Fans lap up happy Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is the American Oasis.

A straightforward rock group hailed, due to timing and circumstance, as something much more. The inspiration for countless, degraded imitators who have, over the years, managed to tarnish the original's glowing reputation. A band forever in the unenviable position of having to top a debut album instantly embraced as a modern classic, whose later work has famously divided admirers and critics. But a band nevertheless quite comfortable being itself.

Eddie Vedder and Noel Gallagher should start a support group.

Even to the fans who gave up buying the patchy new albums sometime around 1996's muddled No Code, though, Pearl Jam — again, much like the consistently stadium-packing Oasis — remains the object of devoted worship on the live stage.

All it took was an absent-minded greeting from Vedder ("By the way, hello. It's nice to be here") and a few shots at U.S. President George W. Bush five or six songs into the Seattle quintet's typically anthemic set at the Molson Amphitheatre Saturday night to send the sold-out, 16,000-strong crowd into a rapturous tizzy and chants of "Ed-die! Ed-die! Ed-die!" that brought the show to a complete standstill for several minutes.

The love-in didn't relent for 2 1/2 hours, either, despite a set list that focused primarily on the latter half of the band's catalogue and deployed easy crowd-pleasers — V's "Daughter," Vitalogy's "Corduroy," "Betterman" and "Spin The Black Circle," the Victoria Williams chestnut "Crazy Mary," a hurried version of the Ten warhorse "Even Flow" — at a minimum.

This was a charitable crowd, willing to overlook a murky sound mix that varied wildly in quality throughout the venue, a preponderance of clunky covers (do we really need to hear overplayed classic-rock radio staples like CCR's "Fortunate Son," The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" any more than we already do?) and the general, raging sameness of Pearl Jam's catalogue.

Pearl Jam is certainly a force unto itself, a propulsive, rhythm-centric unit with the incredibly deep live repertoire and seamless onstage manner of a jam band. But while a few numbers in the more rock 'n' roll side of its catalogue (Yield's enormous "Given To Fly," the Ramones' ragged "I Believe In Miracles," the new "Get Right") distinguish themselves from the bulk, the band's regressive approach — you're supposed to get the garage-band bashing and punk-rock jones out of your system first, then start writing massive arena epics — makes its songbook an oddly featureless one.

Still, the band hasn't looked this relaxed or happy in a few years. The numerous covers, Riot Act's more decisively rocking nature and Vedder's beaming demeanour might suggest, in fact, that Pearl Jam is having a spot of fun these days.

The lads genuinely seem to appreciate their fans, too: Chuffed at the rabid response with which he and his bandmates were greeted Saturday night, Vedder let it slip that Pearl Jam is considering taking a short tour of its favourite cities in the near future.

Toronto, he promised, will be on the list. Pearl Jam will no doubt receive another hero's welcome should that date materialize.