Setting Sun

Pearl Jam "Setting Sun" live with stage visuals by Rob Sheridan - Vancouver 04 May 2024 

Show-closer “Setting Sun” on opening night of ‪@pearljam‬'s "Dark Matter” world tour in Vancouver, two years ago, May 4th 2024, with my stage visuals; annotated for insights into the many different techniques and materials that were used to create this and the entire "Dark Matter" tour production.

I filmed this video clip with my phone while standing in the crowd with my wife/producer Steph Sheridan, both of us vibrating with goosebumps as the culmination of months of work played to a packed arena for the first time ever. Usually the first night of a tour with a big production is a nerve-wracking series of errors and frustrations, but this one went off without a hitch; everyone was elated.

I created the film for Setting Sun’s stage visuals as a finale to tie together the show’s abstract narrative, which traces the connective tissue of the universe from the cellular to the cosmic. The film begins with a long zoom-out of the sun rotating, which our team built in massive stunning detail using years of timelapsed NASA SDO solar observations from ‪@NASAGoddard‬.  Every detail, every solar flare that crackles up, is all from our actual sun. Fire then becomes water, and an iconic shot of ‪@EddieVedder‬'s eye (which we filmed in macro slow motion at Pearl Jam HQ in Seattle) opens the portal that brings key visual pieces from earlier in the concert full circle.

After the crown of hand-painted light and the ferrofluid starfield faded away and the band departed the stage, Steph and I went to check in with the band, delighted to find them feeling great about how it had all felt on stage. We shared a joyful toast with Ed and celebrated a rare opening night victory that made the preceding three months of hard work more than worth it. Truly a night I’ll never forget.