Pearl Jam closed out their 2024 world tour at the ENGIE Stadium in Sydney, Australia this past weekend, and treated fans to a rare performance of Temple Of The Dog classic Hunger Strike, originally recorded as a duet between Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder.
That Vedder's voice is heard on the original version of the song happened by pure coincidence, as he was in Seattle for his first rehearsal with Pearl Jam on the day that Stone Gossard, Mike McCready and Jeff Ament were recording the track at London Bridge Studios with Cornell. Vedder was sitting in the corner of the studio as Soundgarden's frontman was rehearsing his vocals, but stepped up to the microphone to help out when he heard Cornell struggling with one of his own vocal parts. His participation made Cornell re-think the song as duet, and one of grunge's most powerful and emotive anthems was born.
Pearl Jam have performed Hunger Strike live before, but not since Chris Cornell's death in May 2017, so its airing on November 23 was a special moment for all present.
“You have great voices here,” Eddie Vedder told the audience towards the end of Pearl Jam's main set. “We’d like to have you use them with us now.”
Watch the performance below:
Pearl Jam's 27-song tour-ending set in Sydney also included a cover of The Who’s Baba O’Riley and Eddie Vedder's solo acoustic cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA-era classic No Surrender, which the singer dedicated to The Boss, who was playing in Seattle on the same night.
In his introduction to the song, Vedder referenced Donald Trump's recent US electoral victory, saying, "We will lean on music when words fail."
