The venue was absolutely gorgeous. The United Palace Theatre on 175th and Broadway is just about as far north in Manhattan as you can get. And a tidbit of trivia, it's where Malcolm X was shot. The theatre is a refurbished church that is still used for services and from what I gathered, a pretty popular one. The inside reminded me a lot of the Fox Theater in Detroit, very elegant with a touch of an old roman architecture. I showed up to see the last song of the opening band, a guy by the name of Liam Finn. It was him and some woman on a tiny little set up. From what I saw, he seemed like he would put on a good show. But honestly, I won't get there any earlier tonight to see his entire show. Around 8:45 Eddie finally came on stage.
His stage set up was pretty low key. He had a large rug with a stool centered surrounded by a little table stage left, a row of guitars, acoustic and electric as well as a mandolin, and his amps stage right. Unlike most Pearl Jam shows I have seen, Eddie didn't walk out with a bottle of wine in his hand, just his notebook that he carries with him constantly. Instead he just had a glass of water that the crew had put up before he came out. Eddie said hello and went into the first two songs, which were two songs I've heard once or twice but am not all that familiar with, Walking the Cow and Trouble Around the Bend. The sound was very good and his voice was amazing as usual. At times the sound got a little hot, but it was rare.
Next on the list was I Am Mine, it was a great version of the song, but I have to admit, I kind of missed the rest of the band on this one. One of the things I like about this song is the percussion, but still he played it very well. Dead Man Walking was the first of the Sean Penn/Eddie Vedder connected songs. The song being from the Penn film titled the same. I had only heard this song maybe one other time live. Vedder went back to the Pearl Jam catalog with I'm Open, one of my all-time favorite tracks. Although he only played the chorus, it was great to hear this one live. The next song was another movie song that you will remember from the end credits of Big Fish titled Man of the Hour. I've recently learned to play this song on guitar, but since he decided to play it on a mandolin, it sounded much different that I am used to. It was a beautiful rendition though. He closed this portion of the set list with the first song off the third album called Sometimes. This is another one of those songs that PJ doesn't play often so it was cool to get to hear it live.
After Sometimes, the background scenery changed and Vedder announced it was time to go from New York and Into the Wild where he proceeded to play 5 of the songs from the album. I really enjoyed that album and hearing these songs live for the first time was great. Vedder segued out of the Into the Wild tracks into a song that I'm not sure if it was a cover or a new song he is working on called Millworker. The crowd seemed to chill out a bit for this one, many people using the opportunity to use the restroom or get a refill. He followed that with Soon Forget which is about a greedy man that is consumed by money. He prefaced Soon Forget by saying it was about the man from Millworker. I've always like Soon Forget because Vedder plays it on a ukulele. Eddie explains how he learned to play ukulele when he was going through a hard time and that it seemed like such a happy sounding instrument, but felt he had to bring it down with him, which lead him to the next song called Goodbye. Goodbye is a sad song about saying goodbye to a loved one that you will never see again even though it's all you want.
At this point, Eddie's comedic bone kicked in and he asked if he could play another said song. The song is about a women at a convenience store, the clerk asks, "what do you want?" she answers, "liquor" (lick her), to which the song ends, "I'll never work there anymore." Vedder continues the humor by playing about 40 seconds of Walk Hard from the Dewey Cox movie. He abruptly stopped siting that's all he knew. Vedder kept the mood light by going into Drifting, which is another song I haven't heard live and followed with another Penn connection, the Beatles cover of You've Got to Hide Your Love Away from I Am Sam. It was the first time I had heard this song live as well and it was amazing. He closed the first set with an acoustic version of Porch. Contrary to many of the other songs, I've heard this one live probably 15 times. It's one of those songs that no matter how many times I hear it, it's incredible. Eddie's take on it was just as fresh; however, this is one of those songs that, while it's cool to hear in this fashion, nothing beats the the entire band playing it. It did showcase Eddie's talents on guitar, but I miss the long solos that normally ensue with the band playing together. Regardless, it was a great way to leave the crowd wanting more.
After a five minute recess, Vedder came back out and played Wishlist. Followed by an awesome cover of Pete Townshend's Let My Love Open the Door. Eddie enlisted the crowd to help sing, with the guys singing one part and the gals another. The guys stepped up to the plate; however, the ladies were barely noticeable. Still it was a cool performance. Vedder jumped back to the Into the Wild album with Society, bringing out Liam Finn to play guitar as well. One of the best songs on the album and just as good live. After Liam walked off the stage, Eddie was fumbling around trying to set up the next song when someone shouted out a request for Masters of War. Eddie acknowledged the request and stated that every fucking day he thought about the words of that song. It was by far the most emotional song he sang the entire night. The raw energy coming from his voice and guitar was something that I have rarely seen. You could fully see that this song was powerful to him. After a short speech on current issues, he proceeded to a song about a war veteran that was paralyzed from the chest down in Iraq, called No More War. I applaud Eddie for not getting too political as is his normal MO, instead he urged us to all discover for ourselves the state of our Union. Vedder ended the first encore with the vocal track, Arc. Basically he sang into a machine that recorded his voice, then played it back while he laid down another layer of vocals...rinse and repeat. He walked off stage after a bow with his vocals looping through the speakers.
There was no doubt that he would be coming back for at least one more song. A few seconds after he went back stage those thoughts were confirmed when a drum kit was wheeled out. Minutes later, he returned again with Liam Finn and the woman from the opening act. He proceeded to play the only big song from Into the Wild that we hadn't heard, Hard Sun. It was a great performance of the song and the first time I had heard it live. Eddie for the first time got off the stool and was dancing around on stage like most of us are accustomed to. You could tell he was rocking on stage, although I can't help but feel the stage presence on this song to be a little contrived. He was bouncing around like he was playing Even Flow or Once, but this song just isn't that kind of a track to me. I don't think it was fake, but it felt a little weird to me. I guess the important thing though was that the song sounded great.
After that, Eddie left the stage for the final time that night to a thunderous applause after just over 2 hours of playing. With the encore breaks, he played a solid two hour show and blew through 28 songs. Overall, I'd rate this as a very good show. Yet, being more of a fan of the band in general than just it's front man, I can't say that it was better than any of the 20 some PJ shows I've seen. It was just a different experience. Having seen them as many times as I have and seeing the people they bring on stage sometimes, I was a bit disappointed that Eddie didn't have anyone else on stage with him other than Liam Finn. I was hoping that being in NY would give him the opportunity to attract a fellow artist/friend of the band to play one or two songs with him. However, since this is really my only gripe, I tend to think I am just a spoiled fan that has been to too many shows.
Tonight is the second and last show he is doing in NY. I am looking forward to this one because if there is one thing I've learned from going to 20+ PJ shows it's that they rarely play the same set list on back to back nights. Of course, he'll play most of the songs from Into the Wild again, but I expect to hear some more obscure tracks from the PJ library that they normally don't play on tour. Bottom line is, if your a Pearl Jam fan and Eddie Vedder is coming to your city, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
