Pearl Jam joins progressive groups to organize voting drive festival in Missoula
The band’s bassist Jeff Ament also appeared at a campaign event with Sen. Jon Tester.
Pearl Jam, one of the most influential rock bands to come out of the Seattle grunge era of the early 1990s, took part in two events in Missoula in late August aimed at turning out voters.
On Aug. 21, Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament and incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester joined author Hank Green for a panel discussion at Missoula’s Wilma Theatre for a campaign event called “Rock on with Jon!” Ament and Tester both hail from the town of Big Sandy and have been family friends for decades; Tester recently posted to X that Ament’s father gave him his very first flattop haircut.
“If you want the Montana we’ve grown up in to still be here for 10 years from now, we damn well better pay attention this election cycle, because I think it is a watershed public cycle,” Tester said, attributing the quote to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ryan Busse, according to local newspaper Explore Big Sky.
The “Rock on with Jon!” event happened to take place on Tester’s 68th birthday and concluded with the crowd singing “Happy Birthday” to the senator.
The following day, Pearl Jam, which has a long history of political activism and get-out-the-vote efforts, performed at Washington Grizzly Stadium at the University of Montana. The concert was preceded by the “Our Village” Festival held in the tailgate area near the stadium.
The event featured 30 local nonprofits, which provided activities from face painting to bicycle repair demonstrations.
The band partnered with four progressive nonprofits for the event — Forward Montana, Western Native Voice, Montana Conservation Voters and Planned Parenthood Advocates of MT — to “register voters, educate the community and help fans join the band in taking the Pledge to Vote,” according to a press release.
Montanans can register to vote by downloading an application from votemt.gov and submitting the completed application to their local county election office.
Regular voter registration runs until 30 days prior to the general election, but voters may register late at their county election office after that, including on the day of the election.
