores at the close of that leg and moving forward.

In ‘06, Pearl Jam seemed more ready to embrace fame again, appearing on TV shows (vh1 storytellers, vh1 rock honors The Who, euro tv), doing more interviews, videos, and the like. ‘06 becomes the last full scale massive tour for the band and media says they are back though really they didn’t gain that much traction. ‘09 the band opens up more and signals big shift by playing corporate events. I am not sure much has changed in their approach since then.

You can argue this is a band that has forsaken their 1993 selves, you can say in 30 years the band just slowly re-entered the reality of the music business in their terms, or you can argue they just stopped giving a crap post Riot Act (a turn to self-promotion after they let their record deal expire with Epic). I don’t really judge them for it - and sometimes I think it’s unfair to hold them to Fugazi standards when they are Pearl Jam and have a fan base that measures closer to classic rock bands than punk rock, but I guess each individual has their own metric.

I distinctly remember going to the Garden in ‘08 and saying out loud “holy crap, they have screens!” So perhaps every change triggers a different response for people.

Many of the things above especially

Ed vocals 96 - 03
Mystery
Grit and character
Good guitar tone

But also Ed not treating his audience like sports fans that need hope

Yeah good point. It's not a goddamn Cubs game. Let it get dark and weird sometimes. Take some cues from Radiohead.

Through 1998 they had a generational front-man. Now they "merely" have a really good one. I feel like this is the obvious answer.

andy wood

Habitman wrote:Through 1998 they had a generational front-man. Now they "merely" have a really good one. I feel like this is the obvious answer.

whoa whoa easy there