Every year the time has come: Pearl Jam, the Grateful Dead of grunge, come on a European tour more reliably than any other rock band of their generation – and their fans, including quite a few over 40 men in cargo in the Berlin S-Bahn in the afternoon -Shorts and band shirts, make a pilgrimage to them. This time there are four years between the previous and most recent visit to Germany, two years longer than planned due to the corona pandemic. A misfortune that singer and front charismatic Eddie Vedder addressed rather vaguely at the end of the regular set: In the spring of 2020, Pearl Jam would have thought that the tour for their then new album GIGATON would only be postponed by a few weeks or months, he says then to speak in a half-sentence of “fucking German politicians”. In the next sentence he turns around, a lot of people bought tickets back then, and here is one of their fans who has since done everything to make it to the catch-up date this year: A wheelchair user named Roland is pushed onto the stage to applause , Pearl Jam intoning their whipping breaker “Porch”, Roland and his companions are pushed off the stage again, and four minutes later Pearl Jam also leave the stage for a few moments – they don’t have much time left, as everyone present will notice.
The fact that the show was not completely sold out on this wonderful June evening, the official beginning of summer, is a novelty for Pearl Jam. For many years they maintained the status that tickets for their tours sold out faster than, for example, Die Ärzte when they went on a Berlin club tour. The concert in the Waldbühne was the same at first – presumably due to limited capacity due to Corona requirements. A few days earlier, “for production reasons”, more tickets were put on sale, and so it happened that fans who wanted to get rid of remaining tickets online or on site at short notice were left with dumping prices. A picture that unfortunately fits into the current live scheme of the meager audience numbers: the expected “back to live” wave does not materialize even with the most legendary rock bands on a grand scale. At least that didn’t detract from the atmosphere in the Waldbühne and the fans who came from all over the world in the best “Ten Club” fan club tradition.
Pearl Jam, it has to be said, are literally the last great survivors of Seattle’s legendary grunge era. Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain died in 1994. Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley in 2002. Stone Temple Pilots’ Scott Weiland in 2015. Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell in 2017. And this year, Mark Lanegan of the Screaming Trees left far too early. This presumably only works with a stable private and professional environment, discipline, work ethic, mindfulness – and, completely flat and unpathetic, keen on music. And Pearl Jam has obviously always had that: They are famous and notorious for not creating a set list like the previous one in their 32-year live career – and each of them is pleasantly long. Every night is good for surprises, b-sides, covers, fan favorites, rarities, you name it. There were a few of those on Tuesday evening, after Pearl Jam came on stage at 8 p.m. an hour after the opening act White Reaper had finished and opened loudly with “Why Go”, “Hail Hail” and “Deep”: “Low Light” and “MFC” by YIELD (1998), for example, the ballad “Nothingman”while Vedder asked the only crowd surfer not to do this, it was a romantic song and there were women and children in the front rows, or the first encore “Footsteps”.
Inspiration vs. disappointment: 10 p.m. is curfew, Pearl Jam aren’t coming back today, at least
After that, however, everything happened very quickly: “Street Fighting Man” by the Stones, the live classic “Yellow Ledbetter”, which actually lasted at least five minutes – and its stalling after one minute and 37 seconds, in order to quickly find their biggest mainstream hit “Alive”. rock down After that, at 10:00 p.m. sharp, it’s suddenly the end of the day. Farewell, bowing, applause – and after a few minutes of dwindling hope, Pearl Jam will return as usual for at least one more block of encores: dismantling. Inspiration vs. Disappointment. Of course, with a discography of eleven studio albums, there will always be songs that fans would not want to see performed live. Today, in addition to the TEN hit “Jeremy”, “Rearviewmirror”, “Daughter” or “Given To Fly”, the goosebumps sing-along “Black” and Neil Young’s “Keep On Rocking In The Free World” were particularly missing, and they also saved all of them songs from their albums BINAURAL, RIOT ACT, PEARL JAM and LIGHTNING BOLT.
In between, there was at least time for announcements and anecdotes, such as Vedder’s concern that the evening would fall through because it had rained harder than in Seattle the day before. Like his memory of the legendary Jimi Hendrix concert that was supposed to take place in the Waldbühne in 1970 but was eventually moved to the Deutschlandhalle. Like his front-row salute to fan Keith, who is enjoying his 50th Pearl Jam concert. Like the congratulations to the fans Kathrin and Andreas, who met when they were 12 and have been married for 25 years, and Vedder’s comparison that guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament also met when they were 12 (“Jeff already had huge balls, but I’ve never seen them”) and have been playing in bands together for 39 years. And like Vedder’s obligatory greeting to the Ramones Museum in Berlin and his warm, but this time meaningless, words to the crowd, read in German. Besides a shoutout to ex-Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who now accompanies Pearl Jam on tour, and praise to Matt Cameron as the best drummer in the world, there was no time for a detailed band introduction, also about the war in Ukraine or the death of Unlike at other concerts, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins did not speak. (Unfortunately, drummer Matt Cameron recently got himself in trouble with that.) But to the fact that they would of course come back. This is not a question.
On Instagram after the concert, Pearl Jam posted a photo of the setlist originally planned for that evening, and oh, it wasn’t much longer than the one actually played. The so-called curfew, i.e. the municipal requirement as to when an open-air concert like this one has to end, was only partly a reason for the unusually short playing time, at least for Pearl Jam. The setlists of the current Pearl Jam shows that have already been completed did not include more than 23 songs, while on previous tours it was easily 29. No, Pearl Jam aren’t 20 anymore either, their members are all approaching 60. That’s what they’re still here for. In addition, Eddie Vedder fell ill with serious symptoms of Corona at the beginning of the year, but he still berserk properly on the forest stage. And: A two-hour concert is still a longer one than with many other bands of this or other size. An Instagram user commented with a wink that someone could use this set list to show the Red Hot Chili Peppers how many songs they have to play during a set. The bottom line is, apart from fan whining at a very high level: that in our present in general and in 2022 in particular, 22,000 good-humored people spend a summer evening together with their favorite band so peacefully and relaxed, sometimes resembles a dream – and is proof for what music can still do. “Hearts and thoughts they fade, fade away,” says “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town.” Luckily, many stay.
Pearl Jam live in Berlin 2022 at the Waldbühne – video recordings from fans:
“Why Go”
“Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town”
“Amongst The Waves”
“Not For You”
“Nothing Man”
“porch”
“Yellow Ledbetter / Alive”
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