Monday, July 26, 2004
After the Pearl Jam concert in Missoula, MT I wrote the following in my notebook.
A political rally is a chance for the uninitiated to be converted, and for the initiated to be gratified. Maybe 10% of the fans at the concert understand the politics at work. The PJ political rally. Democrats 1, Republicans 0.
It really changes your perspective; you see Pearl Jam trying to convert all these dumbasses. But those silly fucks didn't come for the politics, they come for the music; the Show, not the rhetoric. But P.J. really care, they're really trying to change your mind. They aren't taking for granted that they're right, Pearl Jam is trying to convince us that their position is one we should also hold. P.J. wants us to know what they are aware of right now, not just what they knew when they were innocent. And they want us (innocent us) to come away with more awareness than we had going in.
Eddie (Vedder) is making the knowledge easier for us concert goers to grasp, and he knows that the knowledge he's imparting is already out there. But if only 5% of the attendees know that there's more to life than just self when they leave then Ed has done his job. If only 2.5% come away with a deeper understanding of life then hasn't he done more than many of us have in a lifetime?
A political rally is a chance for the uninitiated to be converted, and for the initiated to be gratified. Maybe 10% of the fans at the concert understand the politics at work. The PJ political rally. Democrats 1, Republicans 0.
It really changes your perspective; you see Pearl Jam trying to convert all these dumbasses. But those silly fucks didn't come for the politics, they come for the music; the Show, not the rhetoric. But P.J. really care, they're really trying to change your mind. They aren't taking for granted that they're right, Pearl Jam is trying to convince us that their position is one we should also hold. P.J. wants us to know what they are aware of right now, not just what they knew when they were innocent. And they want us (innocent us) to come away with more awareness than we had going in.
Eddie (Vedder) is making the knowledge easier for us concert goers to grasp, and he knows that the knowledge he's imparting is already out there. But if only 5% of the attendees know that there's more to life than just self when they leave then Ed has done his job. If only 2.5% come away with a deeper understanding of life then hasn't he done more than many of us have in a lifetime?
