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Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2009 > October > 04 > Entry
Live review: Pearl Jam ACL taping
“Man, this room is great and it just drives like an old Buick.”
Apt words from Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder during his band’s first taping of “Austin City Limits” at the KLRU studios on the University of Texas campus. The ACL studio of course has lots of years and miles on it, while Pearl Jam now is nosing into that old guard stratum — and doing so more than comfortably if the two-hour spectacle the band put on Saturday night is any indication.
The 17 songs were, of course, kinda heavy on material from the band’s new album “Backspacer” that, while good and played with all the drive and vigor of older material, don’t feel as lived in yet. The new ballad “Just Breathe” took on warmth from the intimate setting and a string quartet led by Austin’s Will Taylor of Strings Attached (“They’re Pearl Jam for a day” Vedder wryly remarked at the start) and rockers “Johnny Guitar” and “Got Some” had all the oomph needed to make them feel at home amongst more veteran material.
An outing like this is all about the little moments and reveals afforded by a small room, though, and there were plenty of them: Vedder going on a well-intended but messy ramble about the human condition prior to “Do The Evolution”; Mike McCready closing a second encore with a feedback-drenched “Star Spangled Banner”; Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament opening the night with Daniel Johnston’s “Walking The Cow”; Vedder bringing Taylor and company out for the encore on a head-scratching solo run through “Lukin” with the instructions “Just play whatever you think sounds good”; touring partner Ben Harper joining the band on slide guitar for “Red Mosquito”; and turning The Police’s “Driven To Tears” into a three-guitar workout.
After teasing about becoming the ACL studio’s house band (with a 12 bar lounge jazz run from the band) it was on to straight-up classics like “Better Man” (the opening verse sung by the audience) and takes on “Porch” and Victoria Williams’ “Crazy Mary” that gave guitarists McCready and Stone Gossard plenty of time in the solo spotlight while Vedder did that stagger-bop dance thing he’s nowhere close to retiring 20 years into this whole ride.
Not that he needs to. Everything works for this band, whether writ large on an arena or festival stage or in the closed confines it took to fabulously Saturday night.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: ACL 2009: Saturday, ACL Festival 2009, Music
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By austinist 30
October 4, 2009 11:07 AM | Link to this
Dude, were you drunk when you wrote this? Edit your stuff….reads like a 4th grader wrote it.
By someguywithaclue
October 4, 2009 3:27 PM | Link to this
“Man, this room if great and it just drives like an old Buick.”
“room if great”? Did you read what you wrote, dude? Obviously you guys need some copy editing. I’ll do it part-time for a few bucks… :)