Live review - Eddie Vedder, Brisbane 2011
arq
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Live review - Eddie Vedder, Brisbane 2011
by AndrewMcMillen on Mar 11 2011, 01:15PM
Eddie Vedder
QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane
Thursday 10 March 2011
Several times tonight, Eddie Vedder makes mistakes while playing guitar; big, crucial mistakes that cause him to lose concentration and stop the song. Each time, he handles these disruptions with grace and self-deprecating humour. He jokes about how the left and right sides of his brain are blaming each other, and how he’s the parent in between, telling them to calm down. To which they spitefully respond, “You’re the one who raised us.”
The crowd titters at such comments; they're smitten from the moment he reveals himself. Most of those gathered, of course, were smitten over 20 years ago, when the band that Vedder fronts became a household name as a result of their mammoth debut album, Ten. Yet solo dates have been few and far between for the Pearl Jam singer. In his own words, tonight’s show is the first time he’s played “outside of the continental United States”. Though his voice and lyricism are key factors in his band’s success, the absence of that group's musical firepower could easily rob the solo performer of much of these songs’ potency. There’s a tangible sense of tension, mixed with curiosity and optimism. Yet any potential for disappointment dissolves as soon as he plugs in a cream Stratocaster and stomps his left boot to the rhythm.
With only one album under his own name – the soundtrack to the 2007 film, Into The Wild – and a handful of scattered solo compositions, there’s little doubt that tonight’s setlist will rely heavily upon Pearl Jam material. No question that many in the audience are present to hear those songs alone; every sliver of silence is peppered with shouted requests. Rude, but unavoidable when your back catalogue is as deep as his, as influential and as widely-loved. And so Vedder ignores idiotically improbable calls for ‘Spin The Black Circle’ and ‘In My Tree’ in favour of songs more suited to his solo set-up. ‘Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town’ offers the set’s most beautiful moment, around 45 minutes in, when the house lights are brought up for the first time as Vedder sings, “I just want to scream, ‘Hello!"; instantly transforming the energy in the room from relatively sedate to ebullient, where it stays for the remainder.
He takes a short break around the hour mark, and then returns with a singer from the support act, an intriguing female bass-and-guitar duo named Evil J & Saint Cecilia. They work through a killer cover of ‘The Golden State’, a song by John Doe, singer of the punk band X. Vedder then takes on Springsteen’s ‘State Trooper’ and comes up trumps. He also completely reworks his own tune, ‘Betterman’, by finger-picking the guitar part and shifting the rhythm of his lyrics to the point where the audience can hardly sing along - an interesting decision, one which effectively sees the singer reclaim one of his most-loved songs for himself. It’s cool. Evil J returns later with her offsider for ‘Hard Sun’, from Into The Wild. It’s the only song tonight to rely on a backing track, and it works brilliantly: the room is singing along to an extended version of the chorus, and Vedder is wailing away on his Strat. But then he abruptly waves goodbye at song’s end, and never returns. The house lights are raised and stagehands start to break down his set, but there’s confusion enough that we all stand around for 10 minutes, cheering and expecting one final goodbye. It doesn't come.
Though Vedder’s performance – nearly two hours long, and featuring nearly two dozen songs – is thoroughly entertaining, there is a very dark moment embedded toward the end; curiously, right after ‘Betterman’, a track whose narrative shifts from depressed to optimistic across three minutes. Here's the moment transcribed below in its entirety.
[Vedder finishes playing ‘Betterman’. Crowd cheers. A few moments later, a woman yells from the back of the room, “That was beautiful, Eddie!” Crowd cheers again.]
Vedder: Thank you very much. First night of a new tour – that’s exactly the kind of support you appreciate.
[Crowd laughs and cheers.]
Vedder: There was a, um… the first tour our group ever went on was with another band. It all seemed… I mean, it’s still new and exciting, but you have to work at ways to make it new and exciting. It was just a trip. It was just mind-blowing, starting out. I’d never actually been, like, in a band, and on tour. I’d played little shows here and there. But this was, like, the real thing. There was another band that we were with, and they had records out, and I was kind of looking at them to see how to behave. It was pretty intense. There was a guy in that group – the group was Alice In Chains, that we toured with.
[Crowd cheers.]
Vedder: The guy who played bass in that band, his name was Mike Starr. Our orbits changed a long, long time ago. We hadn’t seen him for years. He’d been going through a rough time for quite some time. Uh, yeah. I don’t know if you heard, but he’s no longer with us, as of yesterday. I’ve just been thinking about him. A lot. I don’t know what anybody could have done. It’s just really sad when life, and living life, and all that the planet and the people on it have to offer; and all that you can offer it, and them. It’s too bad when sobriety’s just not enough to keep you alive.
[Crowd applauds. Vedder begins playing ‘The Needle And The Damage Done’ by Neil Young. It's heartbreaking.]
by AndrewMcMillen on Mar 11 2011, 01:15PM
Eddie Vedder
QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane
Thursday 10 March 2011
Several times tonight, Eddie Vedder makes mistakes while playing guitar; big, crucial mistakes that cause him to lose concentration and stop the song. Each time, he handles these disruptions with grace and self-deprecating humour. He jokes about how the left and right sides of his brain are blaming each other, and how he’s the parent in between, telling them to calm down. To which they spitefully respond, “You’re the one who raised us.”
The crowd titters at such comments; they're smitten from the moment he reveals himself. Most of those gathered, of course, were smitten over 20 years ago, when the band that Vedder fronts became a household name as a result of their mammoth debut album, Ten. Yet solo dates have been few and far between for the Pearl Jam singer. In his own words, tonight’s show is the first time he’s played “outside of the continental United States”. Though his voice and lyricism are key factors in his band’s success, the absence of that group's musical firepower could easily rob the solo performer of much of these songs’ potency. There’s a tangible sense of tension, mixed with curiosity and optimism. Yet any potential for disappointment dissolves as soon as he plugs in a cream Stratocaster and stomps his left boot to the rhythm.
With only one album under his own name – the soundtrack to the 2007 film, Into The Wild – and a handful of scattered solo compositions, there’s little doubt that tonight’s setlist will rely heavily upon Pearl Jam material. No question that many in the audience are present to hear those songs alone; every sliver of silence is peppered with shouted requests. Rude, but unavoidable when your back catalogue is as deep as his, as influential and as widely-loved. And so Vedder ignores idiotically improbable calls for ‘Spin The Black Circle’ and ‘In My Tree’ in favour of songs more suited to his solo set-up. ‘Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town’ offers the set’s most beautiful moment, around 45 minutes in, when the house lights are brought up for the first time as Vedder sings, “I just want to scream, ‘Hello!"; instantly transforming the energy in the room from relatively sedate to ebullient, where it stays for the remainder.
He takes a short break around the hour mark, and then returns with a singer from the support act, an intriguing female bass-and-guitar duo named Evil J & Saint Cecilia. They work through a killer cover of ‘The Golden State’, a song by John Doe, singer of the punk band X. Vedder then takes on Springsteen’s ‘State Trooper’ and comes up trumps. He also completely reworks his own tune, ‘Betterman’, by finger-picking the guitar part and shifting the rhythm of his lyrics to the point where the audience can hardly sing along - an interesting decision, one which effectively sees the singer reclaim one of his most-loved songs for himself. It’s cool. Evil J returns later with her offsider for ‘Hard Sun’, from Into The Wild. It’s the only song tonight to rely on a backing track, and it works brilliantly: the room is singing along to an extended version of the chorus, and Vedder is wailing away on his Strat. But then he abruptly waves goodbye at song’s end, and never returns. The house lights are raised and stagehands start to break down his set, but there’s confusion enough that we all stand around for 10 minutes, cheering and expecting one final goodbye. It doesn't come.
Though Vedder’s performance – nearly two hours long, and featuring nearly two dozen songs – is thoroughly entertaining, there is a very dark moment embedded toward the end; curiously, right after ‘Betterman’, a track whose narrative shifts from depressed to optimistic across three minutes. Here's the moment transcribed below in its entirety.
[Vedder finishes playing ‘Betterman’. Crowd cheers. A few moments later, a woman yells from the back of the room, “That was beautiful, Eddie!” Crowd cheers again.]
Vedder: Thank you very much. First night of a new tour – that’s exactly the kind of support you appreciate.
[Crowd laughs and cheers.]
Vedder: There was a, um… the first tour our group ever went on was with another band. It all seemed… I mean, it’s still new and exciting, but you have to work at ways to make it new and exciting. It was just a trip. It was just mind-blowing, starting out. I’d never actually been, like, in a band, and on tour. I’d played little shows here and there. But this was, like, the real thing. There was another band that we were with, and they had records out, and I was kind of looking at them to see how to behave. It was pretty intense. There was a guy in that group – the group was Alice In Chains, that we toured with.
[Crowd cheers.]
Vedder: The guy who played bass in that band, his name was Mike Starr. Our orbits changed a long, long time ago. We hadn’t seen him for years. He’d been going through a rough time for quite some time. Uh, yeah. I don’t know if you heard, but he’s no longer with us, as of yesterday. I’ve just been thinking about him. A lot. I don’t know what anybody could have done. It’s just really sad when life, and living life, and all that the planet and the people on it have to offer; and all that you can offer it, and them. It’s too bad when sobriety’s just not enough to keep you alive.
[Crowd applauds. Vedder begins playing ‘The Needle And The Damage Done’ by Neil Young. It's heartbreaking.]
"The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it"
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Why not (V) (°,,,,°) (V) ?
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Why not (V) (°,,,,°) (V) ?
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Brought a tear to the eye but that's why we love these guys. Peace!
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
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I thought i would be fine around here because is not a review made by any of us (as far as i know) but a review from an external source.
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Why not (V) (°,,,,°) (V) ?
Good read. Thanks for posting, Arq.
No problem.
8/15/92, 9/28/96, 8/28/98, 8/29/98, 9/18/98, 8/3/00, 8/9/00, 8/10/00, 8/23/00, 8/25/00, 9/1/00, 9/2/00, 4/28/03, 6/18/03, 7/5/03, 7/6/03, 10/1/04, 10/3/05, 6/19/08, 10/27/09, 10/31/09, 5/21/10, 9/3/11, 9/4/11, 10/21/13
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