Can't Find a Vedder Man

It's been a quiet year for Pearl Jam. Apart from a brief excursion into the United States (which featured a stunning, career-defining performance at Bonnaroo), the band's been spending most of 2008 recording the follow-up to its 2006 release, variously known as Pearl Jam, self-titled, or Avocado (on account of its unusual cover art). The waiting (to quote one of the band's better-known songs) is driving Pearl Jam's legions of fans mad; bless Eddie Vedder, then, for using the hiatus as an excuse for his first real solo tour, which touched down at Massey Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday. We've seen Pearl Jam an embarrassing number of times, yet Wednesday night's concert revealed dimensions of our favourite singer that tend to get ignored. Namely, Vedder is a talented guitar player, an underrated songwriter and—this last point will be especially shocking if your image of Vedder was hewed in the early 90s—hysterically funny.

Ever since 1998, when Pearl Jam laid down its arms and surrendered to Ticketmaster, Eddie Vedder has seemingly grown into the role of a rock 'n' roll superstar. Yet he's also stayed refreshingly down-to-earth, which goes a long way to explaining his considerable appeal. On Wednesday, instead of leaning on Pearl Jam's bigger hits ("Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town," from Vs., being the one exception), he instead filled his set list with his band’s lesser-known songs, his own catalogue of solo music (last year's acclaimed Into the Wild soundtrack was Vedder's doing) and covers—lots and lots of covers. Vedder and his bandmates are noted Neil Young fanboys; given the venue, Vedder was name-checking his idol from the off, and covers of "Long May You Run," "Helpless," "Old Man," and "Rockin' in the Free World" underscored his devotion to "Uncle Neil."

Eddie Vedder remains the focal point of Pearl Jam's five-pronged attack, even though he occasionally wrestles with Mike McCready or Matt Cameron for the honour. Still, when he's standing in front of 20,000 people, it's hard to appreciate some of his talents. Like his guitar playing, for instance. In Pearl Jam, McCready and Stone Gossard do most of the heavy lifting; on Wednesday, however, Vedder more than held his own and demonstrated an impressive ability to strum the living hell out of his instrument. His sense of humour, something that Eddie Vedder c1992 would've been loathe to let shine through, was prominently featured; Vedder still hasn't met a soapbox he couldn't climb, but he's learning how to supplement his political banter with wicked one-liners. Highlights, meanwhile, were plentiful. The show-closing version of "Hard Sun," with opener Liam Finn on drums and with Eliza-Jane Barnes assuming Corin Tucker's backup vocalist responsibilities, was stunning—but for us, the real show-stopper was Vedder's searing take on "Masters of War" by Bob Dylan, which made his and McCready's famous version from the 1992 Dylan tribute concert seem positively genteel by comparison.

Pearl Jam is noted for, among other things, its ability to make big, impersonal arenas seem intimate. On Wednesday, Vedder made Massey Hall—which seats 2,800 people—feel like his living room. He demonstrated a side of himself we seldom get to see, but that we hope will get more exposure when he isn't doing his regular day job.

Photo by Michael Vinh.