the ed as a drunken buffoon thing is also, I think, more than a little overstated. Not that it isn't there at times, but it's hardly a controlling thing. And VERY FEW people, I suspect, are there because they are attracted to it.

Shit, if anything I notice far fewer 'Eddie' chants than I used to.

But EdVed does make quite a todo about his wine drinking, especially since '05.

But this experience is not like being at a party. To be honest, when done right (and they do it well) it is something much more akin to a revival. There is something a lot more profound, almost quasi-religious happening. The sublimation of the self into something larger, through the shared participatory experience of music. There are rock concert cliches in there as well (the drinking is stupid, but lets be honest, every time someone on this board uses pot slang to talk about how cool it is to smoke a joint they're doing the exact same thing), but no one is leaving a pearl jam concert thinking that this was awesome because Eddie toasted them with his bottle of wine.
And that shared experience does matter. Not only in terms of the crowd, but because of the relationship it creates with the band. Kevin Davis is a talented musician. Maybe he just wants to show up and watch a master craftsmen ply his trade. But I have no musical talent of my own, and so being invited into the process means something to me.

Hasn't that always been his schtick? Wasn't that an early Dave A. accusation, that was pretending to be drunk at the VMAs or something to be more Morrison-esque?

has it? maybe.. but he wasn't always having a flunky fill empty wine bottles with fruit punch gatorade. I mean come on, really ed?

I could've sworn there was a story like that...maybe in Five Against One? He was pretending to chug vodka and acting like a crazy drunk, and then when no one was looking he dropped the act to bitch out Dave A. about something, and Dave was stunned that he was suddenly sober so he checked the vodka bottle and it was just water.

Maybe I'm mis-remembering though.

i want to break something and ride an ostrich naked playing the harp

Supposedly that's exactly what Ed did right after the above picture was taken and he was called out on a very close play at first.

hmm.. and here I thought that Eddie only started turning lame in the last 6-7 years.

IM currently spinning the Constitution Hall 98 show. Man alive. At times I agree with stip and other times I agree with everyone else. Im somewhere in the middle on it all but listening to this show you understand how amazing the band was live. At this point in their career the fan enthusiasm was something that could not be separated from the show because the performances were so good. Now the fan participation and enthusiasm comes from Ed "being a drunken bafoon and being lazy and toasting wine like a 16 year old". Whereas "in their prime" the fan could literally not help but have a transcendental experience due to how incredible the band were performing their craft.