Written by DCist Contributor E.K. Eckert.

DCist's angst-ridden inner teenager was summoned last night to the Verizon Center to party with the only grunge band from the mid-90s to have managed to avoid heroin overdoses and general disintegration. Pearl Jam, in short, rocked. Opening with “Release,” an atmospheric track off their first album Ten, Eddie Vedder’s iconic voice soared through the indoor stadium and never sounded better.

After such a soothing opening, they jumped right into two harder, more punk-inspired songs off their new self-titled album, Pearl Jam, “World Wide Suicide” and “Severed Hand.” Both songs were delivered with a gusto that we rarely see in bands half their age. DCist’s only complaints at this point was the distracting and anachronistic laser show that was a little too mid-90s pseudo futuristic movie-esque (think Hackers). However, much to our pleasure, the light show was toned down as the band moved into some of their more well-known songs, including an excellent “Corduroy,” and an intense rendition of “Animal.”

Having a fan following that apparently rivals that of the Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam utilized effectively its audience. In such songs as “Do the Evolution,” just about the entire floor audience (i.e., the fan club seats) raised up their arms and eerily chanted at specific points in the song. We hear that U2’s shows are a near-religious experience, but to the average, unsophisticated Pearl Jam fan, this seemed almost cult-like...and we liked it.

In general, Pearl Jam tempered many of their more hard-rocking songs with their softer ballads. After mosh-pit worthy versions of “Even Flow” and “I Got Id,” we were pleasantly surprised to hear a rarely played “Present Tense.” “Low Light,” a gentle number off of Yield, was played for only twelfth time ever live, after the radio-friendly “Given to Fly” and before the fan-favorite “Unemployable.” The latter song gave Mr. Vedder a chance to deliver one of his increasingly populist diatribes against the state of our country, and while we can’t help but agree with his message, we have to admit – singing trumps preaching any day. Nonetheless, the theme of the concert seemed to be a rocking “f- the man, do your thing” message, the same that our grunge-kid-cum-twenty-something-liberal couldn’t help but get into. Closing out the first set, Pearl Jam ripped through “Inside Job,” “Life Wasted,” and “Why Go” before jamming out with an excellent extended and adventurous version of “Rearviewmirror.”

Pearl Jam’s first encore was mainly a sitting down affair for the band, giving us some acoustic and less power-chord heavy tunes. Beginning with the rarely played (though often played on this tour), “Man of the Hour,” along with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Master of War,” Vedder’s deep gravelly voice was given the spotlight it so rightly deserved. Everyone was thrilled to hear the longest title in the Pearl Jam repertoire, “Elderly Women Behind a Counter in a Small Town,” and thanked the band by, quite frankly, going nuts. Mid-encore, Eddie thanked D.C. for being so kind to them, and gave a shout out to Mount Pleasant, where they stayed the night before. The blues inspired “Come Back” from the new album was particularly well-received, and DCist predicts that this will become a Pearl Jam classic before this tour is over. As the encore ended with the high-spirited “Alive,” and we danced in a frenzy and screamed our voices away, all of us Gen-Xers and early Gen-Yers were reminded that “yes, we did make it,” and, Pearl Jam, rightly so, has as well.

The second encore consisted of strong versions of “Comatose,” “Leash” and “F—Up.” Vedder introduced the last song with a funny anecdote about Dick Cheney that left many fans expecting the Vs. classic “Glorified G” (“Got a gun, fact I got two/That's ok man, cuz I love god”), but we felt that their choice in song worked too (please review song title for explanation). Pearl Jam ended the concert well after the stadium lights were turned on with “Yellow Ledbetter,” a song that exemplifies what Pearl Jam does best – offer the listener a rocking song with a ballad worthy refrain while using the most of Eddie’s vocal prowess and forcing people to sing along even if the lyrics are all but incomprehensible. “Yellow Ledbetter” left more than one fan in our vicinity in tears. There’s not a much higher testament to the impact a band has had on a generation of people than a closing song that brings on the waterworks.

We’ve watched Pearl Jam go from a band uneasy with its own success, to one seen as a questionable remnant of the “alternative” movement, to a stadium band in its own right. While we certainly think Vedder’s voice and Pearl Jam’s energy fit the big stadium setting, we hope they don’t succumb to the requisite “outfit change” that many such bands fall prey to (though we’re quite comfortable with the progressive removal of Vedder’s layers of shirts), and we hope that they considering firing their “light show coordinator.” Overall, however, Pearl Jam put on a fast-paced, well thought-out show that was obviously designed for the fans rather than the band. They’re a band that’s built their mythology on ardent protection of their fans’ interests, and that mythology came to life last night at the Verizon Center. They provided their everyday fans with some classic hits, their “Pearl Jamily” with some powerful versions of their newer material, and gave everyone in-between the ballads that we can’t help but love and sing along to.

A full set list is available on the band's superior website, pearljam.com.

Photo by Flickr user robgirl