Pearl Jam Honors Chris Cornell & Welcomes Guests In Seattle

On Friday night Pearl Jam continued their short U.S. Tour with the second of two shows at Safeco Field in their hometown of Seattle. The iconic grunge-era act once again dug in on their songbook delivering 36 songs over the course of the night. Their final “Home Show” featured a slew of rarities, a tribute to the late Chris Cornell as well as members of both Soundgarden and Mudhoney joining them for some punk rock covers during their two extended encores.

Eddie Vedder & Co. got the evening going at the home of the Seattle Mariners with “Oceans” from their 1991 debut Ten. While the band didn’t ignore some of their most well-known material, the band focussed a large portion of the main set to a number of deeper cut songs and rarities. The hits were represented with “Even Flow,” “Daugther,” “Do The Evolution” and “Porch.” While Pearl Jam also served up lesser played tunes from their catalog like “Footsteps,” “Brain Of J.,” “Nothingman,” “Whipping,” “Immortality” and “Unknown Thought.” The band dug even deeper serving up “Rats” and “In Hiding” both of which have been played less than a hundred times ever live. Additionally, “I’m Open” from 1996’s No Code was dusted off for the first time since May 2016 and given its 13th ever rendering in front of an audience.

Midway through their set, the band honored Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell with their live debut of “Missing.” The song originally appeared on Cornell’s 1992 five-song EP Poncier, a collection of songs that were inspired by Cliff Poncier, the fictional lead singer of Citizen Dick from Cameron Crowes’ movie Singles.

More surprises came during Pearl Jam’s two lengthy encores. Vedder kicked things off by honoring another musician we lost last year with a solo rendition of Tom Petty & The Heartbreak’s classic “I Won’t Back Down.” From there the multi-piece band dipped back into the rarities for takes on “Thin Air” from Binaural and “All Or None” off of Riot Act. After a crowd-pleasing take on “Better Man,” they reached for a cover “Crown Of Thorns,” playing the Mother Love Bone tune for the first time in over two years.

Pearl Jam continued to celebrate the local early-90s scene that they emerged from by inviting out Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil to join them for a take on The MC5’s signature tune “Kick Out The Jams.” Vedder then dedicated “Spin The Black Circle” to another important local institution Sub Pop Records, who are celebrating their 30th anniversary today with a special all-day festival. “Rearview Mirror” closed out their first encore.

Victoria Williams’ “Crazy Mary” got the band’s second extended encore going with “Jeremy” and “Leash” following. Thayil then rejoined the band on stage along with Mudhoney’s Steve Turner and Mark Arm. The ad-hoc ensemble first tackled Iggy & The Stooges’ “Search & Destroy.” Pearl Jam had last covered the track from Raw Power all the back in 2011 when they played it a total of five times, all of which featured members of Mudhoney. The stage remained full as they tackled another punk song, this time serving up the Dead Boys'”Sonic Reducer” from Young Loud and Snotty. The night wasn’t done there as Pearl Jam closed things out on their own with “Alive,” The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and “Yellow Ledbetter.”

Pearl Jam kicks off the “Away Show” portion of their tour on Monday night at Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Montana. Watch fan-shot video captured by mfc172 below:

[Missing]

[I Won’t Back Down]

[Crown Of Thorns]

[Kick Out The Jams]

[Search & Destroy]

[Sonic Reducer]