Pearl Jam stage emotional tour opener at the Xcel

Pearl Jam performed at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Thursday, August 31, 2023.Tony Nelson for MPR

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September 01, 2023

Nostalgia is one hell of a drug, but it’s tough for a band to build a 30-plus-year career out of nothing but looking back. Pearl Jam have consistently pushed their sound forward in compelling directions, while delivering exhilarating live shows highlighting all phases of their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career.

Over the course of two-and-a-half hours at the sold-out Xcel Energy Center on Thursday night, Pearl Jam first got comfortable being on stage together again. This was their first show in nearly a year and the kickoff of their small U.S. tour. Then they got noisy, delivering a 24-song set filled with alt-rock anthems, deep cuts, and choice covers. Fellow Seattle alt-rock band Deep Sea Diver opened up the show.

Frontman Eddie Vedder was in a talkative, reflective mood straight from the start. He told us about the band’s rehearsals in Seattle as California was hit by Hurricane Hillary and an earthquake. At the same time, they found it hard to breathe when they left their studio space due to the wildfires burning in Canada. “What the fuck is going on with this world?” Vedder exasperatedly asked himself at the time. “Just please, get us to Minnesota” he pleaded.

And Minnesota was certainly ready to embrace the band, who haven’t played here in nine long years. The arena was in full voice all evening, whether singing along with Vedder or cheering on the band between songs. There is a communal quality to every Pearl Jam show as the crowd gets swept up in familiar songs together.

The band stayed seated for the first five songs of the night, easing their way into the show as well as their new tour. It was the first time they opened a show with “Indifference” since 1994, and it set the tone for what would be a special night in St. Paul. Slow-burning and impassioned renditions of “Sometimes” and “Wishlist” kept the relaxed vibes going. Vedder mentioned how his wife and kids recently watched Pearl Jam’s celebrated 1992 MTV Unplugged performance, and how he didn’t remember much of it. But watching clips of the performance now, he sheepishly admits that “It was pretty f**king good.”

Pearl Jam perform at Xcel Energy Center — Pearl Jam performed at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Thursday, August 31, 2023.
Tony Nelson for MPR

“In the spirit of that night, and since we haven’t seen anyone in a really long time, this one is for all of that.” An emotionally devastating version of “Black” followed, with guitarist Mike McCready kicking his chair away as he rose to deliver a blistering guitar solo that the rest of the band watched in awe. It was a deeply moving moment, and fully ignited the show.

For one of the biggest bands in the world, Pearl Jam’s stage set was minimal. There was no gaudy backdrop, no unnecessary adornments overhead. Just the band packed tight together on an all-black stage, playing under a series of simple lights that at times looked like fluorescent tubes evoking the harsh glare of a day’s detention in a John Hughes film.

A rowdy “Why Go” dismissed the seductive power of nostalgia: assertively questioning why you would ever want to return home and live in a past that you outgrew long ago. And that is something that longtime PJ fans confront – can these songs and this band bring you somewhere new after listening to them for 20-30 years? Can they get you moving forward instead of looking back? There was an appealing mix of both scenarios throughout this performance, with Vedder leading the way, openly reflecting on the band’s past, the current state of the world, and paying tribute to loved ones we’ve lost.

“This one goes out to my favorite Minnesota Twin. Not Rod Carew, not Kirby Puckett. This goes out to Justin Morneau and all the current guys,” Vedder said as he dedicated “Even Flow” to the Twins’ celebrated first baseman who was taking in the show from a luxury box. It was a ripping run through of a song that still slays, though the lyrics “Understands the weather of the winter's on its way” hits a bit different in Minnesota.

This is still a tour loosely in support of 2020’s Gigaton, PJ’s album released at the start of the global pandemic. But on this night they played more songs from their debut album, Ten, than their most recent record. The new-wave-infused lead single from Gigaton, “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” found Vedder donning a fan’s sparkling jacket which added a real Studio 54 vibe to the “I know the girls wanna dance away their circumstance” breakdown at the end.

“I’m Open” was another surprise, featuring Vedder alone in the spotlight as he shared his creative heart. But rather than exploring the experimental side of the studio version, it served more as a segue into a potent take on “Insignificance,” the band’s first time dusting off the Binaural track in seven years.

Vedder took time to affectionately pay tribute to bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard, who have “been in working bands together for how long? 39.9 years. And about two years into our working relationship, we came up with this.” A tender version of “Daughter” followed, as rows of blood red lights settled down over the stage. Vedder usually tags a song to the outro of “Daughter,” but on this night it just faded out on its own.

Vedder got emotional when talking about the devastating fires that burned so much of Maui, a place where he now has a home. “That place gave me songs. It gave me isolation. It gave me inspiration. It gave me waves. And it gave us our wonderful keyboard player, Mr. Boom Gaspar. And it was there that we wrote this song together.” A passionate take on “Love Boat Captain” followed, with Vedder putting special emphasis on his new lyrics of “Let the healing begin.”

“The first time we played here, we played First Avenue. And I know we played this one that night,” Vedder announced reflectively, before the band tore through “State of Love and Trust,” a spirited high point of a set filled with them. “Porch” closed out the main set with a forceful urgency, as the lyrical warning shot of “there ain't gonna be any middle anymore” took on added weight.

Vedder opened the encore on stage alone, wistfully reflecting on some of the musicians we’ve lost since the last time the band played here: David Bowie, Prince, Robbie Robertson, and Tom Petty, who Pearl Jam supported in two memorable shows at the X in 2006. He dedicated a stunning solo cover of Petty’s “Wildflowers” to a longtime fan whose wife recently died.

“This feels a little like First Avenue,” Vedder mused when the band turned around to serenade the filled sections of the arena behind the stage with “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town.” A full-throttle take on “Go” energized the encore, while “Crazy Mary” was a solemn, broken prayer to those lost and forgotten. The Victoria Williams cover finished with Boom’s soulful keys solo and McCready trading off riffs as he joined Gaspar on his side of the stage.

Vedder sported a Bermuda-like hat for a fiery take on “Alive” as the house lights came on, which brought the crowd closer together. What were once fitful anthems of the audience’s irate youthful years have now been transformed into unifying and celebratory songs simply because we have survived whatever life has thrown at us and made it this far together.

“We have a lot of friends in this part of the country,” Vedder said warmly after a glorious version of “Yellow Ledbetter.” “We haven’t been here in far too long, and your support means a lot to us.” Surrounded by friends, family, and fellow fans, it became clear that nostalgia wasn’t the best drug of them all, love is.

Pearl Jam