Pearl Jam’s Dark Matter Tour Lights Up The Forum With Loads Of Tour Debuts

“The Fabulous Forum” — a moniker given to this venue by legendary broadcaster Chick Hearn and made famous by the “Showtime” Lakers with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar — was the site of the latest stop on Pearl Jam‘s Dark Matter World Tour.

A handful of songs into their set, frontman Eddie Vedder told a story about how his dad took him to a Lakers game as a kid and even though they didn’t have great seats, it was a memory that he held fondly growing up.

Before the show, someone in the band’s crew found a father and son sitting in a similar section that Eddie and his father were in and upgraded them to floor seats. Eddie found them in the crowd and tossed them a Pearl Jam basketball adorned in Lakers colors.

On this night, the band was definitely on their game and the energy in the room went back and forth, much like a closely contested basketball game. Vedder and his bandmates opened with a trio of tour debuts, “Oceans,” “Come Back” and “Off He Goes.” The opening sequence of songs, while a little more subdued, seemed to ease in both the audience and band before kicking into the powerhouse that is “Why Go.”

Jeff Ament‘s bass rumbling through this song rattled the walls, while Matt Cameron‘s precision drumming kept the locomotive of sound rolling along all night. It was during this song that the band’s energy matched the frenetic pace of the music while their shadows danced around behind them on the oversized projector screen. Rob Sheridan, of Nine Inch Nails fame, was brought on to create the visuals that are being used on this tour and they are a great accompaniment to the songs.

The next three songs of the set, “Scared of Fear,” “React, Respond” and “Wreckage” are off of their recently released, Dark Matter, and also happen to be the first three tracks on the album. The trio of new songs were well received by fans in the live setting. Guitarist Stone Gossard shined brightly on the new songs and was solid all night.

Next came additional tour debuts, “Got Some” and “In My Tree,” with “Dark Matter” and “Daughter” sandwiched in between. During “Daughter” the band has been known to break into a little portion of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall” and they did so on this night. Guitarist Mike McCready does such a fantastic job nailing the David Gilmour parts.

Other songs on the setlist like “Even Flow,” “Rearviewmirror” (with Andrew Watt), “State of Love And Trust” and “Alive” are all heavy hitters for the band and still have the same enthusiastic energetic feel to them like the first time being heard. The night wrapped with The Who‘s “Baba O’Riley” and “Setting Sun,” a track that has been closing out most shows on this tour. The show featured nine tour debuts, the most since their concert in Vancouver.

Pearl Jam is a can’t miss band and with shows nearing the three hour mark on a nightly basis, you get your money’s worth with these Seattle legends. Don’t miss them when this tour comes through your town.

Photos by Steve Rose