Eddie Vedder wrapped a short run of dates with his solo band Earthlings last night (Oct. 7) at Las Vegas’ Dolby Live at Park MGM, and saved a special treat for the encore: he and his mates’ debut live cover of The Cure’s classic “Just Like Heaven.”
Beforehand, Vedder told the audience about the COVID-era dance parties he and his wife Jill would routinely stage in their garage, complete with disco lights and smoke machines. “I will always have great memories of those incredible dance parties,” he said. “The kids would come in and check on us and kind of get embarrassed and have to leave, but we had a fuckin’ blast. This is one of the ones that we would play. We’ve never played it before — we only played it about an hour ago right before we came out, but we’re gonna try it now.”
Vedder and Earthlings (guitarist Andrew Watt, multi-instrumentalist Josh Klinghoffer, bassist Chris Chaney and drummer Chad Smith) played their first show in more than seven months last Saturday at Vedder’s Ohana festival in Dana Point, Calif., and also performed Wednesday in Pasa Robles, Calif. The set lists went heavy on material from Vedder’s Earthling album, plus Pearl Jam songs such as “Rearviewmirror,” “I Got ID” and “Porch” and covers of songs by George Harrison, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Prince and the Pretenders.
Earthlings also debuted Temple of the Dog’s “Hunger Strike” during the short run, with Watt handling the late Chris Cornell’s vocal part. The shows came on the back of Pearl Jam’s fall North American tour, with no 2023 plans having yet been announced for the band.
Vedder is expected to participate in the Nov. 20 Venture Into Cures fundraising event for the skin disease epidermolysis bullosa, a cause he and his wife have championed for many years.
