If you told Eddie Vedder in 1991 that his band would be the new Grateful Dead, he would have bristled. Or maybe he would have socked you in the jaw. But almost two decades into its career, Pearl Jam has become an evergreen touring act capable of filling the Comcast Center twice over.
Last night, at the first of the Seattle megaband’s Comcast gigs - Vedder and crew play tomorrow as well - its cult was in full effect. A nearly 20,000-strong army of fans was as devoted as any Deadhead crowd. (What? You thought String Cheese Incident was really going to last?)
The former grunge band - the grunge genre hasn’t really fit this straight-ahead rock band for 10 years - began slowly. The atypically jammy “Hard to Imagine” borrowed a bit from the loopy Dead. But after that, the guys showed just how and why they’ve reinvented the paradigm of a cult supergroup.
Quickly, Pearl Jam launched into a rage-heavy section of the set. The band may be full of mellow family men now, but they’re aces at accessing that epic angst in a hurry. “Why Go” and “Hail, Hail” immediately turned the venue into a boiling pit of angry, rushed, wild rock.
The drums and space of the new millennium is Pearl Jam’s quiet/loud, small/big dynamic. “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” with its melodic driving acoustic guitar, felt intimate and gentle while still being a big, cathartic, communal moment for thousands. But the band smartly followed the ballad with a gigantic, reach-all-the-way-back-to-the-lawn-seats “Corduroy.” Then, a few songs later, the ethos of “Elderly Woman” was back with the lonely and pensive “Off He Goes.”
Although the band played a few newer songs, the majority of the set was pulled from its ’90s catalog - which is why Pearl Jam’s been able to remain beloved. Both the center of the show and the exploding final encore were rooted in well-known classics.
At this point, “Even Flow” is a new standard every bit as massive as “War Pigs” or “Highway Star.” But thanks to the group’s total commitment to the song and lead guitarist Mike McCready’s solo, it didn’t feel dated or tired - McCready has thankfully long-since ditched his metalish, Mick Mars tone for Neil Young’s worse-is-better style.
And “Black,” “Better Man” and “Alive” - all part of the encore - kept the energy of the finale spiking. Bands as popular as Pearl Jam can’t typically deliver cutting critiques of the Iraq War and have most of the arena cheer. But when you write some of the best songs of the last 20 years and perform them with supernova intensity, you’re given plenty of latitude.
Ted Leo, a great choice for an opener, was pretty much ignored - the place was about 5 percent full during his excellent set of intelligent punk rock. See Leo at the Paradise next time he’s around and you’ll see why Pearl Jam tapped him.
