Pearl Jam were ranked at number 8 by Rolling Stone magazine in its "Top Ten Live Acts of All Time". Pearl Jam has been praised for its rejection of rock star excess and its insistence on backing causes it believes in. Music critic Jim DeRogatis stated in the aftermath of the band's battle with Ticketmaster that it "proved that a rock band which isn't greed heads can play stadiums and not milk the audience for every last dime...it indicated that idealism in rock 'n' roll is not the sole province of those '60s bands enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."DeRogatis, p. 66. In 2001, Eric Weisbard of Spin wrote "The group that was once accused of being synthetic grunge now seem as organic and principled a rock band as exists." In a 2005 readers' poll in USA Today, Pearl Jam was voted the greatest American rock band of all time. In April 2006, Pearl Jam was awarded the prize for "Best Live Act" in Esquire's Esky Music Awards. The blurb called Pearl Jam "the rare superstars who still play as though each show could be their last." Pearl Jam's fanbase following has been compared to that of the Grateful Dead's, with Rolling Stone magazine stating that Pearl Jam "toured incessantly and became one of rock's great arena acts, attracting a fanatical, Grateful Dead-like cult following with marathon, true-believer shows in the vanishing spirit of Bruce Springsteen, the Who and U2."
