Pearl Jam's 3-hour rock marathon hits WorcesterPearl Jam celebrated the release of their tenth studio album, "Lightning Bolt," Tuesday night with an exhaustive and exhausting three-hour concert at Worcester's DCU Center before a soldout crowd of 15,000. The quintet, augmented as usual by keyboardist Boom Gaspar, delivered 32 songs over the course on their regular set and two lengthy encores.
Pearl Jam plays again at the DCU Center on Wednesday night. Pearl Jam also swings back through New England next week, playing Hartford's XL Center on October 25.(There were long lines getting into the arena last night, so despite the 7:30 start time on the tickets, the band didn't actually begin to play until almost 8:30 p.m.)
Pearl Jam's 24-date fall tour started last Friday, and they've been switching up the setlist every night, with neat surprises, like covers from left field. Tuesday night's set included seven of their tunes from the new album, and three covers from three widely disparate sources. The band opened its second encore with a soft-rockin' stroll through the old 1950's hit "Last Kiss." Immediately afterwards, Pearl Jam delivered a dazzling reworking of roots music icon Victoria Williams' "Crazy Mary," taking it over a whole gamut of effects from slowly booming mystery ballad to scalding soul-rock as Gaspar and lead guitarist Mike McCready traded licks, while singer Eddie Vedder strolled the front of the stage sharing his wine bottle with fans.
Those two covers were enough of a head trip to end the night, but, after a rousing, mass singalong version of their own anthem "Alive," the quintet launched into a fiercely pounding take on the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer," as torrid a bit of garage rock as was ever attempted. Previous shows on the tour so far had included covers from The Who, and Neil Young, but Tuesday's Worcester choices were a terrific trio of curveballs.
Before that the Pearl Jam show had been a well-conceived combination of the band's new music, as well as a wide selection of their previous work, from all phases of their career going back to their 1991 debut. The band --Vedder, McCready, bassist Jeff Ament, drummer Matt Cameron, and guitarist Stone Gossard--sounded like they were enjoying the night's work, and the sound quality was uniformly good.
There were a few numbers where the sheer din of the grunge guitar storm just flattened out the melody, and buried Vedder's vocals, but for the most part the individual instruments were clear and distinct. And several of the new songs displayed really sophisticated arrangements that enhanced the various members' skills.
Pearl Jam played on a very simple stage set, with eight big glass globes suspended overhead, which changed colors as the night progressed. There was also a weird metal contraption overhead, sort of like a skeletal spaceship, which also brought some color to the proceedings. Two video screens on either side of the stage projected close ups of the band for folks in the nosebleed seats.
Vedder, now 48, was in fine voice and high spirits, bouncing around the stage like a teenager and eagerly sharing his several bottles of wine with anyone he could reach. Late in the show he noted how the band had been able to catch Sunday's epic Red Sox playoff win, thanks to old pal Theo Epstein. "That (bleepin') incredible thing that happened? I have to say I now have a strong belief in God--and his name is David Ortiz and he wears number 34!"
The night opened with almost a ballad, the heavy bass swing of "Release," which was followed by the simmering thunder of "Long Road." Vedder took up acoustic guitar for the live show staple, "Elderly Woman behind the Counter in a Small Town," which became the night's first singalong opportunity for the 12,000 diehards. The pulsating title cut from the new CD, "Lightning Bolt," featured warp-speed tempos and an early sign that Vedder's singing would be especially passionate Tuesday night.
That punk-rock-like surging power was also evident in the new "Mind Your Manners," and "Hail, Hail" also had a lot of punk flavoring, although that was a spot where the general guitar squall overwhelmed everything else. Vedder greeted the crowd for the first time before the seventh song, and the new "Sirens" was easily the highlight of the first half of the set, a multi-layered arrangement that worked off a midtempo riff, and posited the singer in a way that let him delve into bluesy soul. The familiar rumbling of "Even Flow" built off of that feeling, with McCready uncorking a brain-curdling guitar solo.
The stretch after that early highpoint seemed to sag a bit, as the slower "Nothing As It Seems" actually seemed a bit lumbering, and "Swallowed Whole," "Red Mosquito" and "Whipping" kind of settled into a mid-to-uptempo general din. It took a truly wild "Corduroy" to regain the momentum, and then the chopping rhythms of "Infallible" again gave Vedder a better framework for one of his most soulful vocals.
The energy level onstage and off was almost off the charts for the blisteruing "Got Some," with Cameron's cascading drum figures a key ingredient. "Save Me" managed to be a pell mell, punk-inflected rocker that still retained some melodic grace. Vedder relaetd an anecdote about playing Boston's old Axis club before doing the older "Leash," which certainly sounded like grunge's heyday.
Later on, "Do the Evolution" inserted almost a funk hook into the night, turning it into one of the more engaging pieces. That salute to David Ortiz presaged "Better Man," which began with just Vedder and McCready, before growing into a full-band anthem that again had the throng singing along for the regular set finale.
Vedder and company did the first encore as a sort of semi-acoustic mini-set, seated at the front of the stage. It opened with Vedder's tribute to the late radical historian Howard Zinn, "Man of the Hour," a heartfelt ballad of loss and enduring memory. The rustic ballad "Yellow Moon" from the new album was a nice change of pace, almost folk music. Vedder's ode to "couples who love each other and also like each other," "Just Breathe" was another acoustic guitar-centered gem, showcasing his more nuanced vocal talents.
The punky charge of "Spin the Black Circle" worked like a sonic special effect, leading into the fiery garage rock of "Unthought Known." That first encore segment peaked with the old Pearl Jam anthem "Porch," where another incendiary Gaspar organ solo pushed the band into new levels of heated abandon, and ended with Vedder swinging on one of the light globes like a trapeze artist.
The second encore segment seemd to hit unattainable peaks one after the other, with that "Sonic Reducer" cover an incredible barnburner. But then the band downshifted just a bit for the woozy dreamscape of "Indifference," as Ament (who used a dazzling array of brightly colored basses over the course of the night) played on a standup bass, providing a low rumble as a major percentage of the crowd ended the night singing along again.