Mundis flew into Chicago and met up with me for what’s quickly becoming our semi-annual, spend-more-money-that-you-have vacation to see something Pearl Jam related. Where seeing Pearl Jam has sort of become more habit than anything for me, the opportunity to see Eddie Vedder solo brought up feelings of both excitement and apprehension. I was excited for the chance to see Eddie play, not just because of the rarity of such an intimate gig with a rock “legend”, but also because I really wanted to hear some of the Into the Wild soundtrack – which happens to be excellent.
Of course, I wasn’t sure how well Ed would carry a show alone. Would he be able to captivate me for two-plus hours, or would I get tired of the singer-songwriter vibe? Would the setlist be interesting, or would I have spent money only to hear Betterman, Last Kiss, and Corduroy on acoustic? There was also the question of Ed’s voice. The guy has pipes, but years of touring, smoking, and drinking have definitely worn on his baritone and his ability to hold the high notes he so easily reached 10 years ago. Could he actually sing for two-plus hours over two consecutive nights?
Well, after two nights in Vedder’s semi-hometown of Chicago, any reservations I might’ve had coming into the shows were completely gone. I actually think that Ed was better alone than he is with Pearl Jam. That’s not to say that I’d see Ed 20+ times because Pearl Jam shows are awesome, but the whole experience was so damn good that I was left with a better impression of Ed and his talent from his solo shows than I ever was from seeing a Pearl Jam show.
First, the voice. Vedder’s voice is ridiculously good, and in an intimate setting like The Auditorium Theater, the subtleties and range are impossible to overlook. No longer was there a rockin’ band mixed in to support and/or drown out his voice. When the accompaniment is limited to one guitar, the voice needs to take control…and control it did. No longer did Ed have to scream and growl in the prototypical rock style. He could simply croon and let the songs live on their own. He sang with clarity that really undermined the mumbling reputation he’s often mocked for.
The setlists were ridiculous and held many surprises. In two nights we heard many songs from Into the Wild and various Pearl Jam tunes, but some of my favorites were the cover songs. Hurt was covered in more of the Johnny Cash version and is one of those songs I wish I could have to listen to over and over. There were random covers like Pete Townshend’s Let My Love Open the Door, Trouble by Cat Stevens, Blackbird by The Beatles, The Who’s Can’t Explain, and Dylan’s Masters of War. The covers just added such a surprising twist to the show. While I’ve heard Trouble and Masters of War live a handful of times, songs like Blackbird and Can’t Explain came totally out of left field and blew me away with their looseness and Ed’s willingness to try new material. Some were better than others, but for me, the fact that I got to hear something new, albeit a cover song, come out of Ed’s mouth was refreshing. I’m sure Mundis would agree.
My other two favorites, and I mean clear-cut favorites, were the performances of Arc and Society. Arc was a song from Riot Act that Ed had only sung a few times before, and was dedicated to the 9 fans who had died at the Roskilde Festival a few years back. Using a loop machine, Vedder laid down various layers of chants (9, I think) – all free flowing and full of dynamics starting with a very low chant and growing in pitch. Once the layers are looped it’s just this huge, beautiful sound. It was amazing. I had only seen him do it once before in Boston, but to see him do it two nights in a row was incredible and seriously blew me away. I’m not sure if another song even came close to affecting me like that one. Society is my favorite song of the the Into the Wild soundtrack, and it was performed both nights with Liam Finn doing backup vocals. Combined, their voices took that song to a new level.
Speaking of Liam Finn…I have no idea how I felt about his opening act, but I will say that A) his voice is really, really good and similar to his father’s, and B) Liam is a really talented musician. His solo show involved drums, loop machines, noise, and a backup singer/percussionist. I still haven’t picked up his solo album, but I plan on doing that at some point. He’s a hell of a musician and I think there’s a lot more to come from him. It was also cool to see him join Ed on drums for Hard Sun, as well.
As if a great show wasn’t good enough, I got to see the Stanley Cup thanks to Brett Lebda and Chris Chelios bringing it to the show, and we got to see Sean Penn come out for the second night’s performance of Hard Sun. The real treat, though was listening to Vedder’s banter between songs and his exchanges with the crowd. When people were still calling out unsolicited requests and Vedder said something along the lines of, “hey, can you give me a break from being a human jukebox and stop trying to shove quarters into my ass”, I had to laugh. He also went on a mini rant about how he has a setlist and he wasn’t going to take requests from “amateurs” after he’s been making setlists for “some band you might’ve heard of” for the past 17 or 18 years. It was great. You could tell that after 10 shows or whatever it was, that he had grown tired of the loudmouthed, self-important fans who couldn’t sit down and shut up during the show. He often asked the crowd to stop talking during the storytelling parts for the sake of the people who paid to sit in the gallery seats, making it a point to tell a story of how his very first concert ever was at The Auditorium in the very last row of the gallery, and how those seats are “really uncomfortable”. He also told the crowd this whole story about how he met Cubs legend Ernie Banks, and Ernie asked him to write a song for the Cubs before busting out the song All the Way, a really decent song that could work for just about any perpetually failing team with some slight lyric modifications. Mundis and I were sort of annoyed that even when Ed writes a stupid song for the Cubs, it’s really good. I’m sure it’ll be playing around Wrigleyville for the next 100 years of failure.
Anyway, Ed’s ability to engage the crowd with great storytelling and witty remarks made the experience a memorable one. For the first time, it felt like we were really getting to know who Eddie Vedder was, and it sort of took him down from that invisible pedestal that many people put him on and made you think he was just like the rest of us…just with more talent…and money. It was excellent and I would recommend seeing him to anyone I know, fan or not. The show was well set up, Ed didn’t drink at all so he didn’t screw up very much, and the banter was excellent…as well as the surprising setlists. While I hated spending money on the tickets, the experience was definitely worth it, and I’d go again in a heartbeat.
The ONLY bummer about the whole two nights was the crowd (well, and the 3 posters at $35 each). It was a typical, drunken moron PJ crowd, despite the intimate venue and show offering. Most of the people seemed more interested in getting their next beer, talking to their friends, and screaming out requests and the typical, “I love you, Eddie”. I guess these are the fans who were disappointed that Ed didn’t play everything off of the greatest hits album. The only thing that made the girl spilling beer on Mundis’ head a forgettable moment was the girl who threw her phone up on stage. She hopped up on stage to get it, and instead of grabbing it and running back to the crowd, she tried to run up to Ed. That security guard removed her insanely fast. So fast, in fact, that Ed didn’t even see it happen. The whole crowd thing was just so obnoxious, but thankfully, the show trumped the idiocy surrounding us. Thanks, Ed.