...because I can't seem to stop posting about Lolla...this pretty accurately describes the chaos that ensues when you decide to invite half the crowd on-stage...the last 30 seconds, when he's trying to get the folks off the stage, are good listening...
Friday, August 10, 2007
Iggy on YouTube...
Do not pass go. Do not collect $200
Man, I hope this never gets the green light
Ridley Scott Talks 'Monopoly' Movie
Are We Serious About Changing Our Consumption Patterns . . .
. . . in the face of global warming??? Then maybe this recent research should be high on all our reading lists:
The most effective campaigns to encourage ethical consumption are those that take place at a collective level, such as the creation of Fairtrade cities, rather than those that target individual behaviour. The research suggests that ethical consumption is best understood as a political phenomenon rather than simply a market response to consumer demand.
........
The research team found that campaigns aimed at getting people to change what they buy often worked on the assumption that individuals lack the necessary information to make educated decisions about the consequences of what they buy and where they buy it from. However the findings from the study suggest that people don't necessarily lack the information about Fairtrade, organic food, environmental sustainability, or third world sweatshops. They do, however, often lack effective pathways to acting on their concerns over these issues.
........
A great deal of the consumption people do they don't do as 'consumers' exercising 'choice'. Lots of consumption is embedded in relationships of obligation where people are acting as parents, caring partners, football fans or good friends. Some consumption is used to sustain these sorts of relationships: giving gifts, buying school lunches, getting hold of this season's new strip. And quite a lot of consumption is done as the background to these activities, embedded in all sorts of infrastructures (eg transport, energy, water) over which people have little or no direct influence as individual 'consumers'.
In order to successfully encourage people to adopt ethical consumption activities, it is important to call on their specific identities, as for example a member of the local community or faith group, rather than just targeting them as 'faceless' and 'placeless' consumers. The most successful initiatives are those that find ways of making changes to the practical routines of consumption. For example, by changing how and what people buy and from where through establishing initiatives such as Fairtrade networks or achieving the status of a Fairtrade town or city.
Proof That Mister Rogers Was Nice But Misguided Man
I have from time to time gone after that saint known as Mister Rogers and all his fellow "don't conflict, just get along with everyone no matter how stupid or mendacious" colleagues on public television. I hold them personally responsible for much of the idiotic behavior of the Democratic Party as it's handed over our Legacy and Democracy to the plutocrats and bullies of the opposition party. Yes, they're all nice and well-intentioned folks (but, seriously, would you have any of them over to any party you wanted to be fun?). However, the underlying philosophy of their "educational" efforts was always questionable, and using television to sell it basically just promoted use of television. This post lays it all out wonderfully, noting the contribution to our ADD society and politics, but it needed to go to the next step and link it to the resulting milktoast strategies of political party that once was the major hope we had of resisting the loss of our political system. You should never let very many "reasonable" people organize more than the annual songfest. One of the best things that could have happened over the last couple of decades would have been to let the Repubs win in their annual quest to dismantle public television.
Weather, Water, Energy 8-10-07
Quick hits today:
- One of the disappointing but predictable results of every rationalization to "deregulate" in the name of lower costs and higher efficiency is that we get less efficiency (flown on a plane lately?) and higher costs, as this article highlights about "deregulated" electricity. And our leaders [sic] still haul out that sad "reason" every time, and we always buy it.
- Corn not so bright as a fuel source now that people are thinking it through. (Notice I said "people," not "policymakers.")
- OTOH, David Roberts at Grist has a post up on what could and may be happening to actually make biofuel more practical as an alternative. And, while you're over there, check out what he has to say about the warped logic of US automakers who say a giant gasoline tax is the only way to get consumers to "demand" fuel-efficient cars (just like past US automakers have resisted seat belts and anti-lock brakes until consumers "demanded" them), the good news about solar even without sunshine, and trees officially not being the answer to dealing with emissions.
- Terra Daily has some worthwhile reading, including word on Malaysia claiming to be committed to preservation of its rainforest, cities affecting thunderstorms, the interest and puzzle that is permafrost thawing and its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, and Japan investigating non-edible biofuel crops, like straw. Gee, that makes sense. No wonder it's not happening here.
- Over at RealClimate, evidence that Arctic sea ice melt will set a record this year.
- At Science Daily, longer heat waves are upping hospital admissions, 19th century soot helped make Greenland an easier place to live now, and tech advancements to lessen the size necessary for water treatment plants by half. Doesn't cut the costs of treatment in half but it does reduce them as well. I shouldn't have to spell out what that means for our future, do I?
Thursday, August 09, 2007
My Verdict: Slightly unintentional, but...
So I guess something strange happened during the Pearl Jam webcast the other night:
After concluding our Sunday night show at Lollapalooza, fans informed us that portions of that performance were missing and may have been censored by AT&T during the "Blue Room" Live Lollapalooza Webcast.Whitney from EW’s PopWatch called the spokesperson for AT&T’s “Blue Room”:
When asked about the missing performance, AT&T informed Lollapalooza that portions of the show were in fact missing from the webcast, and that their content monitor had made a mistake in cutting them.
During the performance of "Daughter" the following lyrics were sung to the tune of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" but were cut from the webcast:
- "George Bush, leave this world alone." (the second time it was sung); and
- "George Bush find yourself another home.
"This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media.
[T]he company's spokesperson told me that the editing at Lollapalooza was not intentional, and was the decision of an "overzealous" web editor at a company AT&T subcontracted to handle the event. "We have policies for profanity and other actions," the spokesperson continued, "but this was a mistake, and we are working with the band to resolve it." They hope to have an un-edited performance online soon, and, naturally, they regret the situation.Art Brodsky at HuffPo had some questions as well.
That's nice. But the first question here, obviously, is how to keep something like this from happening in the future. One can't help but wonder how Joe Webcasteditorguy determined that Vedder's remarks were somehow inappropriate — according to the spokesperson, the Blue Room's only policy regarding editing is to remove "excessive profanity" from webcasts, based on the fact that they have no age restriction for the website. What I found interesting is the fact that all Blue Room transmissions are running on a two-minute delay, which, unlike your more standard SNL-and-news-broadcasts seven-second delay, must be an agonizingly long time for any editor to stew over a snap judgment — especially if they're engaged in a fierce internal debate about whether allowing the liberal rock star's anti-Bush comment through the filter might get them fired, or, worse, added to some sort of list that could lead to phone monitoring and/or the inability to get on a plane next time they want to visit grandma. And yes, that is a slight exaggeration. But throw in paranoia involving the giant corporation for whom they are working, the opinions/beliefs of shareholders, the chance that you might be providing the dreaded "succor" to the damn terrorists.... Well, one can see where Joe Webcasteditorguy was, maybe, just trying to do what's right.
The larger question is, why do they have a "content monitor?" This isn't TV, where the Federal Cussing Commission is looking over everyone's shoulder. There isn't a rule about what content can get streamed over the Internet, at least not yet.Despite my reflexive “DON’T YOU DARE MESS WITH MY PEARL JAM” instinct, I'm willing to at least slightly believe the "Mistakes were made...just not by us" excuse that this was something of an accident, and I’m glad that AT&T’s working with the band to fix the problem. That said, I hope this issue doesn’t go away after it’s fixed.
AT&T is really getting into its role as content nanny in a big way. First, it starts monitoring all sorts of conversations for the National Security Agency. Then it promises to work with the movie studios and NBC to come up with some super software to tag copyrighted material that flows through its network, regardless of how that content is used. Now it puts "content monitors" on its Webcasts.
We must ask: This is the company that want to be left alone to run the Internet as it sees fit? The corporate officials of AT&T like to give speeches and to tell the FCC and Congress that they won't block people's access to content. They made that promise when they bought BellSouth for $80 billion last year. Former AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre made it in a speech last March.
They protest too much. Despite the denials from Whitacre and others in the telecom industry, this incident is just one more count in the indictment. Millions of people all over the country have signed petitions and told the government that they don't want companies like AT&T to have control over what goes over the Internet. If you have to ask why, this is why.
As the band said on its Web page: "AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media."
Pearl Jam has had a lot of hits, but it couldn't write anything more striking than this: "What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band."
The whole ‘webcasting’ idea has been so fresh and neat (“You mean I can watch the closing set from Bonnaroo in my underwear at home?? That’s awesome!!”) that I don’t think consumers have felt like they have a right to expect more just yet.
If AT&T is going to have basically a monopoly over this type of service, then it’s indeed time to start making some demands. The biggest one of all to me is that there really is absolutely, positively no need for removing “excessive profanity” on this sort of thing, being that a) you can find any cussword you want on YouTube and anywhere else, and b) you should probably know what you’re getting into if you let your young child watch a rock concert (HELLLLO, McFly). Plenty of parents brought their children to the concert, and I bet they knew what they were getting into. Besides, if you’re allowing your child to play on the Internet without your supervision, the last thing you have to worry about is them hearing some curse words on a concert webcast. If you take profanity off the table, then some "overzealous web editor" won't have decisions to make other than hitting 'Start' and 'Stop', and this kind of crap won't happen.
Let that 'tussin get on down to the bone...
One of my favorite Chris Rock bits is where he talks about Robitussin.
When I was a kid, we didn't have no insurance. We didn't have a damn thing. You had to be damn near dead to see the doctor. You had to be way past Robitussin. That's all we had when I was a kid: Robitussin. No matter what you got, Robitussin better handle it.I was thinking of that when I read this WaPo article. Bushnev thinks corporate tax cuts will fix absolutely anything...
"Daddy, I got asthma." "Robitussin."
"I got cancer." "Robitussin."
I broke my leg, Daddy poured Robitussin on it.
"Yeah, boy, let that 'tussin get in there. "Yeah, boy, let that 'tussin
get on down to the bone. The 'tussin ought to straighten out the bone. It's good."
If you run out of 'tussin, put some water in the jar, shake it up! MO' 'TUSSIN! MO' 'TUSSIN!
President Bush said yesterday that he is considering a fresh plan to cut tax rates for U.S. corporations to make them more competitive around the world, an initiative that could further inflame a battle with the Democratic Congress over spending and taxes and help define the remainder of his tenure.Budget surplus? Robitussin! Budget deficit? Robitussin! Losing jobs? Robitussin! Losing world standing? Robitussin! MO' 'TUSSIN! MO' 'TUSSIN!
...
With most of his second-term domestic legislative agenda in tatters and his strategy in Iraq under bipartisan fire, Bush appears eager to return to familiar issues that animated the beginning of his presidency and might rally disaffected Republicans behind him again.
Standing for Something Counts for Blogs, Too
I agree with practically everything Demosthenes adds to the current "why don't they pay attention to blogs?" argument going on right now, but I'd like to replay an old record that thudded loudly a year or so ago. He rightly notes that the blogs are seen primarily (totally?) as a source of funds, for legit candidates and possible wannabes, but that whatever messages are being posted are primarily for the choir and its self-absorption ("look at me on tv!!", "John Kerry blogged with me!!!"). There's no point in lamenting the sole value as an ATM that the progressive blogs have earned. That's where it's been intentionally taken.
Two dot-commers who failed in the boom of the 90s, one of whom got caught cheating, turned the idea and principle world of Billmon (as he famously noted) into a money-making enterprise, at least for them and a few others. Since then, Kos in particular got famous and wealthy by pulling the old Tom Sawyer makes money conning others to do his work, and by shutting off any serious discussion of the ethical implications of the founders' fraudulent activity, with all their acolytes chanting in unison, "Kommandante Kos doesn't control me, Kommandante Kos doesn't control me" when they followed his orders to deny oxygen from the reveal of Armstrong. It was a clear example of what's wrong with the blogs, just as it's wrong with the party it supports and which craps on it. The bloggers expound and stand for issues and some are smarter than others and seem like interesting if often too high maintenance people. But if someone asked, "What is the uniting principle of our blogosphere?", what would they say? There would be a 621 word statement they called a principle, incorporating 18-25 issues and concepts. IOW, just like the Dems.
The Dem leadership [sic] knows that, when push comes, the blogs can't mobilize anyone around any central core ideas. They can be anything they want because there's nothing to truly hold them accountable to. A party and a movement based on, say, Lincoln's underlying beliefs, or King's, would present and proclaim a message to future voters that would inspire and make those principle-less focus grouped "leaders" afraid to cross. But Kos, Armstrong, Bowers, et al., for all their strong stands, are clearly shooting for "leading" and profiting from their new "fame." The one clear and obvious operating principle of this blogosphere IS raising campaign funds and whatever influence they bring for a few key bloggers, and ideas, principle, and standing for something that can unify and advance this nation are all just peripheral, no matter how devoted to and heart-felt the causes for which the minions write. And until the rest of the blogs accept this and what they are and where they're (not) taking us, they'll just keeping putting the whitewash on that fence.
Already the New Number One
Forget being at center stage for next year’s Olympics (and all the athletes in respiratory distress lying around the podiums). While we’ve been monitoring Paris and Lindsay and honoring baseball cheaters and flushing money down the Middle East for a few US oil families, we’ve also been surpassed as the world’s economic leader, folks:
China is expected this year for the first time to make the largest single contribution to world growth of any country.
Even better news: Chinese Prosperity Will Set Off Global Food Inflation
Good Use of Space
Saw this graffiti photo. Gotta say it's a pretty cool idea. I'm sure it'll lose its impact when some idiot runs into the stop sign.
Weather, Water, Energy 8-9-07
Global warming is forecast to set in with a vengeance after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be hotter than 1998, the warmest year on record, scientists reported on Thursday. . . . In research published in the journal Science, Smith and his colleagues predicted that the next three or four years would show little warming despite an overall forecast that saw warming over the decade. "There is ... particular interest in the coming decade, which represents a key planning horizon for infrastructure upgrades, insurance, energy policy and business development," Smith and his co-authors noted. Do I really need to say anything else? . . . Meanwhile, Big Al calls out the major polluters funding the lies and disinformation campaign on global warming who would make the old Soviet Union propagandists proud. . . . Remember how we always point out here how, when deniers claim the science is wrong, they never claim it’s wrong in the way that would make problems worse, like the possibility the planet’s heating up faster than the models predict? (Like James Hansen’s predictions of the nonlinearity of ice sheet melt?) Well, here’s another example—coral reefs (reeves?) may be dying due to climate change faster than scientists have thought in the past. . . . Interesting but undo-able proposal at ClimatePolicy. Raising the gasoline tax enough to make a difference in emissions but putting the money into a system devoted to energy and warming solutions from which the taxpayer could indicate what programs s/he would want funded. . . . Canada not sitting back and letting Russia’s claims on the Arctic go unchallenged. Of course, we’re the ones with the nukes to lay claim to everything, especially if Sen. Inhofe (R-OKLAHOMA) gets his way. This could get nasty, folks. . . . How to take the ankles off the “other planets are warming” BS over at Climate Progress, along with other good stuff like a “Declaration of Stewardship” and the moronity of Michael Crichton. . . . When I saw this headline—“Climate Change Threatening Gardeners”—I thought things were getting a little personal. But it’s actually a pretty good overview of how global warming is making lives different (not to say better) for those who take their gardening seriously, and will continue to for the foreseeable future. . . . The national state legislators’ meeting is going on, and this story notes the important issues being discussed . . . without a word about weather, water, or energy. And we wonder why we’re the way we are and the way we’ll be. . . . Is it too early to stop running stories on national heat waves because they’re already too common? . . . Another story about how the rich will do better than the poor under global warming, locally and worldwide, and one of the reasons the people of the world won’t react to the disaster as fully as we’ll need to until we go past the tipping point. . . . With all the problems caused by turning corn into greenhouse gas emissions, I mean, fuel (as this IA article details), is it a good thing that some folks are trying to do the same thing with wheat. . . .I always thought the evil Milton Friedman’s unctuous smile (can anyone say “unctuous” without sounding unctuous?) when he would intone on how corporations serve the world by serving themselves and shareholders and not society was perfidy personified (alliteration), and this article makes it sound like companies are waking up to the lie not so hidden in that selfish rationale. Still, reading it, I can’t help put feel it really is just PR, waiting for the next “greed is good” cycle. Check it out and see if you agree. . . . Mexico’s glaciers feeling the heat, too, apparently. And, uh, when you go on one of those oh-so-trendy “see the glaciers before they melt” tours, you might want to stand back a little further than before. Apparently those suckers are dangerous when they break loose.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Lollapalooza Afterthoughts...
It’s hard to go to a festival like this and not leave pretty optimistic about the current state of music—maybe not popular music, but music—as long as you see the right bands, anyway. One of my favorite music writers, Jim DeRogatis, blogged his way through all three days of the festival, and I swear...I’m not sure we saw more than about five of the same bands all weekend. Let’s compare notes. I’m going to sample liberally from his blog, but trust me...I’m leaving plenty behind to read for yourself, including his testy jab exchange with Perry Farrell.
Yes, it was odd to see heartfelt political punk Ted Leo and his rip-roaring band the Pharmacists hammering out their smart, galvanizing call-to-arms anthems in the couldn’t be more apolitical, oh-so-middle-of-the-road setting of Lolla. But it’s a testament to the strength of songs such as “Bomb. Repeat. Bomb.” and “Army Bound" and a credit to the fact that Leo never fails to give less than 110 percent on any stage he takes that his set lost none of the power it had two years ago at the Pitchfork Music Festival.You should have been watching Polyphonic Spree (entertainment value) and Electric Six (strangeness value), Jim!
...
The high of Leo’s performance was soon dissipated by the next two acts in Hutchinson Field: Jack’s Mannequin and Slightly Stoopid, both of which were about as low as Lolla’s lowest points have ever gotten.
Following in Yawn's [Pete Yorn] spirit on the Jackson Street stage was the Montreal-based Sam Roberts Band. I've been searching all weekend for a name for the gently lilting, vaguely rootsy genre that they represent, and "Sound Opinions" producer Jason Saldanha finally provided one: "One Tree Hill" acoustic rock.Yes, but they’re Canadian. And they’re crowd was fantastic. I’m worried that I’ll pick up their latest album and come to the realization that I didn’t actually enjoy their music at all last Saturday, only the atmosphere. We’ll see.
Looking over the list of what I've seen so far in the fest, Anders' accounts of what I've missed and what's still to come at Lolla's half-way point, I have to say that more than a third of the acts booked this year can easily be lumped into one of three thoroughly generic and instantly forgettable sounds: this sort of "One Tree Hill" acoustic rock; pointless jam-band wankery or pleasantly jangley indie-rock. Enough already!
Although the start of his set was delayed 20 minutes by sound problems, and the rain that had been threatening all day finally started gently falling just as he began to perform, South Side rapper Rhymefest took the stage with his usual high-energy assault.I really hope his talent catches up to his enthusiasm and performance. He hit every right note on Saturday, but the songs themselves came up a little short for me.
The rapper, whose mom calls him Che Smith, proceeded to spin his gruff-voiced rhymes about working-class life, including a new and still-unnamed track recently recorded with Just Blaze and another with Kanye West, over the accomplished but under-amplified and poorly mixed backing of a big band that included a hype man, a DJ, two keyboardists, bass, drums and a four-piece horn section.
Though his gig didn't quite match the intensity of last year's turn at the Intonation Festival, it still had a large and enthusiastic crowd shouting and clapping along as Rhymefest pulled out all the stops, rocking up some of his material for the occasion, free-styling with no musical backing at one point and taking a quick jog through the crowd at another.
All in all, Lolla left me encouraged about the state of rock music—what with the enthusiastic response garnered for bands like The Hold Steady, Ted Leo & The Pharma, and Tapes ‘n Tapes—but I’m no more optimistic about the state of hip hop than I was before the week began. The week started with Common releasing what is probably pretty easily the hip hop album of the year...and it still left me a bit disappointed. But that's just probably because I worship Com's 2002 album, Electric Circus. It's possibly the most musically interesting, adventurous hip hop album ever, and after he caught flak for going a little overboard on EC he stripped everything down to simple beats for 2005’s Be. Well, his new album, Finding Forever, doesn’t really break any new ground either. It’s obviously solid, very good in fact, but it didn’t move hip hop forward any.
Meanwhile, basically the only hip hop Lolla had to offer were Rhymefest, The Roots (who were obviously amazing...but they’ve been amazing for a long time, and they obviously haven’t had an effect on how the rest of hip hop is doing), and Lupe Fiasco, who’s unique and interesting, but not amazing. I’m ready to be blown away by hip hop...it’s been a while.
Anyway.
Finally, day two ended in Hutchinson Field with the weekend's most mediocre headliner (though Interpol in the north was barely more worthy), the English quartet Muse.Okay, that balances out the “Dude, it was like Radiohead” review we heard Saturday night at a bar. I regret our decision to leave the rain early a bit less...though we did apparently drop the ball by missing out on Spoon.
The inferior English answer to America's similarly theatrical, atmospheric but much more clever My Chemical Romance, core band members Matthew Bellamy, the group's philosophically minded guitarist-vocalist, bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard attempt an unlikely merger of radio-friendly alternative, vintage symphonic/pomp-rock (heavy on the imitation Queen), funk, electronica and hair metal. Live at Lolla as on the group's most recent album, last year's "Black Holes and Revelations," the whole mess just falls flat, toppling under the weight of its own bombast and pretensions.
The band kicked things off with a bit of taped oratory by John F. Kennedy, and that was the most coherent and eloquent part of its show. Keyboards tinkled, Bellamy trilled, a synthesized orchestra swelled, drums boomed and guitars laid useless, flashy filigrees atop it all, making my head hurt, my ears ring and my second day at Lolla end with a pompous whimper rather than the bang I really could have used.
"Hello, motherf---ers!" Iggy shouted after opening with "Loose," which was followed by "1969," "I Wanna Be Your Dog" and "TV Eye," making for four of the most incendiary rock songs ever written in row. "We are very happy to be here at f---ing Lolla-pop-apalooza!"I’m an optimist, so I’m looking at it from the other direction: the Stooges’ appearance legitimized Lolla instead of degrading the Stooges. Lord knows the festival was better off for their having been there. Their performance pretty much told another 20 or so hard rock bands at the festival to go back to the minor leagues.
While families straggling over from Kidzapalooza may have cringed at all of the cussing, I for one was glad to have the Stooges in all of their vulgar, deliciously dirty, incredibly ugly, blood pressure-raising power, and even the songs from their lame comeback album, "The Weirdness," sounded good live, especially "My Idea of Fun (Is Killing Everyone)," which Iggy sang from the midst of the stunned, somewhat frightened but nonetheless energized crowd. All oldies/nostalgia acts should be this good — and for that matter, so should many of the current up-and-comers a quarter the Stooges' age who polluted the park throughout the weekend.
The climax of the band's set: "No Fun," during which Iggy invited the crowd onstage, and hundreds of fans jumped the security fences and climbed up to dance beside him in a wild frenzy, thoroughly freaking out security and the promoters, just like great rock 'n' roll should. No fun? No way; quite the opposite! Though I couldn't help but wonder what the Stooges' No. 1 fan and original champion of punk rock, rock critic Lester Bangs, would have thought about seeing his heroes here, at this time and in this most corporate-rock of settings. It would probably have killed him, if he wasn't dead already.
Next up were the Louisville, Ky., alt-country cult favorites My Morning Jacket, who churned out their ersatz Neil Young grooves and in the process impressed only those who had never heard that giant himself. Then the group promised to offer something a bit more than its ordinary musical Xerox act by joining forces midway through its set with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.For the record, I’ve seen Neil Young perform, and while he was fantastic, I still enjoyed the crap out of MMJ. I do agree that some of the CYSO’s parts were quiet (though the fact that the band plays such a full sound and drowned them out half the time had something to do with that) and thrown together, but...I was okay with that. It was a noble attempt, and it really did succeed 3-4 times throughout the 40 or so minutes the CYSO was on stage.
Unfortunately, the young classical musicians were very poorly amplified, and band leader Jim James hadn't really thought out beforehand how to utilize them to best effect — a problem he shared with the Decemberists when they joined forces with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra at Millennium Park a few weeks ago. But the band almost redeemed itself with its final song when it covered Kanye West's "Touch the Sky," an appropriate and fitting tribute to Chicago, and the sort of simple but moving effort to acknowledge the festival's home that too few bands made this weekend.
(And it was a cover of the song Kanye sampled for “Touch the Sky”, “Move on Up.” Respect Curtis Mayfield!!)
Although I get grief from fans complaining that I'm holding them up to an impossibly high standard (even though it's a standard they set) whenever I mention this, my benchmarks for a great Pearl Jam show are the two I caught at the Blossom Arts Center outside Cleveland and what was then the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park when the group performed as part of Lollapalooza 1992, and Evanston native Eddie Vedder literally climbed the rafters of those outdoor venues during the shows as a very physical expression of how exciting the band's music was back then.I will forever compare Pearl Jam shows to the nearly 3.5-hour show I saw at Alpine Valley (East Troy, WI) on my wife’s birthday in 2003 (She was there too...though we weren’t yet married at the time...PJ’s the only band she would ever care to see live.)
It's a different Pearl Jam 15 years later, better in some ways — the band is certainly more subtle and varied in the differing textures it brings to its songs — but not nearly as good in others. There was a time when Vedder was as exciting to watch and listen to as Iggy Pop, at age 20 or at age 60. I won't apologize for saying I miss that.I agree with this...Eddie was much more physical in the past, though he still carries that intense, earnest mystique. He doesn’t have to climb on the rafters for you to know how intense he is. He earned a lifetime’s worth of cred with his early-‘90s antics.
To its credit, though, Pearl Jam delivered one of the most intense and hard-rocking shows I've seen it deliver since Soldier Field in 1995, when everything seemed to be on the line for the band as it played one of the few American gigs it was able to during the midst of its battle with Ticketmaster.By far the best version of this song I’ve seen.
...
Other magical and inspiring moments during Pearl Jam's set:
* The fireworks show in Soldier Field that erupted in the midst of "Evenflow."
* Vedder urging concertgoers to boycott BP/Amaco until it abandons its plans to further pollute Lake Michigan: "Think of it like a girlfriend or boyfriend who never brushes their teeth: You wouldn't kiss them. So don't show BP/Amaco any love until it cleans up its act!" (Tens of thousands responded by chanting "No BP!" as Vedder proceeded to improvise a short song with that lyric on the spot.)
* A gorgeous, acoustic-guitar-driven version of "Daughter" that merged after a while into Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II," with Vedder segueing from the massive, crowd-aided sing-along chant of "We don't need no education / We don't need no thought control" into "George Bush, leave this world alone!"
* The blast from the past that was "Alive," which Vedder introduced by saying how much its appearance on Lollapalooza 1992 meant to the band.
* And the group's moving cover of Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary." Pretty great stuff, all of it.This song has advanced light years thanks to Boom (BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM) Gaspar.
--
Other random thoughts and links:
I think it’s absolutely fantastic what Lolla has done here, recording setlists (for nerds like me) and photo galleries and linking to iTunes downloads of performances. A very convenient, very welcome tool. It’s taking all I have not to download the sets of PJ, The Roots, MMJ, Hold Steady, Stooges, Ted Leo, and Tapes ‘n Tapes. Seriously, my hands are shaking a little bit.
--
Here’s a photo gallery from the Roots’ performance.
--
“Now this one was a Lollapalooza to remember”
Amen.
--
Props to Ted Leo and other Day One performers.
--
How Lollapalooza helps the Music Industry
The North American concert business has been particularly strong in 2007, according to first-half numbers reported on Billboard Boxscore. Attendance was 20.4 million from January through June, generating box office revenues of $1.05 billion from the 6,886 reported shows. Last year, major tours from the Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2 and Bon Jovi set record highs.Normally I would just say "Thanks for the festival, Perry, but please stop talking." In this case, he might just be right. Now stop thinking "We'll Make Great Pets" is actually a good song, and we might be getting somewhere...
Meanwhile, despite the surge in digital sales, the recording industry continued its downward spiral last year. Retail dollar value of digital and physical recordings dropped 6.2 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
“The recording business is dead, but the music business is healthy,” Farrell said at the festival. “It’s an ideal time for musicians.”
Finally, I should also mention how great it is that Lolla is making Chicago the focus of the music world once a year. Chicago is as proud a city as there is, and it makes me happy how the city has embraced the festival and vice versa.
Karma is a Bitch
Literally in Michael Vick's case. If he's guilty of playing a part in all that dog fighting, this chew toy is a good start for K9 retribution.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Lollapalooza Day 3 (Part Two): The Most Important Band in the World...
A rock world that tries to align itself with Pearl Jam is one with hope.
No offense to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who closed Lollapalooza last year—they’re the ultimate Professional Festival Closer, and they’re good at what they do. But while RHCP have energy, Pearl Jam has passion, be it political or emotional, and music is getting more passionate and relevant by the day. In a festival where bands were taking political stands starting almost first thing Friday morning, Pearl Jam was the only band who could have been chosen to finish things right. And they did so.
When I was in 9th grade, I was in a typing class (oh baby) with some upperclassmen, and Pearl Jam was on its way to play Oklahoma City, an hour away from my hometown. This was a huge deal. There was no way in hell my parents would let me go—I didn’t even ask—but a few juniors and seniors went to the show and couldn’t stop talking about it for weeks afterward (their trip to the show also led to the fantastic moment of one of the upperclassmen falling asleep in class and having his head actually hit the typewriter...phenomenal stuff).
This was 1993.
For whatever the reason— the political vibe in the air, the success of “World Wide Suicide”, or simply an outbreak of nostalgia, there’s no questioning that almost 14 years later, seeing Pearl Jam is an even bigger deal. And unlike 14 years ago, Eddie Vedder seems happy to accept the role of being the guy that almost 200,000 people want to hear from. He gets increasingly more comfortable in his skin with each passing year, and while he’s played to big crowds for the last 16 years or so, he seemed genuinely touched by the number of people watching, cheering, and singing along to songs from every era of the band’s career to date, from Ten’s “Why Go” and Vs’ “Rearviewmirror” to Riot Act’s “Save You” and Pearl Jam’s “World Wide Suicide.” Add extra adrenaline and passion to what has always been earnest, loose-but-intense, emotional live show, and that made for an amazing way to finish up Day Three of Lolla ’07.
I’ve got to admit something. For a millisecond, I was torn about letting people back on the bandwagon. Though 1995-2005 was supposed to resemble something of a ‘dark period’ for Pearl Jam, they continued to sell out amphitheatres and arenas and put out interesting, emotional works for the enjoyment of their ever-loyal fanbase, and as a member of that ever-loyal fanbase, part of me resented everybody trying to reclaim their seat on the train—I’m a music snob, that’s what we do. However, as the weekend progressed and I heard more and more about how “I’m so looking forward to Pearl Jam” and “They’re gonna be so awesome”, I started realizing that Pearl Jam is a band that people want to say they’ve seen—in the best way possible—and I found the music snob in me starting to get drowned out by the side of me that wants as many people as possible to realize how fantastic this band really is. And anybody who saw them Sunday night would have had trouble coming up with a different adjective than that. Fantastic.
Pearl Jam took control of the weekend from the very first note. At a majority of shows, Pearl Jam has historically started with a slow-burning song—something like “Release” or “Sometimes” or “Long Road”—before jumping into a long series of hard rockers. Not Sunday. Sunday started with one of the band’s first hard rockers, “Why Go.” Be it a reference to Eddie being in Chicago—a childhood home—or a statement of “Why go home yet, festivalgoers? We’re going to be here a while” (my guess is the former), it kickstarted the festivities beautifully. Things didn’t slow down for a while, nor did PJ’s propensity to jump from album to album, as “Corduroy” (Vitalogy), “Save You” (Riot Act), and an insane “Do the Evolution” (Yield) followed. The momentum finally took a breath with “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” (Vs), one of the better sing-alongs in the PJ catalog. Every fan knows all the words, and the “I just wanna scream...HELLO!” part is always fun to sing. The band then hit the gas again for a murderous “Severed Hand” (Pearl Jam), and six songs into the show, six different albums had been represented.
One reason PJ has maintained the almost-religious fanbase that they have is the way they nod to those fans by breaking out unexpected rarities on an almost show-by-show basis. They play so many different songs over the course of a tour, and they do so even when they’re playing for almost 200,000 fans who are expecting to hear the hits. You’ll get most of the hits, but when some might have been expecting “Jeremy,” instead they god “Education”, a rarity from the B-sides album, Lost Dogs, that had only been played in a show twice before.
With the rarities mission accomplished, it was back to the hits. "Evenflow" would have gotten tired years ago if not for Mike McCready. I said on Saturday that The Roots had the best guitarist at the festival--Captain Kirk. Sorry, Kirk...that was a silly thing to say. There's no problem with being #2 (and for the record, I guess the Black Keys' Daniel Auerbach would have to be #3). McCready would be #1 at any festival in the world. He is an absolute powerhouse, both in talent and showmanship. Pete Townsend wind-up? He does that. Solo behind his head? That too. Duel with everybody on stage at some point? Yup. Until seeing PJ live, Walsh thought of Pearl Jam as the Eddie Vedder Band. As powerful a figure as Eddie is, when he's on stage, he's only one-sixth of the band. Stone Gossard is just about the perfect rhythm/co-lead guitarist. Jeff Ament is all kinetic energy at bass. Since taking over drum duties in the late-'90s, Matt Cameron has taken PJ's performances to a new level. Even Boom Gaspar, the old surfer dude that Eddie met surfing in Hawaii, holds his own on songs like "Love Boat Captain" and "Crazy Mary." They are a complete band, but really...McCready is a step above the others.
After McCready's typical perfect solo, Cameron got his chance to shine on "Evenflow" with a solo of his own...one that coincided so well with a fireworks display starting south of the park that I thought it was planned.
Next up were “Given to Fly” and a killer “World Wide Suicide” before the band unveiled a new ‘song’ in response to BP/Amoco’s decision to—in the name of “expansion”—dump more waste into Lake Michigan, one entitled “Don’t Go BP/Amoco.” Things wound down during the main set with a fun “Lukin”, loud singalongs in “Not for You” (fans always love having an excuse to scream “F--- you!”) and Daughter (complete with an “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II” tag at the end) and “State of Love and Trust” (from the Singles soundtrack) before closing with “Alive.”
Last year, Pearl Jam recorded an episode of VH1 Storytellers, and he discussed how fans completely changed the meaning of “Alive” for him. From Billboard:"In the original story, a teenager is being made aware of a shocking truth that leaves him plenty confused," he said of the tale, based on his own teenage discovery that the man he believed to be his biological father was actually not. "It was a curse -- 'I'm still alive.'" But as fans quickly turned the title phrase into a self-empowering anthem, particularly at Pearl Jam concerts, Vedder said, "they lifted the curse. The audience changed the meaning for me."
I told Walsh beforehand about my favorite Pearl Jam moment (before last weekend, anyway): Alpine Valley in East Troy, WI, 6/21/2003. The crowd was fantastic—singing along to everything and having a grand old time. The euphoric memory of the crowd singing all of “Better Man” to Eddie was something I’ll always keep with me. Well, Alpine Valley holds 20K-30K people. Multiply that by about 6, and you get the Lolla version of that memory. Another way that fans have somehow changed the meaning of songs: “Better Man,” a song about an abusive relationship, has become the only song more celebratory than “Alive,” a song with the refrain of “I’m still alive, but do I deserve to be?” It’s such a happy moment in a Pearl Jam show, and it lived up to all expectations in Chicago.
Lord knows that the “Alive” performed at Lolla was the ultimate celebratory moment. Eddie is still alive, the band is still alive, hope is still alive for the future, et cetera. It was a pitch-perfect way to end the pre-encore set.
Encore #1 wrapped up with “Crazy Mary,” a song featuring an envigorating solos duel between McCready and organ player Boom Gaspar, a rousing “Life Wasted”, and the always-epic “Rearviewmirror.” But Pearl Jam doesn’t just play one encore.
Another of the more endearing things about Eddie Vedder is how is emotion and passion don’t prevent him from straying into cheesiness sometimes. He’s not part of the ‘ironic’ generation. This became clear during the first song of Encore #2. A documentary called Body of War will be finding its way into theatres soon. It's the story of an Iraq veteran named Tomas Young, bound to a wheelchair and speaking out against the Iraq war. Vedder had written music for the movie, and he brought Young out to greet the crowd and call them to action. It was an inspiring moment. Then Vedder brought Ben Harper out to perform a song from the soundtrack, entitled "No More." For better or worse, it is a cheesy, folky, anti-war song by any stretch of the definition.What he has seen is hard to believe
Cheesy lyrics or no, hearing Vedder and Harper cry out the chorus and seeing Young smiling, moved by the moment, was really cool. Eddie, however, did milk the moment a bit much, however, getting the crowd to sing along to the chorus for a bit too long and seemingly losing some of the crowd. As a fan of music, it was maybe a slight misstep. However, as a fan of imperfections, I loved how it showed Eddie's inner idealism and vulnerability. During the 2003 tour, he spoke out on Bush and the Iraq War on a nightly basis. Four years later, this grizzled rock star still wants to do everything in his power to change things.
And it does no good to just pray
He asks of us to stand
And we must end this war today
With his mind, he's saying, "No more!"
With his heart, he's saying, "No more!"
With his life he's saying, "No more war!"
With his eyes, he's saying, "No more!"
With his body, he's saying, "No more!"
With his voice, he's saying, "No more war!"
Yeah, nothing's too good for a veteran
Yeah, this is what they say
So nothing is what they will get
In this new American way
The lies we were told to get us to go
are criminal, let us be straight
Let's get to the point where our voices get heard
Behind the White House gate
There was one more song on the docket for Encore #2, and it wasn't "Yellow Ledbetter," the song that has closed a majority of PJ shows over the last decade-plus. It might have been on the setlist, but it wasn't necessary, not after the brilliant debacle that was "Rockin' in the Free World."
Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" is the greatest protest song of the last 25 years, and Pearl Jam has pretty much made it their own. However, Eddie had been watching Iggy Pop earlier in the day, and he turned this into one of the most unique renditions. Ben Harper was already on stage, as was Tomas Young. So why not invite everybody else who was watching from backstage? It's not quite Iggy's "invite the entire crowd up" or anything, but...yeah, it was chaos nonetheless. Apparently Eddie happened to have like 75 tambourines backstage, so every new temporary PJ member had an instrument.
So the camera's panning across the people on stage...they come in all shapes and sizes, but there's only one 6'6 black man with nose rings on-stage. Everybody in our group has the same thought at the same time: "Was that Dennis Rodman??" Yes, yes it was.
I guess the randomness of seeing Dennis Rodman picking Eddie Vedder up on his shoulders was a relatively fitting way to end the evening. If the perfect Pearl Jam show has great performances, rarities, crowd interaction, emotion emotion emotion, politics, and complete unpredictability, I guess Sunday was the perfect Pearl Jam show.
So as I was saying...a rock world that tries to align itself with Pearl Jam is one with hope. They are students of classic rock who try to use their celebrity as they most earnestly see it, and after a weekend of Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Electric Six, Against Me!, the Polyphonic Spree, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, The Wailers, Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, The Roots, Patti Smith, TV on the Radio, and every other band striving to make a positive social impact in their music, giving them Pearl Jam as a template was the least Lollapalooza's organizers could do. And I'm really glad I was there to see it. Walsh and I have all but already bought our 2008 tickets.
Subscribe to:
Comment Feed (RSS)
