Article - Montreal Gazette - Montreal 8/9/08 Review

Arts & Life
Eddie Vedder sticks to the back roads, but it isn't a bumpy ride; Daring set filled with rarities and covers
JORDAN ZIVITZ
The gazette

10 August 2008
Montreal Gazette
Final
A16 / BREAK

About 30 minutes into his solo show at Place des Arts's Salle Wilfrid Pelletier last night, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder sang a lyric that summed up the evening's adventurous spirit: "I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me."

It would have been easy - and expected - for Vedder to play broken-down one-man versions of Pearl Jam's most popular mid-tempo numbers. Instead, the night was dominated by rarities, underrated album cuts and unpredictable covers. It could have been self-indulgent, but instead felt like Vedder's vote of confidence in his lesser-known material, his own record collection and his audience's support.

The latter was there in spades from the standing ovation that greeted Vedder. One suspects the fans would have been content to stay on their feet if it hadn't been for the host's hospitality: "We're in a palace - a palace with velvet seats. Free free to use them."

The first two numbers - covers of Daniel Johnston's Walking the Cow and Cat Stevens's Trouble - prepared the audience to be unprepared. It helped that Vedder's burnished baritone is such an identifiable instrument, providing an entry point to the unfamiliar. Fortunately, Salle Wilfrid Pelletier's notoriously unreliable acoustics didn't tarnish the warmth and power of that voice.

Vedder kept order while staying in good humour, putting a loose lid on the "Eddie!" cries early on: "Thanks. I know what my name is now." The first Pearl Jam songs of the set - Sometimes and a rousing I Am Mine - gave diehards the opportunity to pledge their love without annoying their neighbours or the guy on stage.

Setting Forth ushered in a five-pack from Vedder's soundtrack to Into the Wild (2007). The decision to bundle the brief numbers together was a wise one. Taken on their own, these were more vignettes than fully formed songs; taken as a unit, they were a moving suite that spoke of Vedder's preoccupations with independence and quests of the soul. While Guaranteed was somewhat rushed, Far Behind was almost feral and Rise was an intimate gem.

James Taylor's Millworker was introduced as "an American story," but it was really a people's story; the guitar-punishing climax sounded like the triumph of the working class. It was a unifying moment, like most of what Vedder played. That certainly held true for the sing-along in You've Got to Hide Your Love Away and the chirp-along in Blackbird.

The main set closed with Vedder ingeniously deconstructing the early-career thrasher Porch into an acoustic shuffle, leading one to wonder how many Pearl Jam songs he couldn't play solo.

I don't know the answer - deadline called just as the encores began, with iconoclastic support act Liam Finn joining the headliner for Society. But from the first notes of the night, Vedder proved the value of walking paths less travelled. We were lucky to have an intrepid guide, and he was lucky to have an audience willing to follow him anywhere.