http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/ ... 77&k=84983'Wild' night as Eddie Vedder unveils campfire-friendly solo tunesPearl Jam frontman's voice can pass for folksinger's
With Luke the electric ukulele as his new best friend, Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder is ready to take his solo show Into the Wild.
That it took this movie by Sean Penn - based upon Jon Krakauer's 1996 book of the same name about 24-year-old Christopher McCandless, a kid who dropped out of society to go to Alaska - to get Vedder to finally compile his first album of original album is clearly a big hit with fans.
Of course, Eddie could sit on stage in his plaid shirt, worn jeans and work boots and pass gas into a microphone to a standup ovation. Even before he got on stage at the Centre last night, his labcoated guitar tech had people cheering wildly merely putting glasses of water down. This guy's head - Vedder's, not the guitar tech's - may be so swelled it explodes by the end of this short solo tour.
Vedder appears far more levelheaded. He admonished the audience's adulation when they wildly applauded a complete screwup in a song, telling them, "Don't do that. It promotes bad behaviour." No one cared. He had a standing ovation just walking on the stage.
In this situation, doesn't an artist have to work at all? Apparently, Vedder thought so, as he proved that brilliant, wavering baritone voice was made for solo acoustic guitar or single electric with an occasional tape loop or boot stomp thrown in. Clearly, the crowd has soaked up all nine originals and the two covers from the Into the Wild soundtrack, singing along and cheering madly to the choruses of "No Ceiling," "Far Behind" and "End of the Road."
However, when he dipped into less-recent solo jaunts, such as the theme to the film Dead Man Walking, the wildly enthusiastic audience members were clapping in confusion.
"Uh, yeah, dude this is like a B-side to some old Pearl Jam single. Yeah, yeah, that's it," said one besotted fan.
I wonder if they will think to chase down James Taylor's "Millworker," one of the high points of the evening. Vedder unplugged could well build a career as a fine everyman folksinger. There were too many round-the-campfire-strumming songs in his set to deny.
But if you don't like this material, you may hate it around campsites everywhere this summer.
One surprising rock-star element of the show was the vigorous security around cellphone and camera usage. Now so common as to be unavoidable at a concert, security personnel were freaking out if they even saw a light from a journalist's phone so they could see their notepad in order to write this review. I'd be amazed if there aren't 20 YouTube videos of this tour online today.
Grade: B+
Publié : Mer Mars 26, 2008 11:05 pm
