In the 30-plus years that Eddie Vedder has been a part of the rock music pantheon, he’s played a full cast of characters on stage. There’s been the unhinged banshee that made early Lollapalooza appearances look like stunt double tryouts; the eager Cubs fan who got to live out his field of dreams headlining Wrigley Field; and the emotional wild card that flipped the script on “MTV Unplugged.” Yet, on Wednesday night at the Auditorium Theatre — the first of two nights in a short run of solo shows — Vedder was simply a singer-songwriter in his element.
The rare appearance sans the members of Pearl Jam, served as a sounding board for Vedder’s latest solo material, before his new record “Earthling” hits streets on Friday. Though the wide-spanning performance on this night was bookended by a curated assortment of covers, Vedder devoted the meaty midsection to previewing nine of the 13 new tracks that show his ever-growing range.
