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Vedder & Co. Make Up For Lost Time In Return To Forum

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Eddie Vedder and his Pearl Jam bandmates showed fans what they’ve been missing since the band last came to town five years ago.

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By CURTIS ROSS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 13, 2008

Updated: 06/13/2008 12:22 am

TAMPA - "It's a shame we only make it here every eight years," Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder told a Forum crowd of 13,746 Wednesday night.

It's actually only been five years, Eddie, but who's counting? Glad to have you back either way.

Vedder and his band mates - bassist Jeff Ament, drummer Matt Cameron and guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready - played a set that surely made fans wish the Seattleites would travel southeast more often.

Seventeen years after the release of debut album "Ten," Pearl Jam showed no signs of age in concert. Ament, McCready and Vedder all went airborne with some frequency, with McCready the most animated.

McCready also made one wonder why his name is seldom on magazine polls of rock's great guitarists. He could shower the crowd with a pleasingly gaudy show of rock fireworks one minute, then reel off a solo with Nashville-like economy the next.

On "Even Flow," McCready soared, soloing for several minutes with Hendrix-like abandon. And he closed the show with a Jimi-mimicking "Star-Spangled Banner."

The set was a mix of established favorites and lesser-known but still powerful numbers such as opener "Sometimes" and "Down," with Vedder's hopeful/desperate cry, "Don't let the darkness swallow me."

The sometimes overly serious Vedder showed a sense of humor, asking "Where ... are we?" after noting that the show was in Tampa, the venue's name mentions St. Petersburg and a Canadian flag was hanging from the ceiling.

Vedder also saluted his childhood hero, former Chicago Cub Jose Cardinal, who was in the crowd.

But that was icing on the cake of a show that saw the band slamming through "Corduroy," "Why Go," "Daughter" and "Betterman" as enthusiastically as if the tunes were brand new.

Vedder, swigging liberally from a wine bottle throughout, seemed to bring the show to a close by slamming down his mic stand at the end of "Alive." But no, a soulful "Yellow Ledbetter" was still to come.

Kings of Leon - three sons of a preacher man and a cousin - opened with a set of taut, guitar-driven tunes that, as good as they were, seemed to end just as they were getting going good.

Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

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