Pearl Jam tour tickets Pearl Jam has performed numerous benefit concerts in aid of charities. For example, Pearl Jam headlined a Seattle concert in 2001 to support the United Nations' efforts to combat world hunger. The band added a date at the Chicago House of Blues to their 2005 tour to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina; the concert proceeds were donated to Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross and the Jazz Foundation of America.
Pearl Jam has been praised for its rejection of rock star excess and its insistence on backing causes it believes in. Music critic Jim DeRogatis said in the aftermath of Pearl Jam's battle with Ticketmaster that they "proved that a rock band which isn't comprised of greed heads can play stadiums and not milk the audience for every last dime it indicated that idealism in rock 'n' roll is not the sole province of those '60s bands enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." Eric Weisbard of Spin said in 2001, "The group that was once accused of being synthetic grunge now seem as organic and principled a rock band as exists." In a 2005 USA Today reader's poll, Pearl Jam was voted the greatest American rock band of all time. In April 2006, Pearl Jam was awarded an Esky for "Best Live Act" in Esquire's Esky Music Awards. The blurb called Pearl Jam "the rare superstars who still play as though each show could be their last."
Move to J Records: 2006-present
Ament and Gossard were devastated by the death of Wood and the resulting demise of Mother Love Bone. Gossard spent Pearl Jam's time afterwards writing material that was harder-edged than what Pearl Jam had been doing previously. After a few months, Gossard started practicing with fellow Seattle guitarist Mike McCready, whose band Shadow had broken up; McCready in turn encouraged Gossard to reconnect with Ament. After practicing for a while, the trio sent out a five-song demo tape in order to find a singer and a drummer. They gave former Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons the demo to see if Pearl Jam would be interested in joining Pearl Jam and to distribute the demo to anyone Pearl Jam felt might fit the lead vocal position.
Ten and the grunge explosion: 1991-1992
Legacy
Vedder usually comments on politics between songs, often to criticize U.S. foreign policy, and a number of Pearl Jam's songs, including "Bu$hleaguer" and "World Wide Suicide", are openly critical of the Bush administration. At Lollapalooza 2007, Vedder spoke out against BP Amoco dumping effluent in Lake Michigan; at the end of "Daughter", Pearl Jam sang the lyrics "George Bush leave this world alone/George Bush find yourself another home". In the beginning of the second encore Vedder invited Iraq war veteran Tomas Young, the subject of the documentary Body of War, onto the stage to urge an end to the war. Young in turn introduced Ben Harper, who contributed vocals to "No More" and "Rockin' in the Free World". The band has since discovered that some of the Bush-related lyrics were excised from the AT&T webcast of the event, and are questioning whether that constitutes censorship. AT&T later apologized and blamed the censorship on contractor Davie Brown Entertainment.
After Pearl Jam finished the recording of Vitalogy, drummer Dave Abbruzzese was fired. The band cited political differences between Abbruzzese and the other members; for example, Abbruzzese disagreed with the Ticketmaster boycott. He was finally replaced by Jack Irons, a close friend of Vedder and the former and original drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Irons made Pearl Jam's debut with Pearl Jam at Neil Young's 1994 Bridge School Benefit, but Pearl Jam was not officially announced as Pearl Jam's new drummer until its 1995 Self-Pollution satellite radio broadcast.
The band members grew uncomfortable with their success, with much of the burden of Pearl Jam Pearl Jam concert's popularity falling on frontman Vedder. While Pearl Jam received four awards at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards for its video for "Jeremy", including Video of the Year and Best Group Video, Pearl Jam refused to make a video for "Black" in spite of pressure by the label. This action began a trend of Pearl Jam refusing to make videos for its songs. "Ten years from now," Ament said, "I don't want people to remember our songs as videos."
Pearl Jam's 2000 European tour ended in tragedy on June 30, with an accident at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Nine fans were crushed underfoot and suffocated to death as the crowd rushed to the front. The band stopped playing and tried to calm the crowd when the musicians realized what was happening, but it was already too late. The two remaining dates of the tour were canceled, and Pearl Jam seriously considered retiring after this event. Pearl Jam was initially blamed for the accident, but Pearl Jam was later cleared of responsibility.