

While the band members have 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. His energy was matched by Mike McCready’s unyielding guitar solos and Matt Cameron’s steady beat. Though there was no scaffolding for Vedder to climb, he still was an electric banshee. The bandmates 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. 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.

While the summer has been filled with predictable blockbuster productions, Pearl Jam continues to buck all of that for raw, uninhibited, improvised showmanship. 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. 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. Blackhole Sun), two new songs, and an acoustic version of Sexx Laws. “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.” Rooster, Pearl Jam's Even Flow, Stone Temple Pilots's Wicked Garden. “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 ago that the Seattle act played the United Center, since Wrigley Field is the band’s usual concert turf. 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. Within a year, 13x platinum-selling debut Ten was stacked high on record store shelves.Pearl Jam filled Tuesday night with as many Second City tributes as they did songs. Performed by John Abbott (Martin guitar) and Pierce Bivens (questionable vocals) of Colorado Straightedge.s. Andrew’s death from a heroin overdose in early 1990 rattled bonds and drove Stone’s writing into darker, heavier territory, but the introduction of second six-stringer Mike McCready, and an inspired response to their five-track demo from Illinois-born, San Diego-based singer Eddie Vedder (who’d written lyrics for Alive, Once and Footsteps while out surfing) saw the band take shape. Acoustic guitar cover of Even Flow by Pearl Jam. Guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament joined proto-grungers Green River in the mid-’80s, before forming Mother Love Bone with vocalist Andrew Wood towards the decade’s close. Perhaps the tribulations and inspirations of their coming-together prepared them for that.
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Their first three LPs, of course – spanning the pomp of the grunge scene, and full of its revolutionary excitement – still hold a special place in listeners’ hearts, but rather than trying to cling to past glories or fading into irrelevance, their eight albums (and countless other releases) since have solidified one of the most innovative, important reputations in all of rock. They have always been an outfit interested in everything they do.

Compared to the vast majority of their platinum-rated rock contemporaries, Pearl Jam’s back catalogue does not easily stack into a defined hierarchy of hit singles, ‘underrated’ fan-favourites and forgotten album tracks.
