Benaroya Hall is a pristine room, designed from the ground up to highlight the subtle acoustics of the Seattle symphony.
When Eddie Vedder took the stage at Benaroya for his first solo show on home turf in 3 years, he readily acknowledged how uncommon it was for a rock & roll show to be there. He looked around the floor and the balconies and said with a smile that they don’t let guys like him play there very often – they’ve been “keeping it to themselves …stodgy fuckers”. With a roomful of friends and neighbors in attendance, the night felt less like a rebellion and more like showing how to do it right.
The stage featured a visually striking collection of goodies – a side table with lamp, photo, ukulele songbook, and a couple beverages; a huge circular rug for his stool and mike stand; a Corona beer box doubling as kick drum; a reel-to-reel tape deck; several guitars and ukuleles; an organ; a small suitcase; and, to the side, a few extra chairs and music stands. With these few things and several friends, Eddie proceeded to bring down the glittering house over the following 2+ hours.
Glen Hansard opened the show, sailing between gentle melodies and searing vocal and guitar crescendos. The holes in the face of his guitar reflect the frenzied strumming he builds to in the course of his set. He finished to a standing ovation – his second of his set – and the anticipation for Eddie was palpable.
A bit later, Eddie came out to what I can really only call a thunderous, extended, roaring, outpouring of love from the crowd. And throughout the night, he gave as good as he got. He showed himself to be a man with a big heart, a good dose of humility and a great sense of humor; he ranged around a variety of stringed instruments, from a ukulele with “CLARENCE” emblazoned in memory of Clarence Clemon’s recent passing, to his presidential guitar, to a mandolin, to his electric. His voice was really strong, and ranged through a couple octaves handily. His songs and stories reflected collaborations with and influences including a great partnership with Glen Hansard, a few songs with a string section (violins and cello), stories of Sean Penn and Pete Townshend, the inspiration provided by the film Harold & Maude in writing the soundtrack to “Into the Wild”, a Beatles cover, a Dave Alvin cover, and more.
He’s entertaining and talented, no doubt, but that wasn’t why it was such a good show; the show was truly great because he takes risks and clearly plays *for* people and *with* people, not to people. He invites the room to celebrate the music as he’s playing it, the sounds and ideas and the moment and the process of creating. He played a good 20 songs, left briefly, then came back for another 10 or so, left briefly, then came back out for a couple more.
The range of sounds in the course of the show grew more and more diverse. An acapella piece with 6 or more layers of vocal loops, recorded on stage with a pedal, had a simultaneously primal and ethereal quality. The light, melodic acoustic treatment of “Better Man” snuck up on people from the first chords and landed beautifully. The banjo rendition of “If You Want To Sing Out” by Cat Stevens had a couple misses, but was no worse for it – he was reaching further and everyone was with him. “Rise” was unrelenting and powerful, and followed a series of irreverent comments about unfortunate guys in the news…
He invited Glen Hansard to join him more than once during the set. The rendition of “Society” from the “Into The Wild” soundtrack was particularly resonant. After I don’t know how many rounds of applause, Eddie turned to Glen at one point and said “See, I told you there were some nice people in Seattle.” Glen just beamed and the crowd gave even more.
At another point, Eddie’s comment was “OK, this will take some balls.” He unplugged a ukulele so he and Glen could walk to the front of the stage and play a duet with only the single unmic’ed ukulele accompanying. The harmonies were pitch perfect and Benaroya reflected the quiet strains throughout the entire house. The room was 100% silent from start to finish, and exploded afterwards.
For his final encores, first he and Glen came out in the lab coats the stage crew had been wearing, smoke curling across the floor, an ocean backdrop now lit behind them. House lights came up and everyone proceeded to dance to and sing with “Hard Sun”. And finally, to end, a heartfelt rendition of “Dream A Little Dream” with just EV on ukulele.
Eddie played the room in way that both he, and the audience, really made it shine. The sound engineering in the room is truly world class and enhances all kinds of music; the spirit created in it on Friday, though, was something incredibly rare. I hope some of the aforementioned Benaroya folks had a chance to attend – it’s a helluva good show.
P.S. On the news front, he mentioned during the set that the South American Pearl Jam tour this November, just announced Monday, seems to have the iconic LA punk band “X” signed on. I’m sure more news will be forthcoming.
