Eddie Vedder has no patience for any shred of violence that takes place at a Pearl Jam show. Case in point: Vedder kicked a woman out of a recent show for hitting another fan in the head that was obstructing her view by filming the show on his phone.
The incident took place at Pearl Jam’s stop in Zurich, Switzerland on June 23 during their performance of “Animal.” In the fan-shot footage below, Vedder sees what’s going on, stops the band and asks for the stage lights to be turned up.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey – I saw the whole thing, I know, it was annoying you,” began Vedder. “You were bummed out ’cause he was filming the whole time. Has it been the whole show or just now? Just now when I came over? Was it the whole time? Yeah, you’re filming everyone.”
Vedder calmly continued, “The thing is, I know it upset you, but you can’t f—in’ hit him in the back of head either, even though you’re a woman. I appreciate the fact that you can be strong. Quit hitting him — you’re out of here. Violence is not allowed. I’m sorry ma’am, there’s no violence allowed. You could’ve waved to me, I was lookin’ right at you. Sorry about that, it’s just not cool, we’re not hittin’ people here. Sorry.”
Without much delay, Vedder then calls out “Chorus!” to the rest of Pearl Jam and then they get right back to performing “Animal,” which, frankly, might be an underrated highlight of this moment altogether.
