Keep on rockin' in the free world

My introduction to Pearl Jam was the hugely controversial song - "Jeremy" - one of their first hits - in 1991. While Jeremy caught my interest, I was not enamored by the heavy lyrics and themes. In retrospect, my music trend definitely fits with my own personal evolution. I stuck with teeny-boppy-bubble gum sounds, and 80's hits ... began to throw in a little Alanis and Oasis - which were not quite as hard to digest as Pearl Jam. Keep in mind, this was my "bubble" stage where I didn't really look beyond the four walls to realize what was going on outside the sphere of my life. Jay was one of my few friends that had the awareness that I lacked, and kept trying to draw me into the world of the Beatles, Deep Purple and other oldie sounds, as well as the new sounds of Pearl Jam and later, Live. Jay also introduced me to Dave Matthews - for which I will forever be indebted. Anyhoo, Pearl Jam continued to lurk in the background - never a hot favorite in my top artists list (like the Goo Goo Dolls, the Chilli Peppers and Bon Jovi) - but every once in a while some songs would come out of the blue and hit me - like "Alive" and "Better Man" being some of my favorites. So, when I had the opportunity to see them live in the 'burgh this evening, I decided to re-establish some old connections.

For most of the evening, I had NO idea what they were playing - but just kinda bobbed along - but Parakeet-feet kept me posted. He reminded me that Pearl Jam was a very political group - which made me think alot about stuff during the concert. Now, there were a good couple of thousand people in the arena ... and most of them seemed like real followers. Unfortunately a great many of them were also drunk and high. I began to wonder - do they really understand what the band is singing about? Alot of them just enjoy the music, but don't internalize the words and allow it to alert them to the reality that they're ignoring. The lead singer dude - Eddie (something?) - made a couple of political comments towards the end ... and urged people to vote - for a President that cares about the environment, and to raise their voices - as they were in the arena, to facilitate change. I can guarantee that few people besides myself actually understood what he meant, or will remember that tomorrow or the next day. I wonder, again, what the point was. If you got the same group of people into that arena, sober - would they be as excited about the music? Would they actually hear the message of working to change the world we live in? Was there really a message?

Just random thoughts - I don't have the set list yet, but will post it as soon as I can - but overall decent concert - way louder than I'm used to - but they TOTALLY REDEEMED THEMSELVES because they played "rockin in the free world" as their final #.

So, rock on. Be good - and remember where you've come from.