Releasing 10 albums over the past 20-plus years, Pearl Jam has experienced a storied career, but all but its most devoted fans admit that the last decade hasn’t lived up to the groundbreaking artistry of the group’s fruitful beginnings. Many would say the band peaked on its debut, 1991’s massive grunge blockbuster Ten, the genre’s biggest hit at the time, which sold 10 million copies. The Seattle-based band felt unprepared and reluctant to take hold of the spotlight and turned inward on its next few albums, each selling progressively less than the previous effort. By 1998’s Yield, Pearl Jam nestled into a groove they’ve arguably been riding all the way through last year’s Lightning Bolt. On Monday night playing to a well-traveled, inebriated Gen-X crowd at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, the grunge progenies delivered an unforgettable 195-minute, 35-song show aimed at its fervent cult following while also giving casual fans a chance to relive their disaffected ’90s youth.
“You always think it’s the last show that’s the best,” frontman Eddie Vedder remarked early on about Monday’s penultimate stop on this tour. “Actually, it’s the second to last that’s the best.” With that he welcomed Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen on stage to play a rousing rendition of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” a tour staple, to be sure, but one enlivened by the classic-rock accompaniment. Vedder quickly shed his unbuttoned flannel shirt for an unbuttoned black shirt layered beneath. Even though grunge music is long dead, the wardrobe change still carried some meaning, as Vedder edges closer to classic-rock icon status and further from former Seattle contemporaries Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell.
After the euphoric cover, Nielsen exited the stage, littering his path with a bevy of guitar picks, and Pearl Jam got down to business. Vedder bounced around the stage like a prize fighter before a title bout, and the band knocked out every song from Yield, front-to-back. The move wasn’t unprecedented. Just a few days before in Moline, Ill., Pearl Jam gave 1996’s No Code the same treatment. But still, the moment felt special, even for the casual observer. And while Yield doesn’t carry the anthems of Ten or sophomore album Vs., its swifter, punk-rock pace kept the energy from dropping too low.
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Vedder drank his customary bottle of wine throughout the show, every so often pouring some out to the front row. By night’s end, it was hard to tell when he swayed side-to-side at the end of the stage whether he was feeling the music or just truly blitzed. If the latter, he kept it together pretty well, recalling the story of drinking his first beer (an Old Milwaukee) and its effects (“Now I drink wine.”) He even got frisky enough to bring out a Green Bay Packers cheesehead, which he facetiously called a urinal cake to a mixed reaction. The Evanston, Ill.-born Bears fan refused to wear the head garment, but later would don a No. 10 Packers jersey (side note: at this time, a group of fans in the pit lifted a person on their shoulders. It was none other than No. 10 on the Packers, Matt Flynn). The mood was so high that the closing four songs “Alive,” a cover of Neil Young’s “Fuckin’ Up,” “Yellow Ledbetter” and “The Star Spangled Banner” happened in such a blur that the only thing that can be remembered for sure is Vedder leaving with a just-cracked Miller High Life bottle in hand. Pearl Jam might be more than a decade removed from releasing a quality record, but that doesn’t mean they don’t put on one hell of a live show.
