Pearl Jam Sydney, AU Concert History

Before the show begins, there is a cultural performance which has been a staple of the Australasian leg of the tour, this time entitled “Welcome To The Country & Smoke Ceremony”, after which the band takes to the stage. The thirty-seventh, and final, show of the 2024 Dark Matter Tour, opens with Garden, the fourth time it appears as the opening song on the Tour and, only the fifth time ever it has featured at number one. Before Why Go, Ed shouts, “We’re in Sydney, why go home?”. Ahead of third track Brain of J, Ed says “61st anniversary” – alluding to the fact that, due to time zones, the 61st anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy was being observed in the US. Ed then addresses the crowd for the first time, of many during what is an Ed-centric show:

“Well here we are, good evening. Alright, for one last time in this whole, long year, we got some guitars, we got some amps, we got some lights, we already had the Pixies, we had Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers. I flossed my teeth especially just for you, I’m so happy to be here. And this is not just our last show in Australia, this is the last show of the tour. So, we’re going to miss everyone, we’re going to miss each other, we’re going to miss our crew but we’re going to miss you so let us celebrate. We got work to do, we didn’t come here to fuck spiders as they say but thank you all for being here tonight. Tonight and always – thank you.” 

The band then play In Hiding during which, after the line, ‘Soon I was seeing visions, and cracks along the wall’ Ed shouts, “to be honest, I was a little bit high”. Ed then talks about the previous few shows in Australia and the Australian climate,

“There’s a children’s story about three bears, which also is a great surf spot south of, in Western Australia I think, south of Perth maybe…Three Bears? Anyways, we’re going to play this one for the surfers but here’s the deal, so Gold Coast – thunder, lightning, danger, we worked with the authorities, the crowd was incredible, they took care of themselves, they took care of each other, we could pull it off but it was intense and then Melbourne was intense, another great crowd but hot as fuck, 92/93, that’s upper twenties for you. And then we get to Sydney and it’s just been fucking perfect. So, cheers to you Sydney.” 

Prior to playing Even Flow, Ed asks, “what you got tonight, Mike?” Then after the song he shouts, “let’s hear it for Mike McCready, let’s see you”. He picks up a sign from the crowd and asks the band if they see it. He gets into talking about wine, pondering why he’s drinking Spanish Barolo when one of the best wines in the world, Penfold, is made in Adelaide. A guy named Nathan had brought him a bottle that he plans to drink later. Ed then holds up the sign which reads “TREMOR CHRIST” and they break into the song on Vitalogy’s 30th anniversary. Ed checks in on a situation in the crowd before React, Respond starts up, and non sarcastically says ‘I was responding’. Ed praises the crowd singing along to Small Town and opines “ahh, we’re going to miss this” as he conducts the crowd for one final chorus before the band go straight into Wreckage. Ed shouts out a bunch of people prior to Save You – Donna, Gabby, Digger, Luke and Dr. Ota, and says this one is about friends who help friends in need. Dissident is played by request, and the last line is changed to, “Escape is never the safest path, but sometimes you’ve got to fucking do it anyway”. Before Given To Fly, Ed makes a passionate speech about school bullying and teenage suicides: 

“Before we start this, something I know a little bit about, I heard locally and I think it happens all the time and all over the planet and it just needs to freaking stop and the only way it’s going to stop is for there to be better parents out there and better school administrators but there’s like school bullying and bullying over texts. You know, it’s like a pandemic, with teenage girls especially. Committing suicide aged twelve, thirteen, fourteen, because of being bullied at school and being bullied online and it’s a bunch of shit and someone should stop it. It needs to be paid attention to and there’s no room for it in modern society, there’s no room for it, this is a time on this planet for acceptance and support. We have a lot of challenges we need to face as a human race, stop this division and especially stop it at a young age between teenage girls and boys, thank you very much.”

Given to Fly has a lyrical change to reflect the local area, “made it down to Manly, had a smoke in a tree”. Speaking to the crowd again he says, the reason this next one’s going to be played is because you have great voices here and we’d like to have you use them with us. They play Hunger Strike for the first time in ten years with Ed singing both verses and the crowd taking Chris Cornell’s parts during the chorus. It’s powerful, impassioned, and one of the biggest surprises from this Australian run. Another Vitalogy song is played in Immortality and the main set closes out with a massive Rearviewmirror wrapping up a strong run of songs at the end. When Ed returns to the stage, the screens are showing shots of the crowd before the camera focuses on someone holding a picture of Ed. When he sees that he jokes, “I was going to say look at all you handsome people until I saw that”. Taking the opportunity for a brief rest, he speaks to the crowd about the tour and teases a return to Australia. He shares that they’ve had an amazing time with family members traveling down and even the crew members got suntans. He then talks about Bruce Springsteen and his current tour:

“You know what’s interesting, I wanted to share. Back in Vancouver, a great friend of mine and brother of mine he’s playing his last show of his long tour tonight and if I’d been in Seattle I’d have been there to see it, but when I saw the dates, I said, Bruce I’m going to be, you’re playing on the 22nd, the last show of the tour and we’re going to be playing on the 23rd in Australia on the last show of the tour. I was texting him this morning and I realized those are the same days, we each just played the last shows of our big, long tour on the very same day. But everything about that guy is magic and he ends the tour in Vancouver and that’s where we started it. He makes magic and he works hard to make magic and sometimes it’s easy for him to make magic. He also has songs of strength and songs that we have been able to depend on. For him, as well as us, it’s been a tricky time in our nation back home, we’re going to be okay, it’s just going to take some time, a bit of a reset but we will lean on music. So, I’m thinking about my brother.” 

Ed then covers The Boss’s No Surrender, only the third time the song has appeared on a Pearl Jam setlist and its first appearance since 2006, with both previous renditions coming in Springsteen’s home state of New Jersey. After the song he thanks Bruce, and turns his attention back to the crowd and thanks a guy who gave him the hat he was wearing. He recognizes the Vitalogy anniversary as they play two from the record back to back, Spin The Black Circle and Better Man. Ed then invites Josh Klinghoffer to the front of the stage and dedicates Something Special to all of the parents in the crowd. This performance meant that every Dark Matter song got played on this seven-show leg of New Zealand and Australia. During Black’s solo, he asks the crowd to put up their candles and their lights and says “let’s see the stars”. Afterwards, Ed says we got a random one for the serious collector as Alone is played here. The band then go straight into Porch which features lines of The Stooge’s TV Eye added during the bridge. Matt Cameron beats the hell out of his snare drum during it, breaking it for the first time in a while. Alive brings the crowd together as it signals the end is nearing on both the night and the tour. Before Baba, Ed invites the entire crew out onto the stage, thanks them all and calls them family. During the performance, Ed finds a young fan with a sign challenging him to rock, paper, scissors in exchange for a tambourine. The kid selects rock, Ed goes with paper to win, but the kid receives a signed Aussie Rules football. Little Wing is tagged onto Yellow Ledbetter to close out the night, and close the book on an extremely memorable 2024 tour year.

Close to 45,000 are in attendance on a warm spring evening out in Sydney’s west. Following Dark Entree, Release’s droning riff rings throughout ENGIE stadium (home ground for the AFL team the GWS Giants), the band silhouetted against a minimal white and blue background. “Here’s to a special one,” announces Ed. There’s barely a pause as Pearl Jam rip into Even Flow, an energized Ed bearing a huge grin as the crowd belts back the chorus at him. The band are clearly stoked to be back in Sydney after an absence of 10 years, and to be playing to such a big audience. Dedicated to a beloved fan, Stuggs, who sadly passed away before he got to attend the show, Given to Fly (“in Australia.. off a record called ‘Give Way’”) is once again a highlight of this leg, no small thanks to magnificent drone footage of the Blue Mountains, Sydney harbour and the New South Wales coastline. It provides the perfect backdrop for the rousing anthem. Interstellar Overdrive rings out into Corduroy, continuing the run of high energy hits. The outro doesn’t quite take off, Matt missing Ed’s cue and Mike coming in late with the solo. Nothingman is sublime, however, making its first appearance in Sydney in 18 years, before Dark Matter and artist Rob Sheridan’s incredible visuals finally enter the set via Scared of Fear. In the bridge, Ed changes ‘again they’re calling’ to ‘like in Footsteps calling’. Daughter is introduced with “When the people have spoken, it’s ok”, referencing requests for the Dead Moon tag. It lacks the element of surprise as was the case in Melbourne, but it’s a powerful addition nonetheless. Come Back is particularly poignant, Ed mentioning a fan who has lost a brother, and, as a father of girls himself, two young Australian victims of drink poisoning in Laos. After State of Love And Trust, he comments, “34 years ago.. we thought, ‘Ok, that’s got some good momentum, that song. 34 years later, we can play faster,” leading to a tight version of Running. He takes a few moments after Jeremy to mention the Australian arm of EB fundraising, and the involvement of players from the Giants football team, photos of whom are shown on the screens. Faithfull is a detuned but welcome rarity, while Porch closes out what has been a solid main set, Ed stepping down to sing the final chorus to those on the rail.

Encore time, and Ed reads out some of the signs fans are holding. “This is like an eye test, so far I’m doing fairly well I think.” he quips, before reading another. “Please play Black – is this something you’d like to hear?” The huge cheer doesn’t go unnoticed. A sign for Bugs sees him give a shout out to revered recording engineer and producer Nick Didia, now an Australian resident, who “sings on Olympic Platinum, for all the serious collectors.” Solo on the acoustic, he unites all for a singalong to Last Kiss, before Animal sees the band return to the stage. Since it’s detuned half a step, it doesn’t pack anywhere near the punch that is needed, but a stellar Black (replacing Upper Hand after the crowd response) more than makes up for it. The song belongs to Mike, his epic solo reaching the heavens to elevate the classic ballad once again. McCready, eyes closed, is still in a faraway place as Ed wakes him out of his trance. “We belong together…me and you, me and you,” he sings, gesturing back and forth between himself and his cherished bandmate of 34 years. The house lights illuminate the stadium for the final chorus of Alive, Ed exclaiming, “Sydney you’re fucking beautiful! Look at ya!” As Mike solos, he brings out old friend and legendary surfer Mark Richards to the front of the stage to look out at the celebratory scene. But it’s Mark’s son Nathan who then makes an appearance on Ed’s telecaster, modestly strumming away next to Stone on Rockin’ in the Free World. Over the opening notes of Indifference, Ed says, “Until we meet again – and it won’t be another 10 years.” It caps off a triumphant return to the Harbour City after far too long an absence.