Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder performed for the first time since Chris Cornell’s death in Amsterdam last night, and while he didn’t mention Cornell by name, fans in attendance said it was clear Cornell was on Vedder’s mind during the emotional set.
According to dimitrispearljam on the Pearl Jam.com forums, a fan screamed, “I love you!”
Vedder then responded, “Thank you. I need it – we all need it. I’m thinking of a lot of people tonight. And some in particular and their families. And I just know that healing takes time, if it ever happens. It takes time, and that means you have to start somewhere. So let it be music. Let it be love and togetherness. And let it be Amsterdam.”
Electro_UK wrote on the PearlJam.com forums, “The show was pretty much entirely about Chris without directly mentioning him. It was clear Eddie couldn’t bring himself to talk about it head on. He spoke a little how the healing process can start with music and made numerous references to how sad he was and how much he and his friends were struggling.
Frankly it is the bravest performance I have ever seen. At times it seemed like he was a word or two away from breaking into tears. He mumbled more than usual, he violently stamped into the floor on Immortality and others and after The End I thought he was ready to just walk off and not play anymore.
There were funny moments and he picked up in the second half. You could hear the crowd emotionally gasp when Light Years started.
On the outro to Sometimes he cried out ‘Where were you, dear God?’ It was heart breaking.”
Sea posted the following setlist and notes (via John) on the PearlJam.com forums. Before Glen Hansard’s opening set one minute of silence was observed for the victims of the bombing in Manchester, England.
Setlist:
01. Long Road
02. Trouble-(Stevens)
03. Sometimes
(speaks to audience in Dutch)
04. Can’t Keep
05. Sleeping By Myself
06. Without You
07. Longing To Belong (with Jonas Pap playing cello)
08. The Needle and The Damage Done-(Young)
09. I Am Mine
10. Light Years
11. Good Woman-(Marshall)
12. Far Behind
13. No Ceiling
14. Guaranteed
15. Rise
16. I’m Open
17. Better Man
18. Immortality
19. Porch
Encore Break One
20. I’m So Tired-(Fugazi)
21. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
22. Imagine-(Lennon)
The Red Limo String Quartet comes on stage
23. “Heroes”-(Bowie, Eno) String Quartet and Ed vocal. (partial song) Ed adapts the lyrics at the “I, I will be king…” through “We can be Heroes” with some different lyrics and pulls lines from different sections. It only lasts 1:04 minutes/seconds.
24. Just Breathe
25. Lukin
26. Song Of Good Hope-(Hansard) {Ed sings main vocal, Glen plays guitar and sings harmony}
27. Falling Slowly-(Hansard, Irglová)-Glen sings main vocal and plays guitar. Ed sings lead on a verse and harmony vocals)
28. The End
The Red Limo String Quartet leaves the stage
29. Rockin’ In The Free World-(Young)
30. Hard Sun-(Peterson) with Glen Hansard
