SEATTLE — It was obviously too big to ignore. Excited Eddie Vedder fans stood in snaking merch and bar lines in Benaroya Hall’s lobby before the Pearl Jam frontman played his second of two Seattle shows Tuesday night. But entering the hall, the energy was different than it was one joyous night earlier.
News that Seattle alt-rock great Mark Lanegan had died of unknown causes earlier that day punctured a hole in the Seattle music community’s collective heart. By sheer coincidence or some sort of cosmic will, Vedder’s hometown show celebrating his exceptional new “Earthling” album became the community’s de facto gathering place — a bunch of rocker types communing in a regal symphony hall that felt like a church compared with the ballparks and arenas Pearl Jam typically plays.
Singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, Vedder’s friend and member of his Earthlings band, again began the evening with a brief but riveting solo set. Sitting at a piano, Hansard dedicated a powerful rendition of his heavy “Bird of Sorrow” ballad to the late singer-songwriter and Screaming Trees frontman. A song that felt so uplifting just 24 hours earlier was completely devastating, in the most beautiful way, on Tuesday.
