There’s a sell-out crowd on hand for Pearl Jam’s eagerly anticipated Point date, their first in Dublin in six years, which is also the opening night of their European tour. The group’s ace card is unquestionably Eddie Vedder, whose charisma and stage presence are reminiscent of no one so much as Jim Morrison.
While I never quite got into Pearl Jam’s angst ridden, epic rock, this is an undeniably superb performance, featuring tracks from all stages of the band’s career. Predictably, the likes of ‘Even Flow’, ‘Better Man’ and ‘Black’ are greeted euphorically, with Vedder’s crowd-pleasing performance and the band’s tight musicianship proving a potent combination. For me though, the highlight is an absolutely scorching version of ‘Do The Evolution’. Minus Todd McFarlane and Kevin Altieri’s unforgettable, Manga-style video, the song is still an awesome entity, its mix of blistering punk riffs and dystopian lyrics (inspired, as was much of Yield, by Daniel Quinn’s novel Ishmael) proving irresistible.
The encore sees the band become the second major international rock act to perform a Thin Lizzy cover – ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ in this instance – in Dublin this summer (following on from Metallica’s rendition of ‘Whiskey In The Jar’ during the Download Festival at the RDS in June), but it’s the anthemic ‘Alive’ that really excites. Celebratory and defiant, it shows that Pearl Jam remain a force to be reckoned with some 16 years after they and their Seattle peers first sent shockwaves through the culture.