Review: Eddie Vedder leads intimate, emotional concert in Seattle

It was a bad night to be Eddie Vedder’s stomp box. The Pearl Jam frontman was in singer-songwriter mode, sailing through a two-hour solo set at Benaroya Hall on Monday. His drummer buddy Matt Cameron, of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, was apparently somewhere in the house. But last night a mostly unaccompanied Vedder would be his own timekeeper, the wooden board beneath his left boot serving as the only percussion instrument he’d need.

For an evening of predominantly acoustic fare, the energy inside the symphony hall was electric from the moment Vedder hit the stage — an energy that boiled over during a stripped-down, but no less rousing “Corduroy,” as Vedder stomped out the beat himself. A floor board inside a Seattle venue hasn’t taken a beating like that since Shawn Kemp used to come crashing down on the KeyArena court after his high-flying dunks.

You would think it’d be tough to distill the buzz of an arena rock show into a quieter (mostly) one-man performance inside a 2,500-capacity theater. But Vedder — and perhaps more importantly, the audience — was up to the task during the first of two packed benefit concerts on his home turf.

“I’m going to say something I don’t get to say often enough,” Vedder said at the top of his set. “Good evening, Seattle.”

It had been a year and a half since Vedder had played a Seattle show, having taken over Benaroya Hall for two similarly joyous shows shortly after releasing his impeccable 2022 solo album, “Earthling,” in February of last year. If Vedder and crew could’ve had their way, his current two-nighter, which continues Tuesday night, might have been a lot longer.

After opening with an euphorically swelling “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town” and a loving turn through Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” the local rock star who ought to have a metaphorical (if not an actual) key to the city joked about Benaroya being “a hard room to get into.” Apparently, Vedder and the team at the EB Research Partnership — a nonprofit Vedder and his wife, Jill, cofounded in 2010 — wanted to make the one-off Seattle shows a weeklong affair, but the venue didn’t have enough open dates.

Nevertheless, there was no shortage of gratitude in the air as Vedder discussed EBRP’s work combating epidermolysis bullosa — a rare skin condition that causes intense blistering and can lead to fatal skin cancers among children with severe cases — and the connections made among the community of families, doctors and philanthropists coming together to try to find a cure.

The night’s emotional centerpiece came midway through the set when Vedder introduced “my friend, my teacher, my hero,” Eli, a young boy with EB. “I figured all superheroes need a good theme song, so I wrote a little something for him,” Vedder said before a homey “Say Hi.” It was as heartwarming as a circle-time singalong as Eli, who was among the crowd with his family, received a standing ovation after the song.

Glancing around the room, a kind-eyed Vedder continued shouting out a number of “EB kids” and families he’s clearly come to know intimately, including a Wisconsin boy, Charlie Knuth, who died this spring at 17. Vedder grew emotional talking about Charlie, whose sense of humor he jokingly likened to a mini Jeff Ross, Vedder’s comedian pal who was the surprise opener for Monday’s show only.

The lump in his throat briefly returned during an emphatic blast through “Better Man,” throwing another emotional log on the fire, with the crowd erupting alongside him during the chorus.

Although Vedder spent the night folkifying Pearl Jam staples and delivering choice Cat Stevens (“Trouble”) and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (“The Ship Song”) covers alongside non-“Earthling” solo cuts on his own, he brought out a string quartet to add a little “dignity to this affair.” The bow-wielding foursome, which included April Cameron — wife of drummer Matt — on viola, brought some welcome majesty and graceful muscle to a three-song run that began with a twinkling “Just Breathe” and “The End” off 2009’s “Backspacer.”

While Ed and his Pearl Jam mates have been popping up all over Seattle in various configurations lately, the grunge deities haven’t played their hometown together since releasing “Gigaton,” the band’s 11th studio album, in 2020. However, Vedder offered a taste of the band’s invigorating LP opening his encore with a haunted “River Cross,” making like Seattle’s phantom of the symphony seated at an organ under a spooky red light.

Vedder’s Benaroya stand continues Tuesday.

Night 1 set list:

1. Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town
2. Keep Me in Your Heart (Warren Zevon cover)
3. Wildflowers (Tom Petty cover)
4. Trouble (Cat Stevens cover)
5. Wishlist
6. Far Behind
7. Rise
8. I Won’t Back Down (Tom Petty cover)
9. Corduroy
10. Say Hi
11. Better Man
12. Just Breathe
13. The End
14. The Ship Song (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds cover)
15. Porch
16. River Cross
17. Unthought Known
18. Hard Sun