Article - The Hartford Courant (KRTBN) - Pearl Jam Finds It Just Right

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edited May 2006 in Given To Fly (live)
Pearl Jam Finds It Just Right
By Eric R. Danton, The Hartford Courant, Conn.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

15 May 2006
The Hartford Courant (KRTBN)

May 15--Toward the end of Pearl Jam's first Hartford performance in eight years Saturday, singer Eddie Vedder addressed the long absence with an allusion to "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."

"We've been here before. There was tear gas and cops and all kinds of stuff," he said at the start of the band's first encore, as the crowd booed the memory of turmoil that enveloped shows in 1996 and 1998.

One of those times, he said, the band had to pay local neighborhoods so it could play later than normal. (The promoter, Jim Koplik, said Sunday that he didn't recall the band having to pay, because the venue has no curfew.)

"This turned out to be the last bowl of porridge," Vedder said of the mostly rain-free show at the Dodge Music Center. "This one turned out just right."

Indeed, Pearl Jam played for close to 21/2 hours for a large audience that thrilled to the older songs while seeming to welcome new ones from the band's recent self-titled album.

Although Vedder's vocals were hard to hear at first, the crowd was able to fill in on some songs. In fact, Vedder didn't sing at all on the first part of "Better Man" - he just played guitar, alone, as fans bellowed out the words, before the band kicked in.

Pearl Jam started the show with a series of new songs, including the fiery single "World Wide Suicide" and "Marker in the Sand," which sounded gutsier live as it shifted between a snarling riff and a sweet, melodic chorus backed by subtle organ licks.

Even 15 years after its 1991 debut, Pearl Jam remains one of the touchstones of the '90s alt-rock movement, symbolizing all its promise and shortcomings. The promise was obvious on "Even Flow," a grunge anthem powered by taut thrumming bass and Vedder's rapid-fire vocals. The flipside was more apparent on "Black," a moody song packed with the existential angst that has always seemed to anger critics of the band (and grunge). Those people weren't around Saturday - much of the crowd sang along as if Vedder's lyrics were some sort of lifeline to cling to. And maybe they were.

The band saved a couple of its biggest songs - "Alive" and the bluesy "Yellow Ledbetter" for the second encore, which also included a cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World."

Kentucky band My Morning Jacket opened the show with a 40-plus minute set of sprawling rock 'n' roll tunes textured by organ, roaring guitars and singer Jim James' echo-chamber vocals. The band meandered coolly through the laid back "Wordless Chorus" - which features exactly that - and tore through a blazing version of "Anytime" with ferocious energy.
Up here so high I start to shake, Up here so high the sky I scrape, I've no fear but for falling down, So look out below I am falling now, Falling down,...not staying down, Could’ve held me up, rather tear me down, Drown in the river
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