Seattle Times article: Vedder in Vancouver
MarvelousMan
Posts: 55
Since I was one of many unlucky ones to see Ed kick off the tour. I've had to live vicariously through others to imagine what the show was like. Saw the following article in today's Seattle Times. Pretty cool.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2004324882_zmus03vedder.html
Eddie Vedder quickly gets comfortable on solo tour opener in Vancouver
By Nicole Brodeur
Seattle Times staff columnist
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Not long ago, director Sean Penn and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder sat on a Seattle floor, shared an ashtray and watched Penn's just-finished film, "Into the Wild."
Vedder took a few notes, they drank a few beers, and Penn left "hopeful that a bolt of lightning had hit," and that Vedder would compose and perform the film's soundtrack.
Not long after, Penn and his film editor started receiving music from Vedder "like kids on Christmas morning," Penn writes in the liner notes to the soundtrack.
" ... This collection of songs is freedom as we need it most today," he writes, "speaking to youth and hunger and freedom, and most important, love."
There was nothing but that at the Centre for Performing Arts Wednesday night, when Vedder kicked off a two-week solo tour to support the soundtrack that Penn calls "the ideal road tape." (The tour moves to California, ending in San Diego April 15.)
But it was more than that; it was Vedder, on stage, on tour, alone, for the first time in 17 years.
It took Vedder three songs ("Walking the Cow," "Around the Bend" and "I Am Mine") to shake off the anxiety, look up at the crowd, smile and ask for some kind of mercy.
"Something about the first time you do something," he said. "You always remember it. Even when it's bad, you remember it."
He revealed that under his flannel shirt and Boy Scout jersey he was wearing the T-shirt he wore the first time he ever played with Pearl Jam.
"Since tonight is special, I thought ... "
And it was. People in the seats looked at each other and smiled. They professed their love and called out requests. ("Duly noted," Vedder said.) Though Vedder has stood before stadium crowds around the world, it was a lot for him to be up there alone. The intimacy of the venue, the sparse stage. He kept close his trusty suitcase and introduced the crowd to his ukuleles, "which have really become friends," he said. "Better than friends. Even though the conversations can be one-sided, they can help you through some stuff."
He wrapped himself in the songs that are his own — "movie songs" such as "Dead Man Walking," and "Man of the Hour"; four songs from "Into the Wild"; "Goodbye," from the 2004's 16mm surfing short, "A Brokedown Melody"; and "No More" from the documentary "Body of War."
He played gems like "Broken-Hearted" and "You're True."
And he played some favorite, familiar covers: James Taylor's "Millworker," Tom Wait's "Picture in a Frame," Cat Stevens' "Trouble"; Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" and Neil Young's "Forever Young," as well as Bruce Springsteen's "Growing Up."
And, just to scratch that itch, he played the classic "Porch." He hardly had to sing.
Opener Liam Finn came out to help close the show, accompanying Vedder on "Society" and "Hard Sun," which got some backing from a reel-to-reel tape, and some moodiness from dry ice. But by then, Vedder couldn't have been warmer.
"I never would have thought that after all these years ... ," he said, then paused. "Thanks for being here for a different kind of conversation."
Nicole Brodeur: 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2004324882_zmus03vedder.html
Eddie Vedder quickly gets comfortable on solo tour opener in Vancouver
By Nicole Brodeur
Seattle Times staff columnist
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Not long ago, director Sean Penn and Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder sat on a Seattle floor, shared an ashtray and watched Penn's just-finished film, "Into the Wild."
Vedder took a few notes, they drank a few beers, and Penn left "hopeful that a bolt of lightning had hit," and that Vedder would compose and perform the film's soundtrack.
Not long after, Penn and his film editor started receiving music from Vedder "like kids on Christmas morning," Penn writes in the liner notes to the soundtrack.
" ... This collection of songs is freedom as we need it most today," he writes, "speaking to youth and hunger and freedom, and most important, love."
There was nothing but that at the Centre for Performing Arts Wednesday night, when Vedder kicked off a two-week solo tour to support the soundtrack that Penn calls "the ideal road tape." (The tour moves to California, ending in San Diego April 15.)
But it was more than that; it was Vedder, on stage, on tour, alone, for the first time in 17 years.
It took Vedder three songs ("Walking the Cow," "Around the Bend" and "I Am Mine") to shake off the anxiety, look up at the crowd, smile and ask for some kind of mercy.
"Something about the first time you do something," he said. "You always remember it. Even when it's bad, you remember it."
He revealed that under his flannel shirt and Boy Scout jersey he was wearing the T-shirt he wore the first time he ever played with Pearl Jam.
"Since tonight is special, I thought ... "
And it was. People in the seats looked at each other and smiled. They professed their love and called out requests. ("Duly noted," Vedder said.) Though Vedder has stood before stadium crowds around the world, it was a lot for him to be up there alone. The intimacy of the venue, the sparse stage. He kept close his trusty suitcase and introduced the crowd to his ukuleles, "which have really become friends," he said. "Better than friends. Even though the conversations can be one-sided, they can help you through some stuff."
He wrapped himself in the songs that are his own — "movie songs" such as "Dead Man Walking," and "Man of the Hour"; four songs from "Into the Wild"; "Goodbye," from the 2004's 16mm surfing short, "A Brokedown Melody"; and "No More" from the documentary "Body of War."
He played gems like "Broken-Hearted" and "You're True."
And he played some favorite, familiar covers: James Taylor's "Millworker," Tom Wait's "Picture in a Frame," Cat Stevens' "Trouble"; Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" and Neil Young's "Forever Young," as well as Bruce Springsteen's "Growing Up."
And, just to scratch that itch, he played the classic "Porch." He hardly had to sing.
Opener Liam Finn came out to help close the show, accompanying Vedder on "Society" and "Hard Sun," which got some backing from a reel-to-reel tape, and some moodiness from dry ice. But by then, Vedder couldn't have been warmer.
"I never would have thought that after all these years ... ," he said, then paused. "Thanks for being here for a different kind of conversation."
Nicole Brodeur: 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com
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Comments
thanks for posting.
Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
This must have been "something"..
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