Pearl Jam Debut New Songs at Chicago Concert ::Pearl Jam News ::antiMusic.com

Pearl Jam Debut New Songs at Chicago Concert

07/22/2013
. Pearl Jam performed for the first time Friday evening at Wrigley Field in Chicago debuting two new songs from their forthcoming "Lightning Bolt" but the show did not go as planned.

The show was initially planned to stretch 40 songs however a thunderstorm made the band empty the fans on the field after only performing for 45-minutes. antiMusic's Tony K was at the show and has these details:

After nearly delaying the show for three hours, the band returned right before midnight with Chicago Cub Hall of Famer Ernie Banks. Besides the new songs, guitarist Mike McCready performed a cover of the classic Eddie Van Halen guitar solo "Eruption" and Eddie Vedder wore an accordion for the Vitalogy song "Bugs" in its third ever performance.

The band performed three songs from the record, including the live debuts of two. First single "Mind Your Manners" flexes the band's punk muscle with some striking harmony vocals from drummer Matt Cameron and a scorching speed train guitar solo by Mike McCready. "Lightning Bolt" is radically different and is big on melody as bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Matt Cameron forcefully driving the band with fast and hard rhythms.

The first encore opened up with the premiere of "Future Days", a dramatic ballad performed by the band sitting with their longtime producer Brendan O'Brien on keyboards. All three of the songs feature the band in a different light and yet all of them find the band playing to their strengths. "Future Days" demonstrates the bands continued growth as songwriters. Instead of singing to the crowd, they performed with them rather than to them; as they age Pearl Jam continue their awareness and acknowledgement with their audience that we are all on this journey together. Read Tony's review of the show for more details.

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