PJ review from Winnepeg

Music.

Sometimes it?s all you need. No fancy light show. No video screens. No elaborate stage design. No circus midgets. Sometimes, just sometimes, the music is enough.

Pearl Jam proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt last night at the MTS Centre in front of 16,000 screaming fans and you?d be hard pressed to find a single complaint from anyone there.

Armed with only their instruments and some bare bones lighting, the pioneers of grunge showed why they are one of the only surviving bands from the infamous ?Seattle scene.? With no new album since 2002?s Riot Act and not a lot of promotion leading up to the concert, Pearl Jam played to a record (and deafening) crowd at the arena and proved that like a fine wine, they only get better with age.

Even before they took the stage and started playing the opening notes of Betterman, the energy in the arena was overwhelming. They ploughed through almost three hours of material that ranged from set-list rarities such as Sad, In My Tree and In Hiding to grunge anthems Jeremy, Alive and Black. They took old classics like EvenFlow and Daughter and turned them into eight-minute jam sessions and improvs (during Daughter a fan?s cell phone made it onto the stage and lead singer Eddie Vedder led the crowd with a sing-a-long into the phone that may go down in history as the greatest voice mail ever to be received). They took a song like Do The Evolution and used it to turn the entire MTS Centre into a giant pogo-ball. They took all the energy that Winnipeg could muster and gave it right back to us. And yet the crowd just wouldn?t stop giving.

?We have to say that this is without a doubt the loudest crowd,? said Vedder when he finally addressed the crowd after ripping through the first five songs. ?The pre-show crowd, it was insane out here, we didn?t know what the f*ck was going on, and all we could think was, we hope they?re pacing themselves.?

And pace ourselves we did.

For almost three hours fans were taken on a roller coaster ride of music and emotion. From the 58-second intense rocker Lukin to the beautifully haunting Indifference to the arm raising Given To Fly, fans couldn?t help but sing and cheer. For years Winnipegger?s have seen all the impostors come and go. Nickleback, Creed, Default, Lifehouse. Each one trying to imitate Vedder?s booming baritone. But last night, Vedder showed why he can?t be duplicated. It?s not just about his arena filling voice or his trademark wails, it?s about the emotion and honesty that he puts behind every word and action that he does. From his gut wrenching screams during Blood that evoke all the pain of being ripped apart from the inside, to the sincere heart-breaking whisper of, ?we didn?t belong?we didn?t belong together,? at the end of Black, Vedder shows that music means more when you mean it yourself.

But this wasn?t just the Eddie Vedder show. The rest of Pearl Jam played like it was 1992 all over again. Guitarist Mike McCready was by far the most animated of the group. Between his giant jumping windmills or smiling and interacting with the fans by simply pointing and nodding, McCready played with all the appreciation and energy of someone performing in front of an audience for the very first time. Bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard kept pace with McCready while drummer Matt Cameron proved why he is arguably one of the best drummers alive today. The group has also added keyboardist Boom Gasper to their touring line-up and watching the give-and-take that he and McCready did during the extended Crazy Mary solo was nothing short of musical magic.

And just in case the near three-hour, two encore, 29-song show wasn?t enough, the boys from Seattle decided to end the evening with two songs from ?Uncle Neil? (Neil Young) to the rabid delight of hometown fans. And as the first notes started to play on the evening?s final song, Rockin in the Free World, the house lights were completely up and the sight within the arena was absolutely spectacular. All 16,000 people still going strong, still standing, still clapping and still singing loud enough to almost drown out the music.

?Winnipeg, I?m gonna say this and I mean it,? said Vedder smiling and looking all around the arena in awe, ?you?ve been absolutely f*cking amazing!! Absolutely?f*cking?amazing!!!! ?

The thing is, you?d be hard pressed to find anyone there who wouldn?t say the same thing about them.

Just goes to show, sometimes, just sometimes, the music is enough.

No fancy lighting, elaborate stages, fancy video projectors.

Just the music.