Stephen Papizan ([email protected])
Wed, 26 Aug 1998 16:44:00 -0400
1. Their world wide fan base is not that huge.
2. Their "genre" is grunge (a negative for a lot of people).
3. They have avoided the media like the plague in the past.
But......
1. They seem to be (IMO) expanding from the grunge genre.
2. They put on an good concert.
3. Vedder has a powerful, emotional voice that reaches out and grabs you. His vocal style is very similar to Bono IMO
4. Their lyrics are good.
5. Their music is tight.
6. They have recently done a 180 and are actually courting the media to promote themselves.
7. They seem to love making music.
All of these things, I think, will expand their fan base over time. Especially in America , but maybe worldwide as well.
And no, I am not a psycho Pearl Jam fan. Just like their music. I may very well be wrong (gasp?!?!) and two years from now they'll just fall off the face of the earth or move to a Tibetan monastery to chant mantras and contemplate their navels.
Oh well. If I'm right I can say "See, I told ya so!!!". If not I can just hide in the murky swamp of lurkdom that I crawled out of in the first place :-) (only posted a handful of times in the last three years).
Since I never post, and this thing might need some U2 content, I'll tell ya'll a little bit about myself (as if you cared).
I 30 and have been a U2 fan for quite some time (since somewhere in the early 80's). The emotion in their anthemic stuff really grabbed me and I've been following them ever since.
I collect as much of their stuff as time and money allows (which isn't much after the government, school, wife and kid get through with it). I have only been to one concert, but plan to go to many more once I become rich (hope the boys can still walk and sing by that time-- nothing like a senile band with senile groupies).
My favorite U2 story (other than Popmart, Memphis). A little long and sappy (find the page down key all you digest people).
Back in the winter of '94 (in geezer mode) I finally got the opportunity to ask out this girl who I had had a crush on for 7 or 8 years (don't ask it's a long story).
We were good friends before and I think she just thought it was a friendly kind of thing. Not knowing what to do and afraid that if I didn't tell her how I felt the chance would be gone (she was going back to school hours away), I blurted my sappy intentions out at the dinner table. Of course, the air was instantly filled pall of nervousness (if your ever in need of a conversation stopper just do this). I thought I had bombed. She was so nervous she could hardly eat and we soon left to go back to her house.
On the way home she regained her composure. We talked a little about going out again soon and had a few good laughs. When we got to her house we parked in front of the garage. She didn't want to go in yet, so we sat out in the car and chatted while listening to the radio.
We're both big U2 fans. While talking WOWY started up on the radio. We looked at each other and knew exactly what to do.
During the post-kiss stare/sheepish grin, I was startled by a movement from the corner of my eye. This movement was her dad (who unbeknownst to us had been working on a car in the garage) who was staring at us and trying to look like he wasn't. We got out of the car, said HEY and quickly avoided any conversation with him. Once inside we laughed our asses off for twenty minutes (a big mystery to all others in the house).
Since that time we never looked back. Been married for three years. One kid. Another on the way.
Guess I have to give the boys some credit for salvaging my blunder and contributing to my happy life.
Thanks for reading.
Later,
Pappy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Wed Aug 26 1998 - 13:48:26 PDT