Pearl Jam with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

June 19, Susquehanna Bank Center

by Jesse Delaney

In what could have been called the "Rock with a Conscience" tour, Pearl Jam with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists stormed the newly christened Susquehanna Bank Center (nee Tweeter, nee Blockbuster-Sony Music Entertainment Centre) armed with electric guitars and political rhetoric. After the volatile "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." Leo dismissed a request for "Jessie's Girl" with a teasing of The Outfield's "Your Love" and a playfully disdainful declaration that he wasn't going to play "those good-time summer songs."

If Leo's the enthusiastic first-year teacher, then Eddie Vedder is the tenured educator repeating the mantra "If I reach just one of them, just one, it'll all be worth it." The Pearl Jam frontman has adopted a working-class-hero visage complete with a Springsteen-esque blond Telecaster. Opening with the slow-burning "Hard to Imagine," Vedder (minus the nerd glasses and trucker's cap he sported the night before, performing "Begin the Begin" with R.E.M.) displayed all the wild-eyed intensity of his grungy heartthrob days.

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As much as they love the music, Pearl Jam fans treat Vedder's between-song banter like radio static. No one likes to feel stupid, and Vedder mocked his preppy audience when he lamented J.C. Dobbs, site of Pearl Jam's first Philly gig, becoming a high-end coffee shop "for people who read J. Crew." Listening to the shouts of "Shut the fuck up" as Vedder dedicated "Light Years" to the late Tim Russert, I began to suspect that this is why Vedder guzzles wine on stage. Cobain had the shotgun; Vedder, the bottle. Me? I never needed a watered-down, domestic beer more in my life. Luckily, the more the venue's name changes, the more its exorbitant beer prices stay the same. Early promises of "no curfew" were squelched at 11:30 sharp when the house lights came on mid-song, and Pearl Jam signed off its broadcast day with the "Star-Spangled Banner."

(j_delaney@citypaper.net)