Photos and Review by Micah Gummel

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Where poetry, post-punk rock kind of style and charisma collide, rock singer and guitarist Eddie Vedder may is found. Wearing his heart on his sleeve and a “Boston Strong” patch on his shoulder, Eddie Vedder expressed his love for Red Sox Nation by leading his band 
Pearl Jam through a three hour performance at the DCU Center on Tuesday night.It was the first of two sold out shows at the Worcester arena and it coincided with the release date of “Lightning Bolt,” the band’s latest recording.
Halfway through the show he called for the house lights. It was time to make a toast with the wine bottle that had been at his side all night.“When you are finding your way in the world, you don’t know a lot of people and others don’t accept you for who you are,” he said. “It hit me after that last song, seeing all your faces, and you are all singing the words, that this job has allowed me to be accepted by a large group. And looking out there it seems like you are all friends. Not every town is like that. Boston is one of the few places like this on earth.”
Pearl Jam is celebrating its 23rd anniversary; it began in the era when radio stations were largely playing over-produced pop. The Internet was just getting going back then, and streaming was something done in the great outdoors. And, it could be noted, tattooing of hipsters was not mandatory. Bands that shared Pearl Jam’s genre of rock, folk-infused and borrowing heavily from their classic rock forebears, haven’t all shared their durability and continued relevance.
Pearl Jam opened its 32-song set with “Release” from 1991’s “Ten,” and Vedder finished the song by uncorking his first bottle and strapping on a guitar for “Long Road.” The crowd was fully engaged by the time the band broke into “Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in A Small Town.”
The title track to “Lightning Bolt,” was delivered as a careening rocker, and guitarist Mike McCready led the extended jam. McCready was a monster all night, playing electric, acoustic, and slide, playing in the crowd, and even behind his back.
They followed it up with another new song, “Sirens” during which McCready started with an acoustic, and then moved to electric for a solo.
The band went back to “Ten” plucking out “Even Flow” to the crowd’s delight and kept the momentum up through “Red Mosquito.”
Vedder was not done toasting, thanking first the ex-GM of the Boston Red Sox, Theo Epstein, who managed to get the band into Fenway Park on Sunday night to witness what Vedder referred to as “a baseball miracle” when the Red Sox came back to win.
“I now have a strong belief in God,” Vedder said. “His name is David Ortiz and he wears #34.”
That led into a stirring rendition of “Better Man,” the song that would close the set.To that point, the performance had merely been an affirmation that Pearl Jam is indeed one of the world’s great rock bands capable of balancing blistering punk with brooding rock and igniting the passion of the gathered throng.
They were hardly finished.
The band still had a 12-song double encore to offer that included another toast, this time to those sitting behind the stage. The group then turned around to perform “Last Kiss” to that oft-ignored side of the arena. The band closed the show with “Alive” and “Indifference.”
 

 

Setlist

 Release

Long Road

Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town

Lightning Bolt

Mind Your Manners

Hail Hail

Sirens

Even Flow

Nothing as It Seems

Swallowed Whole

Red Mosquito

Whipping

Corduroy

Infallible

Got Some

Save You

Leash

Let the Records Play

Do the Evolution

Better Man

(Save It For Later tag)

Encore:

Man of the Hour

Yellow Moon

Fatal

Just Breathe

Spin the Black Circle

Unthought Known

Porch

Encore 2:

Last Kiss

(Wayne Cochran cover)

Crazy Mary

(Victoria Williams cover)

Alive

Sonic Reducer

(Dead Boys cover)

Indifference

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