Tale From The Rail: Pearl Jam Soar at Austin City Limits

So, you wanna get front row for a Pearl Jam show, eh? I’ve lost track after 50, but this far along in being a maniacal PJ fan it just doesn’t make sense to half-ass the experience, so we went all-in for the full-day adventure. Stocked with enough water and sunscreen to lather & hydrate an army, my comrade and I hit the front of the Samsung Galaxy stage just before the gates opened at 11am (oh, those wonderful media-pass perks), when the rail stampede began. By 11:15, the all-day holdouts were thick in the pit… and there we’d stay for nine hours of grueling sun-blazing rock as The Replacements, The Gaslight Anthem, Kongos and The Districts set the stage for Pearl Jam’s 26-song, two hour marathon.

The 13th annual Austin City Limits Music Festival delivered a strong kickoff to its two sold-out weekends (the second installment picks up Oct. 10), and while we’ve recounted the excellence of blowing the doors off with J Roddy Walston, getting nostalgic with Outkast, talking trash with Foster The People and more, it was all a build-up to the grandest finale by what’s arguably the best live band in existence, Pearl Jam.

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Phones will die. Skin will burn. Sweat will pool at our feet and run out in rivers, drowning the unfortunate late arrivals in the back. Can’t be helped. No matter how much water you think is enough, it’ll be gone before 2pm. People will be mighty uncomfortable, mashed together and forever angling for that extra inch or three to get that much closer as they lock themselves out of retreat. Playing hide and seek with the sun between sets, comparing and contrasting personal PJ high points with fellow fans, sharing gigantic bags of kettle corn because there’s no other food to be found… it was all part of an experience, a test of endurance, a series of my-god-this-shit-is-crazy feelings washing over you as you endure a full day of physical discomfort for a lifetime of memories from seeing Pearl Jam as close as you possibly can. 

In the end, it will be far more than worth it. After Kongos got the ladies’ attention with a pop-rockin’ set, The Gaslight Anthem gave New Jersey a better name with a rip-roaring performance and a lot of playful trash talking against Philly. The legendary Replacements followed, rocking & wailing like men half their age with the amazing Josh Freese on drums, wearing eyebrows and a goatee of electrical tape. A damn fine run of PJ openers – perhaps the best we’ve seen thus far.

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The sun finally bid its gorgeous pink and purple farewells behind the Austin skyline after 7pm, and with only minutes to go before Pearl Jam took the stage, suddenly the day’s myriad of discomforts were a distant memory. That familiar deafening roar and anticipatory goosebumps arrived in tandem with the band, who opened with the reflective, poignant and gorgeous “Long Road”.

The cup of anticipation runs over, the tears crack the corners of the eyes, the moment far too real, too viscerally exhilarating to completely take in, so we ride the electric energy of cathartic, heart-soaring passion. The beautiful track ends, and immediately all precious pretense is swept aside as PJ launches into the punk-blast speed of ”Go”. 

Tipping a wine bottle early on and often, buoyantly grinning frontman Eddie Vedder’s between-song banter ranged from urging the audience to register to vote in the November mid-term elections, and inviting the crowd to a keg party at their sound guy’s Austin home, to reminding those who had shitty fathers how important it is to keep our own children from the same pitfalls we experienced. He also strongly hinted that we might get a break if we name-drop the band, should we run into post-show trouble with the law, as he’d heard that Austin police chief Art Acevedo was a fan.

A six-song blast of rockers then set a relentless pace, pulling from near and far in the depths of the PJ discography, now more than ten albums deep. Only “Corduroy,” hardly a downtempo jam, gave pause to the intensity before an endearing take on Yield favorite “Faithfull”. “This one’s for the believers,” Vedder offered as the song lifted off.

From there, an electrifying guitar-driven “Love Boat Captain” intro prefaced an emotional rendition of the track as legendary photographer Danny Clinch snapped pics sidestage. Watching keyboardist Boom Gaspar pound away on the keys was exhilarating in its own right. And to everyone’s surprise, Clinch would then join the band on harmonica for a positively rippin’ version of “Red Mosquito,” more than holding his own. 

Inevitably that led to the tag-baiting “Daughter,” one of the best-known singalongs in the PJ catalogue. Vedder wove in a line from the song “Alex Chilton” by the Replacements, who’d just played before. “It means a lot to everybody up here to be on the same stage as the irreplaceable Replacements,” Eddie explained, and it was no lip service; he’d been dancing his ass off side-stage throughout their show earlier in the day.

Powerful enough to end the night on its own, an electrifying “Rearviewmirror” closed out the main set, as fans dug in and speculated on the third act from a band more able than any in mind to take something magical and make it incredible. Upon return, PJ downshifted with a trio of ballads and slow songs, including the deafening singalong of “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” the heartbreaker “Come Back” and a timely, gripping solo-Vedder cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine”. From there, a five-song sprint past the 10pm curfew saw classic favorite “State of Love and Trust” followed by the blistering speed of “Lukin,” which is a bit like going from slamming three red bulls at once to then climbing into a jet fighter. 

A funked-up intro to the ever-beloved Ten classic “Porch” brought screams of enthusiasm, with its follower “Alive” delivering enough climactic energy to close out the night, as Eddie ran back and forth through the crowd and Mike McCready all but gave us a goddamn guitar lesson:

Despite a roaring, epic sing-along conclusion to “Alive,” the band was unwilling to let the moment go. The pushed the limits with a wildly celebratory run through a newly relevant and hugely powerful “Rockin In The Free World,” tambourines flying, lights smashing, exhilaration on high.

Hell, does Neil Young even own “Rockin’ in the Free World” anymore? They’ve so thoroughly made the song their own over the past two decades, it has taken an entirely new life through the Pearl Jam lens. Whatever the case, the majority of the crowd stuck around long after PJ said their farewells (“See you next year,” Eddie mused before departing). Maybe they were hoping, somehow, for more. Maybe they wanted to beg for a memento, a setlist or a pic from the crew. Or maybe they were like me – unable to break the spell of the single greatest experience 2014 has had to offer. I’ve personally covered a blizzard of music festivals this year, and in the hundreds of bands and countless hours I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of rockin’ out to, not a damn one comes within screaming range of the intensity, catharsis, heart-soaring greatness of Pearl Jam’s headlining performance at Austin City Limits.

Staying away from Texas this next weekend is going to be difficult as hell.

Pearl Jam ACL Weekend 1 Setlist

1.Long Road

2.Go

3.Why Go

4.Do the Evolution

5.Mind Your Manners

6.Save You

7.Corduroy

8.Lightning Bolt

9.Faithfull

10.Love Boat Captain

11.My Father’s Son

12.Got Some

13.Even Flow

14.Sirens

15.Red Mosquito

16.Daughter

17.Rearviewmirror

18.Encore:

19.Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town

20.Imagine

21.Come Back

22.State of Love and Trust

23.Lukin

24.Porch

25.Alive

26.Rockin’ in the Free World