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Live review: Pearl Jam
Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN
- Photos: Pearl Jam at ACL Fest 2009
Around the 90 minute mark of a 10’s across the board set Sunday night - during the guitar solo passage of “Alive” - Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder ventured to the left side girders of the stage and peered up and down the superstructure. A moment later, he bounded to the right stage edge and did the same thing; feeling the framework before looking out on the ocean of mud-covered fans caught up in his every move and syllable.
As many as 10 years ago the front man would’ve gone ape and started climbing, probably winding up atop a speaker stack before diving onto a mass of waiting hands. Who knows if it’s because of his firmly adult age (now 44) or just a feeling of “been there, done that” that caused it, but those two moments of reserve were the only times Vedder or any of his bandmates held anything back during a two hour epic performance that should put them in the books as one of the best headlining acts ever in Austin City Limits Festival history.
Put together a checklist of what you want to see from a festival headliner and it was there: oldies (“Why Go?,” “Corduroy,” “Daughter”), well-executed new stuff (“Got Some,” “The Fixer”), virtuosity (guitarist Mike McCready wailing behind his head during “Evenflow” or any of a number of solos throughout the night), Eddie being Eddie (plenty of chat to the crowd without rambling) and covers (Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World,” The Who’s “The Real Me,” and, amazingly, Jane’s Addiction’s “Mountain Song” with Perry Farrell on vocals).
What strung all that together was Pearl Jam’s ability to change speeds in a snap and pull the right song from its nine-album canon and fire it just the right way to fit the vibe of the show. It’s what makes a transition from almost folk like “Daughter” into the first verse of the dirgy “W.M.A.” followed by the full-on stomp of “Hail Hail” not only make sense but seem completely obvious.
That adaptability comes from the band’s healthy touring regimen through its 19 years together, which in recent years has bizarrely turned it into an alternate universe Grateful Dead, where crossing Lynyrd Skynyrd with Minor Threat is the kind of thing that can get Gen Xer fans to go on the road for dozens of dates at a stretch. But thankfully that’s what happened, and even though Sunday’s two hour time limit was 60 minutes shorter than what they’re known for these days, it never lacked for immediacy or felt like there was a base that wasn’t being covered well.
So whether you were pining for a karaoke-level standard like “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town,” lesser-known mid-period stuff (“Not For You,” “Given To Fly”) or old chestnuts (“Why Go?” “State Of Love And Trust”) it was there in full force.
Whether or not the Pearl Jam makes good on Vedder’s mid-set promise to return to Austin in a reasonable time frame (its last visit here was in 1995) few of the masses who toughed out the mud through Sunday - “You all look like a (expletive) ocean… and it’s beautiful,” Vedder offered later on - would argue the band put its stamp on ACL Fest and the city for years to come.
Set list: Why Go?, Corduroy, Got Some, Not For You (plus a verse from “Modern Girl” by Sleater Kinney), Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Evenflow, Unthought Known, Daughter (with transition into first verse of W.M.A.), Hail Hail, Insignificance, Present Tense, State Of Love And Trust, The Fixer, Go
(encore) Red Mosquito (feat. Ben Harper on slide guitar), Do The Evolution, The Real Me (cover - The Who), Alive
(encore) Mountain Song (cover - Jane’s Addiction with Perry Farrell on vocals), Rockin’ In The Free World (cover - Neil Young)
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment Categories: ACL 2009: Sunday, ACL Festival 2009, Music
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By RichardC
October 5, 2009 10:02 AM | Link to this
Bar none, the greatest rock show I’ve ever seen at a festival. I’m nowhere close to being a diehard fan, but I will never mock Pearl Jam in any context again.
By Michael Bloodgood
October 5, 2009 2:27 PM | Link to this
PJ was at the top of their game last night. All the mud was worth it!
By JoeK
October 5, 2009 8:31 PM | Link to this
I can’t express how incredible that performance was. I’ve been to every ACL show, and I heard a lot of people doubting Pearl Jam. They blew everyone off their feet with the greatest live performance I’ve ever seen. This performance should go down in Austin’s history.
By Roxie
October 5, 2009 11:29 PM | Link to this
The best show I’ve ever seen in all the years of ACL!
By rick
October 6, 2009 7:18 AM | Link to this
it wasn’t muddy enough.
By Louis Pachecano
October 6, 2009 11:14 AM | Link to this
PJ showed why they’re the greatest band of all-time. Simply a great show and a suitable ending for an amazing weekend!