Pearl Jam’s frontman, Eddie Vedder, steps out on a limited six-city tour with his band, The Earthlings, making a two-night stop in Chicago.
Although this is an extremely limited run, Chicago was lucky to have two nights dedicated to them. As with Pearl Jam shows, what makes each night special is the fact you’ll never see the same setlist performed twice. Each night, the songs performed are different so you never know exactly what you’re going to get. For this tour, you can bank, however, on hearing a large portion of songs from the just-released album, Earthling, along with a very select few Pearl Jam songs and some covers were thrown in for good measure.
On the first of the two-night engagement, Vedder opened with four cover songs which were R.E.M.’s “Drive,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Room at the Top,” The Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun,” and The Who’s “I’m One.” This wasn’t the end of the covers as there were more throughout the set, including The Pretenders’ “Precious,” and George Harrison’s “Isn’t It A Pity.”
They performed an impressive nine out of 13 songs from Earthling, which was released today. While it is sometimes a little strange hearing so many songs that are yet to be released in one show, the power of the songs shone through as the atmosphere didn’t dip once. Another reason why there wasn’t a dip was that there was constantly something going on to grasp your attention. Whether it be Eddie chatting with two young first-time concert-goers in the front row, to reminiscing about his first time at the Auditorium Theatre as a kid. There was also the impressive band accompanying him made up of drummer Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), guitarist Josh Klinghoffer (formerly of Red Hot Chili Peppers and now a touring member of Pearl Jam), bassist Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction), multi-instrumentalist Glen Hansard (The Frames and The Swell Season), and guitarist Andrew Watt (producer turned guitarist). At one point, your attention would be fixed on Vedder with his mesmerizing voice, and the next you can’t help but find yourself watching either Klinghoffer or Watt as they paced back and forth on either side of the stage, lost in their own worlds. One thing is for sure, this tour has helped draw people’s attention to Andrew Watt who is clearly establishing himself as a shredder extraordinaire.
There were definitely not as many Pearl Jam songs performed as some fans may have hoped, but this tour was never billed as that. There were four Pearl Jam songs thrown in throughout the night to give the fans a chance to sing along – “Not For You,” “Better Man,” “Dirty Frank,” and the show was rounded out with “Porch.”
While this tour has been gaining media coverage for the back and forth between Eddie Vedder and Nikki Sixx, there was so much more to this show than that. It felt like the theatre was filled with friends, some you’ve not seen for a good few months, and others you just haven’t met yet. Everyone had the same goal in mind, to enjoy the music and take it all in. The majority of the seated venue was on their feet for the duration, lapping up the feeling that only live music brings.
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