Pearl Jam Gets Down and Dirty

© Candice Adams / RumBum.com

Pearl Jam as seen from a very excited ACL crowd.

For a band that supposedly had its heyday in the 90s and has been mired in legal and label disputes ever since, Pearl Jam did not miss a beat on Sunday night as the headlining and final act of Austin City Limits. The stage’s backdrop was the only indication of their newly-released album, Backspacer, since the band played classic after crowd-pleasing classic from start to finish. However, there was nothing predictable about this performance.

The show started at zero with a melodic piano overture and hit 60 in no time at all as front man, Eddie Vedder, unleashed on the crowd a highly charged "Why Go?" from their debut album, Ten. Vedder was in a full sweat by the time he vowed to end the night covered in dirt and shifted into a lower gear with "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town." According to Vedder, the audience was an endless ocean of people, and during that song, their voices formed a beautiful synchronicity that only the sound of thousands of people all singing the same tune can create. 

The show continued its high octane pitch for several songs, such as "World Wide Suicide" and "Evenflow," and then went into their extended version of "Daughter," with Vedder engaging the audience in another call-and-response sing-a-long. Vedder took a moment to acknowledge a VA hospital for burn victims and amputees about 100 miles outside of Austin and to thank some vets from the hospital for coming to the show. The first half of the set before a brief intermission ended with several high notes: "Present Tense" and "Hail Hail" off of No Code and "Go" from Vs.

After the intermission, the band brought surprise after the surprise. The first being Ben Harper sitting in on "Red Mosquito." Vedder then dedicated part of Alive to the visiting vets, but the biggest surprise was no doubt, Perry Farrell coming on stage to do "Mountain Song" with the band. They left the stage one last time to return again and finish the night with "Rockin’ in the Free World," during which Vedder leapt off stage and did a priceless, face-first slide into the mud.

That performance was not only the best show of the festival but, according to many long-time Pearl Jam fans, one of their best festival performances to date. That performance proved their music to be timeless, and that after 19 years, it can keep getting better.