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Who fan of the year!!!



April 3, 2003 - Statement from Pearl Jam released to press
> There were close to 12,000 people at the April 1st Denver show. Itbs
> possible two dozen left during encore but it was not noticeable amongst the
> 11,976 who were loudly applauding and enjoying the eveningbs music. It
just
> made a better <A
HREF="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/music/article/0,1299,DRMN_54_1860
334,00.html">headline</A> to report otherwise. [Youbll note the writer
doesnb
> t mention this in his review of the show from the day prior. See <A
HREF="http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/music/article/0,1299,DRMN_54_1858
217,00.html">bPearl Jam
> Show Will Make a Great CDb by Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News.</A> And it
is
> little more than a mention in any of the show reviews.] <A
HREF="http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E78%257E1292321%257E,00.
html">review</A>, <A
HREF="http://www.undercover.com.au/news/2003/20030404_pearljam.html";>review</
A>
> Dissension is nothing we shy away from b it should just be reported about
> more accurately. Edbs talk from the stage centered on the importance of
> freedom of speech and the importance of supporting our soldiers as well as
> an expression of sadness over the public being made to feel as though the
> two sentiments canbt occur simultaneously.

Concert-goers head to 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.