“Welcome to Pearl Jam’s 50th show in New York City,” Eddie Vedder said Wednesday night (September 4) of the two shows the iconic Seattle band played at the World’s Most Festival. I said this to an enthusiastic response on stage at Madison Square Garden, my second show. This week’s famous arena.
“We’re grateful for that and we want to give back, so have fun and we promise Mike McCready will do the same,” he added, before leading guitarist launched into a searing version of “Evenflow,” with the guitar behind him for an epic solo.
It was one of the highlights of a show full of them and captured the band’s element of pushing the songs to their limits, having fun with the audience, and also seriously tackling some big issues in the country and the world at large. It was something. .
“Women’s rights aren’t just being threatened, they’re already being taken away,” Vedder said after “Evenflow,” a few songs from the band’s two-and-a-half hour set. “I think it’s a little early to start this story, but let’s end it now. So the issue of the right to choose used to involve religious fanatics, but it has since moved on to involve politicians. Not because they care in any way, they just want votes. And it evolved into being a judge, with women of all ages on the Supreme Court. The good news is, it’s time to vote. As the great Patti Smith said, there is power in the people. No. Women, feel empowered. Women, vote for your interests and help your sisters while you’re at it.”
The band then went into “Daughter,” with an extended outro set to the melody of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In the Wall Pt.” 2,” Vedder changes the lyrics to “Take the ban off our bodies/Politicians leave our girls alone/Judges leave our daughters alone.” Please stay with me,” he sang.
This wasn’t the only time Vedder and the band, wearing Walter Payton Chicago Bears jerseys, addressed the outside world. On the day of yet another U.S. shooting at a Georgia high school that left four people dead and others injured, the band pulled out a rarely played song, “Glorified G,” from their second album, Vs. Ta. ” – a cynical mockery of the false bravado of gun owners, and Vedder introduced it by saying, “I hate guns!” Two songs later, more poignantly and more solemnly, the band played “Jeremy,” their first big hit from their debut album. The song tells the story of a boy who brought a gun to school and committed suicide in front of the bullies in his classroom. I tried my best to convey the message, so no content was lost.
Otherwise, the band is clearly enjoying the 50-show milestone, with Vedder telling the story of the first time he came to New York City (“as a kid in Chicago, then on the West Coast, then east of Chicago”). songs like “Rear View Mirror,” “Hail Hail,” and “Do the Evolution,” while introducing “an older woman behind a small-town counter.” There was a great audience response to the high-energy performance. (The latter, at least for this fan, takes on a different tenor after watching three episodes of the documentary series Chimp Crazy, but I digress.)
After a set break, Vedder took a solo appearance, performing the Stephen Van Zandt composition “I Am a Patriot” and a late-career gem, “Just Breathe,” before returning to tour opener “I Am a Patriot.” He brought along Glen Hansard, “Good Man, Great Irishman,” to perform. When he took to the stage to perform the latter’s “The Song of Good Hope,” several fans who were going through tough times exclaimed that the song had saved them from their own troubles. The entire band was joined by former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and producer Andrew Watt, who performed a few solo songs that night, including John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth.” and performed the punk anthem “Sonic Reducer.”
The band then performed another rarity with fan favorite “Leash” and its iconic anthem “Alive” before Vedder brought Little Stevie himself on stage and joined forces with Hansard, Watt and The Band Together, they ran through the fun “Rocking in the Free World.” The lights were turned on throughout the arena, closing with the unreleased classic “Yellow Ledbetter,” taking fans home for the night in Manhattan.
set list
“Garden” “Corduroy” “Hail Hail” “Evenflow” “Daughter -> Another Brick In The Wall Pt.” 2”, “Dark Matter”, “React Response”, “Won’t Tell”, “Not for You”, “Wreckage”, “I Am Mine”, “Old Woman at the Small Town Counter”, “Glorious G”, “Do・The Evolution” Jeremy” “Waiting for Stevie” (with Andrew Watt) “Rearview Mirror”
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“I Am a Patriot” (Eddie Solo) “Just Breathe” (Eddie Solo) “The Song of Good Hope” (with Glen Hansard) “Gimme Some Truth” “Setting・Sun” “Sonic Reducer” “Leash” “Alive” Rockin’ in the Free World (with Little Stevie, Glen Hansard, Andrew Watt) “Yellow Ledbetter”
