18/6/00 - Salzburg City Square, Salzburg, Austria

Unfortunately, there is trouble in the stage talk department. While Eddie Vedder is pretty un-talkative tonight, he does make a reference to Austria's recent election of a neo-Nazi president. Eddie clearly disagrees with this, and that's cool, but this was a free, democratic election. Thus, the English-speaking members of the crowd get to listen to a guy who doesn't understand their situation but thinks he does. The band tries to make a sly statement by closing the show with Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," but this is arrogant at best. This song can be inspirational in troublesome places like Poland; or a powerful statement in political centers like Washington DC. However, in Austria it merely becomes a ham-handed swipe at a political process that an American rock group doesn't agree with.