No Rock And Roll Fun

DANGER! CURIOUS LOGIC AT WORK: Eric 'Blogcritic' Olsen appears to be taking a curious stance over the Pearl Jam/Dixie Chicks crisis - it seems that Eddie's protest was fine because it was theatrical, but, erm, the DCs were jarring and out of context, and thus Not Protesting Artfully Enough. Eric, sweetheart, you don't think the difference in reaction has less to do with the artless way in which the Dixie Chicks protested, and more to do with Pearl Jam having spent the best part of the last fifteen years building themselves up as Some Vageuly Anti-Establishment (Without Ever Quite Defining What Establishment It Is They're Against, Exactly) Act, and the Dixie Chicks are a country act playing country music to country lovers, who - away from the alt- end of the prairie - tend to be more deeply ingrained conservatives than a rock audience? The Dixie Chicks could have orchestrated a bluegrass operetta against Bush's actions, and the smell of smouldering CDs would still have hit our noses. Vedder could have stumbled blind drunk onto stage and yelled "Fook Boosh" and the audience would have remained pretty much unflustered.