As Pearl Jam’s two-and-a-half-hour, goliath of a show was wrapping up Tuesday night at the United Center, frontman Eddie Vedder noticed a fan waving a Cubs “W” victory flag in the upper deck.
“If I was going to get one more tattoo, it would be that — right on my forehead,” the singer declared. Not that anyone would be surprised if he did.
Even though Vedder moved to Seattle years ago and became the voice of a generation, the Evanston native has never really left home behind. It shows every time Pearl Jam plays Chicago, a continuing love letter to the city, and begging the question: who’s really the fan in the house tonight?
Pearl Jam filled Tuesday night with as much Second City tributes as they did songs. There were shoutouts to Studs Terkel and “The Bear”; there was branded merch riffing off Bulls dynasty T-shirts of yore that drew snaked lines hours before showtime; there was a Cheap Trick “Surrender” sendoff; there was even former Blackhawks defenseman Chris Chelios pretending to be a guitar tech.
“We feel so blessed to be back in Chicago, with our family and friends in the audience tonight,” Vedder said, sharing it had been about 10 or 15 years that the Seattle act played the United Center, since Wrigley Field is their usual concert turf.
“We’ll get back outside one of these days,” the singer quipped, adding, “It’s a big job to add to the history of this building tonight, but with your help I think we can try.”
True to his word, the night was one of the best Chicago shows Pearl Jam has delivered in their 30-plus-years of touring, even more so than the sweet satisfaction that came seeing the band play into the twilight hours after the epic rain delay at Wrigley in 2013. Tuesday’s 24-song set began in the same way as that show, with the band starting things off with the emotional opus “Release,” eliciting a mass singalong and setting the tone for the evening.
Vedder dedicated “Light Years” to his recently deceased aunt Sandy, noting the family had memorialized her the night prior on a beach in Evanston. He also spoke of driving back to the city, and on the way home, stopping by his late grandma’s old apartment where the family had so often gathered.
“It was often a regret of mine not buying the building,” Vedder said. On Monday, Vedder approached a group standing outside the building and met the man who bought the unit and raised his kids there. One of them was about to fly off to med school but delayed his trip following Vedder’s invite to the concert.
It’s nights like these that are the hallmark of Pearl Jam — you truly never know what you’re going to get — in spirit or in song. Each show is so carefully curated to make it unique (if you’re headed back for their repeat on Thursday, expect it to be wholly different). Their hits are so effortlessly weaved into the fabric of the performance that it feels insulting to not notice. On Tuesday, the set list included “Even Flow,” “Corduroy,” the acoustic ballad “Just Breathe” and “Animal,” the latter in tribute to the hit Hulu series “The Bear,” which used the song in an episode. (Vedder said the series reminds him of days waiting tables at suburban restaurants. “Thirdy years later, I still have waiter nightmares and wake up and thank God I’m in a band.”)
While the summer has been filled with predictable blockbuster productions, Pearl Jam continues to buck all of that for raw, uninhibited, improvised showmanship.
On Tuesday night, the show’s bare-bones stage setup carried all the energy of a Seattle coffeeshop, but proved the best backrop for what was to come. The band began the show seated on stools, not unlike their unforgettable “MTV Unplugged” showdown, before kicking the seats aside and unleashing into epic fits that harkened back to a bygone time. Though there was no scaffolding for Vedder to climb, he still was an electric banshee. His energy was matched by Mike McCready’s unyielding guitar solos and Matt Cameron’s steady beat.
While the band has ventured off into other projects as of late — Vedder working on solo material, Jeff Ament unveiling Deaf Charlie, Stone Gossard reprising BRAD — they are always at their prime together. While this tour is short (just nine shows total), hopefully it’s just the warmup for a bigger enterprise as the band wraps up recording their 12th studio album.
The band returns for a second show at the United Center on Sept. 7. For ticket info, visit ticketmaster.com.
Set List
- Release
- Low Light
- Just Breathe
- Retrograde
- Who Ever Said
- Corduroy
- Gods’ Dice
- Faithfull
- Quick Escape
- Animal
- Light Years
- Even Flow
- Dance of the Clairvoyants
- In My Tree
- Comatose
- Down
- Rearviewmirror
- Throw Your Arms Around Me (Hunters & Collectors cover)
- Inside Job
- Wishlist
- Not for You
- Better Man
- Alive
- Surrender (Cheap Trick cover)
