Last night Pearl Jam closed out their two dates at Madison Square Garden in New York with a big concert during which they played six songs from the last Dark Matter and half Tenwere joined on stage by Andrew Watt and Glen Hansard, and covered songs by, among others, Gimme Some Truth by John Lennon, Sonic Reducer of the Dead Boys and I Am a Patriot by Steve Van Zandt.
The latter went on stage to play Rockin' in the Free World along with them, Watt, Hansard and the latter's band. Neil Young's piece is a classic of Pearl Jam concerts, who performed it yesterday for the first time with Little Steven (who played it at Vote for Change in 2004).
For Pearl Jam, the first of the two shows was their 50th in New York. “We’re still a little amazed that this little group from Seattle could fill the room all night,” Vedder said. “We played Wetlands in 1991, we played CBGB in late 1991. And now here we are, in that great lady which is the Garden. It's a fantastic place, but it's the people that fill it. I say this to thank you. In New York you make us feel like the luckiest people in the world.”
Watt, who produced Dark Matter, he played with the group Waiting for Stevie And Rearview mirror. It's the closing of a circle for him, who in 2003 had seen Pearl Jam at Madison Square Garden and had displayed a sign that read “Let me play the guitar solo from Alive”.
“They are my favorite group ever,” he told Rolling. «I’ve been to more concerts than you can imagine, I’d say at least 40. I have all their T-shirts. My favorite show, I mean of my entire life, was the one they did at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on Halloween in 2009».
Pearl Jam's US tour will continue until the end of September. In November they will be in New Zealand and Australia.
