Pearl Jam brings its Dark Matter Tour to Kia Forum for a storied night of music
Consider this: Pearl Jam, through the first seven shows of its Dark Matter Tour, has played 83 different songs
Now, name another band that can do that, and, well, you can’t because there is no other band like Pearl Jam, as Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, and Matt Cameron showed once more on Tuesday, the first of two shows at the Kia Forum in Inglewood.
So you go to the show with a faint idea of what you might hear – “Dark Matter,” the band’s 12th studio album released last month, gets a large part of the show – but beyond that, you go with Pearl Jam’s flow.
Maybe they don’t play your favorite song – I didn’t get to hear “Corduroy” on Tuesday, but so what, I’ll live. In an age where rock and roll is often far more structured than the glorious looseness of its early days, the unknown, unexpected promise of a Pearl Jam show is a thrill in itself.
The band entered in darkness and remained in shadows, delivering almost a prologue of three quieter, older songs, “Ocean” “Come Back,” and “Off He Goes,” in a set that would get a whole lot louder as it ultimately spanned 25 songs over two-and-a-half hours.
“Why Go,” from Pearl Jam’s debut album “10,” paired nicely with the new song “Scared of Fear,” supercharged by Vedder’s passionate vocals and McCready’s frantic lead guitar.
Vedder, whose love of sports is well-known, wore a vintage-style Chicago Bears jersey, No. 34 for the legendary Walter Payton. For him, returning to the Fabulous Forum stirred memories of basketball and rock and roll alike.
“The first time I was here, we didn’t have a lot of dough, and somehow my dad came home from work and said we’re going to the Lakers game,” Vedder told the crowd at the finish of “Wreckage,” a terrific song from the new record. “I was about nine years old and I used to listen to Chick Hearn on the radio. And I believe our seats were about three rows in from the top, right over there.”
He remembered watching Laker legends such as Gail Goodrich and Lucius Allen, as well as the visiting Golden State Warriors’ Rick Barry and Clifford Ray. “But really, the only one I got to see close – the radio booth was up there, and I got to see the back of Chick Hearn’s polyester plaid jacket all night.”
Thinking about that night eventually led to this: Before the show started, Vedder asked one of the crew to find a father and son up in the rafters where he and his dad once sat and bring them down to watch the show from the pit.
That was just one of the great anecdotes he offered between songs – we really could have reviewed his stories if we wanted. The one about seeing, or trying to see, Pink Floyd perform “The Wall” at the Forum in 1981, was wildly funny. But like Eddie, I digress …
Highlights from the middle of the show included “Daughter,” off the second album “Vs,” which appropriately segued into a bit of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).” The new “Waiting For Stevie” is another strong track from “Dark Matter.”
And “Even Flow” brought everyone to their feet, singing along with Vedder and the band as the fan favorite from “10” rocked as hard as anything the band played all night.
Vedder continued to talk with the crowd, dedicating “Faithfull” to a longtime fan Michelle Castrellon, who had recently died, and spotlighting fans with signs, including the fan who brought his 83-year-old father into the pit with him, or the young woman whose sign announced this was her fifth Pearl Jam show, though the first four were “in the womb.”
After the main set wrapped up with “Rearviewmirror,” with Andrew Watt, their producer on “Dark Matter” joining on guitar, Vedder opened the encore with a solo acoustic version of “Just Breathe.”
“Something Special” started out dedicated to Vedder’s daughter Olivia and her mother – his wife Jill – before he got carried away and also dedicated it to “anybody else’s daughter who is named Olivia and anybody’s daughter who is named anything.”
It’s a sweet song, clearly written by a father for his daughter, that urges the child to be strong in life: “Do it yourself, you’re not the type to need a man,” Vedder sings at one point. “But if you find one, he better know you’re damn special.”
At a concert a few days earlier in Las Vegas, Vedder had delivered a rant about Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s comments about women needing to support their men above all else. Before “Something Special,” he cautiously went there again.
“I don’t want to get myself in trouble and say another word I’ll regret,” he said as the crowd laughed. “Maybe I’ll say this: I think in the future is there’s gonna be a woman in the NFL. And the interesting thing is she’s gonna be the kicker.”
From there, the show raced to its finish. “Leash” rocked hard, demonstrating the punk rock roots of the band. “Alive,” which is perhaps Pearl Jam’s signature song, was mighty and magnificent. A cover of the Who’s “Baba O’Riley” had the crowd all singing its “Teenage wasteland!” chorus and was dedicated to the Who’s Pete Townshend, who turned 79 on Sunday.
Then, with “Setting Sun,” the night wound down to its finish. It’s a song about a lover pleading for more time with his beloved, but it speaks well to the bond between a band like Pearl Jam and their dedicated fans.
“May our days be long until kingdom come / We can become one last setting sun,” Vedder sang in its final verses. “Let us not fade / let us not fade.”