Pearl Jam Trashes Bush at Concert; Eddie Vedder impaled a mask of President Bush

Rocky Mountain News ^ | April 3, 2003 | Mark Brown

[Mister Magoo]

Concert-goers jam exits after anti-Bush display By Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News April 3, 2003

Incensed fans walked out of Pearl Jam's concert Tuesday after lead singer Eddie Vedder impaled a mask of President Bush on a microphone stand, then slammed it to the stage.

Most of Vedder's antiwar remarks earlier in the Pepsi Center show were greeted with mixed cheers and scattered boos. But dozens of angry fans walked out during the encore because of the macabre display with the Bush mask, which he wore for the song Bushleaguer, a Bush- taunting song from the band's latest album, Riot Act.

"When he was sharing his political views in a fairly benign manner - supporting our troops, opposing policy - that's OK," said Keith Zimmerman, of Denver.

"When he takes what looks like the head of George Bush on a stick, then throws it to the stage and stomps on it, that's just unacceptable. I love Pearl Jam, but that was just way over the edge. We literally got up and left."

Others joined Zimmerman, some complaining about the lyrics of Bushleaguer, which in part call Bush "a confidence man" and say, "He's not a leader / he's a Texas leaguer."

"I wasn't sure if it was really happening," said Kim Mueller. "We looked at each other and realized he really did have George Bush's head on a stick and was waving it in the air, then slam-med it to the ground and step-ped on it."

"It was like he decapitated someone in a primal ritual and stuck their head on a stick," Zimmerman said. "It kinda blows away the Dixie Chicks."

The Dixie Chicks were the target of boycotts and bannings after making an anti-Bush statement on a London stage in March. (On Wednesday, the Marshall Tucker Band announced it would play a May 1 concert in Spartanburg, S.C., as an alternative to the U.S. tour-opening show in nearby Greenville by the Dixie Chicks that same day.)

Vedder has used the Bush mask in previous shows in Australia and Japan, but Denver's U.S. tour opener was the first show since war broke out in Iraq.

Pearl Jam manager Kelly Curtis couldn't be reached for comment. The Seattle band plays Oklahoma City tonight.

Before Do the Evolution, Vedder told the crowd the tale of a Vietnam vet who expressed severe reservations about war in Iraq to Vedder. The singer was incensed when someone in the crowd yelled, "Shut up!"

"Did someone just say, 'Shut up'? I don't know if you heard about this thing called freedom of speech, man. It's worth thinking about it, because it's going away," Vedder said. "In the last year of being able to use it, we're sure as (expletive) going to use it and I'm not gonna apologize."

Later in the show, he added to that.

"Just to clarify . . . we support the troops," Vedder said to cheers. "Our problem is certainly not with anybody over there doing something that not too many of us would do right now, not for these reasons.

"So to the families and those people who know those folks and are related to those folks and are married to those folks, we send our support. We're just confused on how wanting to bring them back safely all of a sudden becomes nonsupport. We love them, we support them. They're not the ones who make the foreign policy. . . . Let's hope for the best and speak our opinions."

It was after that when Vedder put on the Bush mask and a sparkling silver jacket. He took off the mask, mounted it on the mike stand, then slammed it to the floor.

[TSgt]

My wife and I attended a Pearl Jam concert a couple years ago. We liked their music however we couldn't find a place in the entire ampatheater, Riverbend in Cincinnati, where we could stand without getting a contact high from all of the pot smoking. That was our first and last Pearl Jam concert and now I'm going to trash their CD's I own and free up some space on my hard drive by deleting their MP3's.

[Helms]

I suspect their last album was a bomb, I pawned it locally.

Pearl Jam and Concert Deaths:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/entertainment/DailyNews/pearljam000702.html

Rock fans filled a Danish Cathedral today to mourn the death of the eight men who were trampled to death at a weekend music festival.

The 50 minute service drew about 1,200 people, including dozens of youths, many wearing jeans and shoes covered with dry mud from the annual Roskilde festival. The eight fans were trampled to death when the crowd rushed the stage at a Pearl Jam show Friday night. Many people at the service were sobbing and holding each other as they sat in the pews. Sara Wallin, a 20-year-old Danish student who was up front during the crush at the Pearl Jam concert, said she was shocked to learn that people had died. “It is scary to think that we didn’t realize what was happening,” Wallin said.

[metalboy]

Shut up is right. I wouldn`t take too seriously a band that takes the gay slang for sperm as a name anyway.

[TSgt]

Shut up is right. I wouldn`t take too seriously a band that takes the gay slang for sperm as a name anyway.

Eeeeeeew. I never knew that...

[Destro]

Posting this is meaningless unless you like to fume for nothing-Pear Jam is immune from what happened to the Dixie Chicks.

[wimpycat]

Hey, Eddie! In case you haven't heard, free speech means a paying member of your audience can tell you to SHUT UP! It works both ways, man.

[wireman]

Yeah, they've been washed up for ten years. Somebody ought to tell Vedder.

[homeagain balkansvet]

Oh, my baby, my baby she don't want me no more
Ever since she saw his poster in that record store
She says the way he grinds his molars is really sexy
She thinks he's so damn dysfunctional and Generation X-y
She likes his brooding angst and his wild-eyed stare
Yeah, he's her very favorite slacker multi-millionaire

Well, my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
She's all crazy 'bout that Eddie Vedder
Once she was mine, buy now I better just forget her
'Cause my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder

Now, every time I see him, well, he looks so grim
I guess it really must suck to be a rock star like him
What a pain in the butt to have so much success
Spending all his time moping and avoiding the press
But my girl can't get enough of his sullen demeanor
Like he's some big tortured genius
And I'm some kind wiener

Well, my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
She's got a thing for that Eddie Vedder
Tell me, what can he do that I can't do better?
Now my baby's in love with --
I said I said I said my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
Head over heels for that Eddie Vedder
I can't believe it, now she's knitting him a sweater
'Cause my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder

I knew we were headin' for disaster
When she caught me hangin' out at the Ticketmaster
Now she's got an unrequited adoration
For the frustrated, agitated, designated alienated
Spokesman for the disaffected grunge generation

Well, I don't wear Doc Martens and I don't wear flannel
And I don't boycott the music video channel
And I just can't compete with all that money and fame
But I know two can play at this kinda game
Yeah, well, let's just see how jealous she'll get
When I start stalking Alanis Morissette

Well, my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
She's all crazy 'bout that Eddie Vedder
Once she was mine but now I better just forget her
'Cause my baby's in love with--
I said I said I said my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder
Why'd she have to fall for that Eddie Vedder?
If she wants to leave me, I guess I better let her
'Cause my baby's in love with Eddie Vedder

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

If there had been any justice in the world, it would have been Mudhoney & Tad making it big out of Seatlle instead of Pearl Jam...

[weegee]

The singer was incensed when someone in the crowd yelled, "Shut up!"

"Did someone just say, 'Shut up'? I don't know if you heard about this thing called freedom of speech, man. It's worth thinking about it, because it's going away," Vedder said. "In the last year of being able to use it, we're sure as (expletive) going to use it and I'm not gonna apologize."

Mr. Cheese and Whine (Cheddar), let me inform you of a common business belief: The customer is always right. The audience paid to hear your pop songs, not your Green Party rhetoric. So in the words of Frank Zappa, "Shut up and play yer guitar."

[Barnacle]

Pearl Jam? Oh, yeah. They’re famous. They’re the guys that burned down a nightclub. Right?

[weegee]

Yeah, they've been washed up for ten years. Somebody ought to tell Vedder.

Grunge is as irrelevant today as New Wave was in 1993. They are an oldies act playing yesterday's sound.

[thesoothsayers]

Poor Eddie, he is mad at Bush because of the opium trade being hit hard and poor Eddie can't get his fixes anymore. HE has taken WAY to much heroin anyway.

[Jhensy]

The Seattle band plays Oklahoma City tonight.

Hang on...it's gonna be a bumpy night....

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

Just goes to show the YOUTH in America DO GET IT!!

HO AH.. to our nations young people!! After all, it is young people who are fighting and dying for this country and the people of Iraq right now. Thankfully, our young adults are making a stand when it comes to this kind of behavior.

What kills me is when people like the musician in this band..say HEY we have a right to free speech.. then get all upset when they get boo'd!!

What a bunch of hypocrits! So lets see here.. you can use free speech, but those who oppose you cannot? You get upset when they LEAVE your concert?? Now thats the epitomy of an idiot and hypocrisy!!

[lilylangtree]

Keep remembering that groups like the Ditzy Chix and Pearl Jam need the public more than the public needs them. So a concerted message would go a long way to reminding these twerps of the bottom line.

[OriginalV]

It would be nice if all of these celebrities who "care" so much for the world, would put up or shut up.

How about if Vedder gives up all of his material wealth to help the so called tortued masses.

Yeah, I didn't think so...what was I thinking?

I've seen jelly fish with more backbone.

[weegee]

The audience is who paid for him to have a platform for his words. If they disagree with his statements, they should be able to say so.

Maybe he needs to go back to sitting on the curb with an accoustic guitar playing for change.

[Diddle E. Squat]

The Seattle band plays Oklahoma City tonight

Uh oh. Okies are as patriotic as they come.

[wingster]

"Did someone just say, 'Shut up'? I don't know if you heard about this thing called freedom of speech, man. It's worth thinking about it, because it's going away," Vedder said. "In the last year of being able to use it, we're sure as (expletive) going to use it and I'm not gonna apologize."

I'm going to exercise my free speach...: "Hey Eddie Vedder, you are one moronic, stupid f'n a__hole! So I say shut the F up!"

Just another bit of evidence that libs construe "FoS" to include the right to have an audience and to force everyone to listen to them!