Storytellers
10 tonight
VH1
Years ago, at one of the Irvine Meadows-apaloozas or Weeny Roasts or whatever the hell it was, then little known Eddie Vedder and his littler known bandmates were tearing it up when the frontman stopped to launch into storyteller mode. He told of the band's appearance the Saturday night before on Saturday Night Live, a performance that was lambasted by critics. So Eddie went into this poor-wittle-us explanation that involved the network not allowing the band to play the song they wanted them to and on and on. And I thought: What a prick? How many bands never get national television exposure? Hell, how many never get any exposure? And I'm supposed to feel sorry for this little shit? I would sit there and hate him forever . . . or at least the next couple songs, a hatred that was obviously not strong enough to prevent me from purchasing several of their releases over the years and to scream along to “World Wide Suicide” with my car windows rolled up. I think I agree with everything Bruce Springsteen says, but his music makes me wretch. Vedder says and does things that make my brain hurt, but put a band behind him and it's all good. Oh why my must I be such a complicated soul?
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.