Pearl Jam at Wrigley Field review: Nostalgia pervades a solid evening of music

It was another big “W” for Pearl Jam Thursday night as the veteran rockers, on a North American leg of their Dark Matter World Tour, brought their A game to Wrigley Field.

As the latest band to be officially initiated into the ballpark’s "four-timers club" (with previous tour stops here in 2013, 2016 and 2018) the Pearl Jam concert experience never gets old. Merch hunters were still snaking around the block at 5 a.m. for first dibs on exclusive collectibles. Fans continued to come from around the world, proudly waving flags from Brazil and Mexico. People clamored to get to the front row of the Ten Club pit with handmade posters begging for the band’s attention (it worked for one fan, who was brought up on stage to sing “Won’t Tell”).

Even for Eddie Vedder, his sentimentality for the Friendly Confines gigs has only grown stronger.

“I know other musicians, you know we talk. They all say Wrigley Field is one of their favorite places on the planet to play,” shared the frontman and Evanston native, clearly in full agreement, as he reminisced about the transition of watching Cubs games in black-and-white on WGN to becoming the center of attention in the outfield. “I’ve been choked up, it’s hard to sing tonight.”

Other than flubbing a few lyrics on early number “Of The Girl” (blamed on his “out of body experience” taking in the momentousness), Vedder did just fine singing over the course of two-and-a-half hours in an engrossing, career-spanning set. Always a uniquely curated affair, this night sprinkled in Pearl Jam’s “Ten”-era gems, their “Singles” soundtrack staple “State of Love and Trust” and even some covers of Tom Petty and Neil Young, along with the latest existential pinings heard on new album “Dark Matter.”

Released in April, the record is some of the strongest material from the band in years, recalling the angsty days of yore that helped define a generation while weaving in those deep winding compositions that have defined the band in the new millennium. Songs like the defiant “Scared of Fear” and the haunting album closer “Setting Sun” (in which Vedder pleads “am I the only one hanging on? … let us not fade”) are evidence of a band looking at the state of everything and finding hope in new ways forward.

Those numbers were some of the strongest of the night, especially coupled with provocative graphics from visionary Rob Sheridan. Normally a cog in the Nine Inch Nails visuals machine wheel, Sheridan assembled a similar diaspora of moody backsplashes for Pearl Jam’s world tour, from Kubrickian cosmos to Nat Geo-style nature reels and flashes of purples and reds that added to the heady vibe of the night.

Vedder, who’s been wearing a symbolic Walter Payton "34" jersey throughout the tour, remarked on 34 years of Pearl Jam and gave heartfelt mini-speeches about each member in the band, from the “master of the Stratocaster” Mike McCready to “one of the greatest drummers that ever lived” Matt Cameron (“if you were in Wriglevyille in 1987 at the Cubby Bear maybe you saw him for the first time in a group he’s still in called Soundgarden,” Vedder shared). Along with loving tributes to guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament (who even brought out an upright for “Even Flow”), the camaraderie of the quintet remains ever palpable and still produces some of the greatest instrumental fury you’ll see on a stage. All, of course, with the support from keyboardist Boom Gaspar and utility man Josh Klinghoffer. Not only is Pearl Jam one of the last surviving heroes of the Seattle grunge mythology, they are also continually perpetuating their own folklore as a band that has to be witnessed live.

When Vedder wasn’t belting out his own impassioned takes on tracks like the communally cathartic “Release,” he was also telling scores of stories that brought the audience further into the inner sanctum. Introducing “Waiting For Stevie,” a song about literally waiting for Stevie Wonder to enter the studio for a session, the frontman recalled the summer of ’72 when he was living in Evanston and his older foster brothers would pull out the record player for back-porch sessions, where they’d listen to Wonder and Sly and the Family Stone and James Brown all night long “as it echoed off the brick buildings.”

He dedicated “Just Breathe” to his friends from Wilmette celebrating a wedding anniversary, and reflected on a pair of late, great friends, including talk show host Phil Donahue and the venerable Tom Petty (with a nod to Howard Zinn, too). Before covering “I Won’t Back Down” solo on electric guitar, an emotional Vedder shared a call he received from Petty when he played Wrigley Field.

“[Tom] said, ‘I wish you were here,’ and now all these years later me it’s me wishing he was here.”

The night's ever-exceptional opener Glen Hansard also offered his own reverent nod to Steve Albini during his set earlier in the evening. The Irishman (and Earthlings guitarist) later joined the headliners on stage in an all-out blowout cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” for one epic sendoff.

“We’ve played Wrigley three times before and who knows how many times in the future,” Vedder quipped. “Whatever happens, we are so grateful.”

Pearl Jam returns to Wrigley Field on Saturday night for their second scheduled concert.

SET LIST

Release

Of The Girl

Elderly Woman Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town

Off He Goes

Immortality

Given To Fly

Why Go

Scared Of Fear

Waiting For Stevie

Wreckage

Daughter

Down

Even Flow

U

Dark Matter

Black

Do The Evolution

Porch

Encore

Just Breathe

I Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty cover)

State Of Love And Trust

Won’t Tell

Corduroy

Setting Sun

Alive

Rockin’ in the Free World (Neil Young cover)