Pearl Jam takes a moment in concert to poke fun at Ted Nugent

There likely is not a lot that Pearl Jam and Ted Nugent would agree on. Sure, maybe there is some commonality as far as musical tropes, but that is likely it. The way the band handles itself on stage is even much different from Nugent. He shoots arrows at speakers and Pearl Jam prefers not to shoot anything at all.

This was further brought to light at a recent Pearl Jam concert that took place in Baltimore. Before breaking into a number of well-known tunes by the band, guitarist Mike McCready began playing the opening riff of Nugent's "Stranglehold."

The guitar part of the song is extremely memorable on the original song and one of Nugent's few great musical tracks. The lyrics, however, are completely terrible which makes the song almost unlistenable. The words include things such as, "You ran that night that you left me/You put me in my place/I got you in a stranglehold, baby/And then I crushed your face."

Pearl Jam pokes a bit of fun at Ted Nugent while doing a semi-cover of "Stranglehold" in concert

Like, what? That's wretched.

Pearl Jam was having none of the lyrics, and in fact, made a bit of fun of Nugent is an avid gun owner and appears to think guns don't cause violence but stop it. Eddie Vedder and his bandmates have been open about having the opposite view.

So when McCready began playing the opening to "Stranglehold," Vedder sang, "I don't own a gun/I don't want to ever own a gun." He repeated the phrase a bunch of times and then the band went straight into "Even Flow."

If Nugent has heard the semi-cover, I am sure he does not approve. Maybe he doesn't care. He should just be happy that anyone still wants to play his music. He has not been relevant for decades and almost certainly never will be again.

Pearl Jam, on the other hand, keeps creating fantastic new records and performing in sold-out stadiums. Of course, they were always better than Nugent anyway.

More music news and analysis: