Northwest synergy

By GINA VIVINETTO, Times Pop Music Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 14, 2003
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TAMPA -- The famed camaraderie of the Pacific Northwest rock scene was in full force Sunday at the St. Pete Times Forum as 11,223 fans rocked out to more than three hours of riotous music by Pearl Jam and opening act Sleater-Kinney that ended in a delightfully ballistic cover of Neil Young's Rockin' In The Free World featuring all the members of both bands onstage singing and dancing.

Pearl Jam may have been the act the crowd came clamoring for, but critical darlings Sleater-Kinney, an all-female punk pop trio originally from Olympia, Wash., now based in Portland, Ore., won new fans with its smart, socially conscious tunes.

It didn't hurt that one of the trio's biggest fans is Pearl Jam's lead singer, Eddie Vedder, who kicked off the night -- that's right Vedder came on before the opening act -- by performing a solo version of the Beatles' You've Got To Hide Your Love Away on acoustic guitar and harmonica. Vedder then told the crowd he was "privileged" to introduced Sleater-Kinney, a band that has garnered critical praise since its inception in 1995.

Pearl Jam's shows are mesmerizing, thanks not just to Vedder, one of rock's most compelling frontmen with or without the guitar strapped over his shoulder, but also to the rest of the talented quintet, which performs with a zeal that energizes the crowd.

Vedder was the subject of scorn last month when a handful of fans in Denver booed him for "impaling" a mask of President Bush on his microphone stand when introducing the song Bushleaguer from the band's latest, Riot Act. Vedder got his antiwar message across more gently Sunday when, during a free-form jam portion of Daughter, the singer demanded "Give me a P!" Next, "Give me an E!"

No, it wasn't his band's moniker being spelled out, but the word "Peace," which made fans cheer.

Pearl Jam performed many tunes from Riot Act, and the song's muscles were flexed in a live setting. They're strong songs, undainty, fueled with exciting Who-esque riffs and Vedder's lyrical introspection.

Highlights included the tender opener Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in A Small Town, Given To Fly, and a supercharged Do The Evolution. The night's biggest cheers, naturally, were for the bands' huge hits, Evenflow, Betterman, and during the encore, its cover of Last Kiss, a robust Alive, and a gorgeous rendition of the heartbreaking Black.

The audience may have been unfamiliar with Sleater-Kinney's material and style -- the band has no bass player and its two frontwomen share vocal duties -- but the crowd seemed to enjoy its angular guitar riffs, tricky and thunderous drums and and the occasional sweet three-part harmonies.

Sleater-Kinney's members are more at home in the intimate venues the band routinely sells out. Fans concerned that the trio would have trouble translating its cozy stage presence to a huge arena need not have worried. An arena is just the right environment for singer-guitarist Corin Tucker's big voice. Tucker wailed on tunes from the band's latest, One Beat, including the bouncy Oh!, and the R&B inflected Step Aside. The tune, like several of the band's recent numbers, is something of a protest song, encouraging folks to "shake a tail for peace and love."

Carrie Brownstein, the band's other frontwoman, dished out all her patented rock star moves, including her Pete Townshend windmills and side shimmies on Combat Rock, an impassioned antiwar song sung by "characters," some excited by the prospects of war:

Let's break out all our old machines now

It sure is good to see them run again

Oh gentlemen start your engines

and we know where we get the oil from.

Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron moseyed onstage to help the band out by playing tambourine on One Beat. The band closed with a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's timely Fortunate Son, which inspired the band's fans to scream along to its "It ain't me!" chorus.

-- To contact Gina Vivinetto e-mail gina@sptimes.com