Pearl Jam | May 6, 2025 | Bridgestone Arena | Nashville, TN – Concert Review

Review by Shawn Perry
Photos by Erin Perry

For the first of two nights in Nashville behind their extended Dark Matter tour, Pearl Jam played a two-hour-plus, variety-filled set that, for any casual fan such as I, easily checked off all the boxes.

Pearl Jam setlists vary, so it’s likely they don’t always play a song or two that someone really wants to hear (No “Black” for me). This jam band ethos the band has adopted is why so many of their fans travel far and wide to see as many shows as possible. Practically the whole row behind me was from Ohio.

Having never seen the band live before, I certainly wasn’t expecting to see the same five grungy longhairs in cargo shorts, flannels, and long johns I’d seen on MTV in the early 90s. On the contrary. As I watched the members of Pearl Jam enter the stage, they appeared as if they’d just walked off the back nine of the Nashville Golf & Athletic Club.

Pearl Jam are all grown up now. Singer Eddie Vedder doesn’t climb the stage rafters (partly because there are none), dive off the stage, or perform other death-defying stunts. Thankfully, his cutting, gruff of a voice is still intact and where it should be. And with that, he immediately took command of the program.

Things started out a bit slowly. The players were stretching out, it seemed, under minimal lighting. They lulled through “Indifference,” the last track from their second album Vs. from 1993, and followed with “Low Light” from 1998’s Yield and “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town,” also from Vs. The whole room sang along to every verse.

As I was to learn, most of tonight’s set drew from albums released in the 1990s. Which isn’t to say they don’t play at least a song or two from each of their 12 studio albums when the mood strikes. Tonight, however, it was the “older” material, the “hits” to most commoners, slotted in with songs from the group’s most recent studio release, Dark Matter.

Part of an image taken from the new album’s cover outlined the backdrop that stretched the width of the arena as the stage lit up and the band fell into the evening’s first new number, “Scared Of Fear.” Because Dark Matter has been out for over a year, many on the floor were more than familiar with the song and they came alive once Vedder and company bounced into action. Other heavies from Dark Matter — “Wreckage,” “Running,” and “Got To Give” — kept the momentum going, while pop-in favorites “Even Flow,” “Jeremy” and “Daughter” with a hint of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” made sure no one wandered off too early.

Even as the singer trotted back and forth across the front of the stage, occasionally stepping out on a center extension, filling glasses and shoes (?) with wine and handing them to anyone within reach — there were guitarists Mike McGready handling most of the leads and Stone Gossard standing on his ground on rhythm. Neither calls much attention to themselves, although McGready does lean into the audience at the edge of stage left at one point and takes the spotlight with him. Bassist Jeff Ament has little trouble holding his own, especially when it came to some gungy riff like “Why Go.”

Longtime drummer Matt Cameron, the only non-original member of Pearl Jam, is more or less flawless at the post he’d held for over 25 years. For that, he was introduced, along with original drummer David Krusen, into the Rock & Roll of Fame with Pearl Jam in 2017. Vedder gave Cameron kudos for becoming a double inductee because the drummer just happens to be an original member of Soundgarden, who is part of the 2025 class. Ties run deep in Grungeland.

Vedder, who spoke at length during a couple of breaks between songs, also gave a shout out to astronaut and friend Scott Kelly (“he’s travelled over 200 million miles”), who was sitting in the audience. Just before debuting “Green Disease” for the first time on this tour, he held up his guitar and mentioned that Jack White, who also happens to be an inductee for the Classic 2025 with the White Stripes, gave it to him. It would have been great to see White out on stage with Pearl Jam, but chances he’s still recovering from the Metallica that took over Nashville the week before.

To begin the lengthy, seven-song encore, Vedder shared that well-known Australian surfing champion Shane Herring had passed away. Vedder, a surfer himself, and the band played an acoustic version of Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me in Your Heart,” dedicated to Herring. With the house lights on for the rest of encore, Vedder stopped midway through the next song, “Setting Sun,” after catchy sight of a medical emergency in the crowd. Getting assurances from the crowd, they resumed the song without losing the fire.

A scorching “Alive” was the last Pearl Jam song the band played before they went all out with covers of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” They can get away with playing classics like these because they put their own stamp on it. Even during the slow numbers, no one ever sat down (does a short stint on the armrest count?). Everyone sang the verses and choruses and leaped at the highlights. You have to hand it to Pearl Jam — they know how to keep their huge following coming for more, year after year, town after town, show after show. It was a privilege to be a part of it for one special night in Nashville.