I don't think either one is "better", they both are unique and do their own unique thing very well. I've never seen Pearl Jam in concert unfortunately so I can't compare that. I can see how they could have things in common personally and could get along well.
This is in the new Rolling Stone interview with Eddie
Do you ever wish that you'd embraced the machine more? If you had even more of the spotlight on you, if you had completely gone for it and embraced it, then maybe you'd have more power to speak out politically. Do you ever think about that kind of thing?
"I tell ya. I had the chance. I just didn't take the bait. Believe me, we put ourselves out there, with Nader, and whatever it is, as much as we can. But as a band we know our limits and as a human I certainly know my limits. I just have this deep kind of connection to reality of being like... in a way, I feel like a dock worker. I want to stay in connection with my dock-worker side, 'cause that's how I grew up...I'm not ready to be that guy who can meet with world leaders and all that. It's tremendous what Bono does. I don't know if I could do it, not the way he does. I don't think many people could. The physicality of what Bono does, the physicality of like, meeting with Mitterrand and then going and playing Sweden that night, and then more shows after that... I've told him that I was in awe of what he did, not only what he accomplished, but how he fuckin' did it, from the point of taxing his body. I told him this, and he kind of raised his eyebrows and asked for another drink. [Laughs]"
