Happy Birthday Eddie Vedder: Pearl Jam Performs ‘Vs.’ & More In Greenville 2016

Today marks Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder’s birthday. Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III on December 23, 1964 in Evanston, Illinois near Chicago. But the acclaimed singer-songwriter — ranked No. 7 on Rolling Stone’s “Best Lead Singers of All Time” list — is also associated with another city, Seattle, as a member of grunge pioneers Pearl Jam.

Vedder is also associated with another grunge band, Temple of the Dog, a supergroup of sorts fronted by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell as a tribute to Andrew Wood, the frontman of yet another pioneering grunge group, Mother Love Bone, which contained Pearl Jam members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament. Temple Of The Dog also featured guitarist Mike McCready and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron (the latter joined PJ in 1998). With Cornell as lead singer in Temple Of The Dog, Vedder was invited to sing backing vocals and caught the attention of Ament, Gossard and McCready who recruited Vedder to form a new band. Grunge roots run deep.

Pearl Jam released their debut album Ten in 1991 and followed with their sophomore effort, Vs. in 1993. Twenty-three years later on April 16, 2016 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, Pearl Jam treated the audience to a full performance of Vs. along with other PJ classics and some choice covers.

While Pearl Jam had played complete versions of their LPs No Code and Yield in 2014, the Greenville performance marked the first time the band offered Vs. in its entirety, coming after opener “Corduroy” and comprising the first half of the set. The album contains Pearl Jam staples like “Animal” and “Daughter” but the live performance also saw the band dusting off songs like “Rats” and “Leash.” The three-hour, 33 song set also saw a double encore complete with covers of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” and The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and finally came to a close with the PJ classic “Yellow Ledbetter.”

To celebrate Eddie Vedder’s birthday, watch Pearl Jam’s complete performance of Vs. and more below via the JamBase Live Video Archive (JBLVA):