Kicking off the night at the Moda Center was a band called Is This Real?, an homage to an album by the same name from Portland’s own 1970’s punk band, Wipers.
Main support came from Seattle’s Deep Sea Diver. Deep Sea Diver’s musical style is a kind-of psychedelic funk rock. The grooves were catchy. In fact, the bass lines and rhythms could easily be right at home in a John Hughes 80’s flick. Several of the band’s members are multi-instrumentalists and demonstrated their musicality throughout the performance. Vocalist Jessica Dobson was particularly fascinating moving all over the stage from guitar to keyboard and more.
When Pearl Jam took the stage, we were in for a long ride. Their set was enormous at just over two-dozen songs. Radio hits such as “Even Flow”, “Daughter”, and “Alive” were played for us. “Waiting for Stevie” was also debuted. Singer Eddie Vedder said “I saved this one special just for you, Portland”.
Vedder shared lots of stories. He talked about how the song “Even Flow” was inspired by a homeless guy that he used to pass by in Seattle on his daily commute. He went on to talk about how homelessness was such a complex issue and how Covid affected the progress being made. Vedder even went to far as to endorse Jesse Cornett, a local candidate for city council that he believes has the right values to help tackle the homelessness issue.
The political discourse did not stop there however. During the break before the encore set, Vedder took a position at a projection device writing “Any requests?” Which was then followed by “How about this for a request? More Reasonable laws about gun access and less laws about a woman’s body”. But the night wasn’t entirely political either. The singer was very choked up sharing a story about a couple of days ago on a tour night off how he was alone with his thoughts, thinking about the brother he lost nearly 9 years ago to a climbing accident. “All the advice put out in the universe but he couldn’t hear it himself” he said while choking back tears. “In those times, just do the simplest thing you can do. Keep breathing. It’s good to know we all get support from you as well” he went on to say.
Vedder brought out an artifact during one point in the set. It was a red Fender guitar. He went on to tell a story about how he acquired that guitar, a guitar that belonged to the late, great, Tom Petty. He then played that guitar as the band played “Won’t Back Down”.
It was a night filled with nostalgia. Filled with stories and connections with others. It’s clear that this is a band that carries the weight of the world on it’s back and gladly does so, taking that energy and repurposing it into their music. The venue was still packed to the rafters when that last song played out. What an incredible night for music.
