Pearl Jam brought their Dark Matter tour to New York’s Madison Square Garden Tuesday, and fans witnessed frontman Eddie Vedder getting very emotional while dedicating a song to a young fan in the audience.
Before performing “Given to Fly,” Eddie said he wanted to dedicate the song to a teen named Adam, who was going to his second show, and his father, Jesse, noting that since their last Pearl Jam show they suffered the great loss of Adam’s mom and Jesse’s wife.
Eddie then shared that Adam is autistic and had been bullied so badly he needed to change schools; you could see Eddie get visibly angry. He then went off on an expletive-filled rant against the parent whose child bullied Adam and the school that did nothing about it.
He ended it by telling Adam to let those people know Pearl Jam and Madison Square Garden told them to “f*** off.”
As for the rest of the concert, Pearl Jam mixed their set with tracks from their new album, Dark Matter, deep cuts and hits like “Alive,” “Even Flow,” “Betterman” and “Black,” which included an epic guitar solo from Mike McCready.
Eddie also did a solo cover of John Lennon‘s “Imagine,” and the band broke out the rarity “Out of My Mind,” which they’ve only played live seven times.
They ended the show with a cover of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” followed by the Vs. track “Indifference,” which was the first time they performed it on this tour.
Tuesday’s show also featured a special guest appearance by guitarist Lenny Kaye, who joined opener Glen Hansard for a performance of the classic track “Gloria.”
Pearl Jam returns to MSG Wednesday, which Vedder said will be the band’s 50th show in the state of New York.
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