Talk about Pearl Jam's diversity: 50 songs in two Austin shows, only one of them the same

Pearl Jam's nine-concert bonus mini-tour rolled through Austin this week, and the band went out with a bang with a steady dose of Moody Center bangers as it closed the books on its mammoth Gigaton tour with a pair of nostalgic, rocking shows.

One year ago, they thought they were ending this pandemic-delayed and altered tour with a final makeup show in Denver. But the effects of the pandemic continue to be felt both positively and negatively: a decision to make up some shows that were delayed because of COVID-19 resulted in this month's nine-show mini-tour that took the band to Minneapolis, Indianapolis and then a Texas swing of Fort Worth twice last week and the two Austin shows Monday and Tuesday.

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That Indy show didn't happen as the band was hit by a combination of COVID-19 and the flu. But PJ has been getting stronger and stronger starting with Fort Worth and showed few effects by Tuesday night. Oh, Eddie Vedder wasn't brandishing his bottle of wine during the show as he often does, PJ opened up with a set of four softer rockers while sitting down and, sure, Vedder's voice wasn't at full power, though he got stronger and stronger as the night went on. But after 30 years of wowing crowds with their virtuoso front man and incendiary lead guitarist, they drew upon gem after gem, rocker after rocker.

Here are takeaways from Pearl Jam's two shows in Austin.

Completing the Texas swing with some deep cuts

This mini-tour was a gift to fans who've been there since the start, with the band going deep in its catalogue. There were Pink Floyd, The Who, Tom Petty and Van Halen covers in Fort Worth. In Austin they gave fans first live looks since 2018 for "Thumbing My Way" and "Out of My Mind." There were rarer "Spin the Black Circle," "In My Tree" and "Wishlist" sightings, and on Tuesday they played "Unemployable" live for the first time in 10 years and "Who You Are" for the first time since 2016.

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The band opened these nine shows as a kinder, gentler Pearl Jam, with four songs that changed from night to night and had the band sitting on stools and chairs — perhaps an homage to their legendary 1992 MTV Unplugged performance, perhaps a tip of the cap to their age (spoiler alert: they're all between 57 and 60) or perhaps a conciliation to their current health. Consequently, it took three songs for them to find their on-stage groove; on Tuesday, it wasn't until Mike McCready's solo on "Low Light" that sparked the takeoff, though once they did, the band didn't look back. That song led right into "Black," another Unplugged reminder, and Vedder started hitting all the notes.

Flu and COVID-19 ain't got nothing on Pearl Jam

McCready's a rooster. He spent those first four songs pinned to his chair looking like a student who's forced to stay in his seat, fidgeting and stretching during his seated solos. Once he was let out of the cage, he was vintage McCready, strutting the stage, keeping his corner of the audience captivated and — literally during his "Alive" solo — walking by the edge of the crowd on the floor all the way to the back of Moody. Drummer Matt Cameron, whom Vedder accurately described Tuesday night as not only the band's engine, but also its driver, was solid and Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard were their steady selves.

Eddie's heart was there, if not quite all of his voice.

Shows are over, but the work isn't

Vedder's not slowing down. Next up is his annual three-night Ohana Festival on the California coast that he'll front but also will welcome The Killers, Foo Fighters, The Chicks and The Pretenders. It was at that masked-up event in September 2021 when Pearl Jam debuted live performances from the March 2020 "Gigaton" album. Vedder will pair with the Earthlings  — his side band, which put out an album in 2022 — and there also are two solo shows coming up next month at Seattle's Benaroya Hall, another memorable Pearl Jam haunt. Ament's side project, Deaf Charlie, also will play Ohana, and Gossard's side band, Brad, came out with an album late this summer for the first time in 11 years.

And Pearl Jam's been in the studio. Their 12th studio album, the first one since "Gigaton," will be released in 2024. This nine-show mini-tour merely whetted our appetite for a bigger tour to come.

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Austin observations: some quick hits

An informal poll of fans yielded across-the-board highlights of the two nights: "Given To Fly," "Whipping" and "Spin The Black Circle" on Monday, and then "Black," an incendiary "Rearviewmirror" and encore gems "Crown of Thorns," "Better Man" and "Alive" on Tuesday.

Vedder opened both Austin encores with pleas followed by gems, going political on Monday (imploring Texans to change our abortion laws) before "Wishlist" and pivoting to unity and hope with Tuesday's "Imagine."

During the encore, Vedder acknowledged two signs in the audience, one proclaiming Tuesday night as that fan's 100th show, another as his 129th. Vedder threw one of his "Rockin' In the Free World" encore tambourines to the No. 100 fan and also blew her a kiss from the stage.

Breaking down the Austin setlists

Consider this: In all, Pearl Jam played 50 songs in Austin — 23 on Monday, 27 on Tuesday — yet gave us only one repeat: the 1991 "Alive," both times setting up the final song of the night (The Who's "Baba O'Riley" on Monday and their own "Yellow Ledbetter" on Tuesday).

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Monday's show was about plucking those rare ones out of the bag. Tuesday's was truly a dance of decades, but then when you've been doing this at a high level for 30 years, that dance comes easily. Pearl Jam took Tuesday night's crowd into the 1960s (a cover of "Last Kiss," which was sung to the crowd that was placed directly behind the stage), the 1970s (John Lennon's "Imagine," which opened the encore just as "Wishlist" opened Monday night's, with a powerful dose of Vedder optimism), and even the 1980s with a beautiful performance of the beloved "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns" homage to Mother Love Bone and original singer Andy Wood.

Pearl Jam's Austin setlist for Monday, Sept. 18

Nothingman

Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town

Thumbing My Way

Footsteps

Present Tense

Who Ever Said

Save You

Corduroy

Quick Escape

Even Flow

Out of My Mind

In My Tree

Animal

Given To Fly

I God Id

Porch

Encore — Wishlist, Smile, Whipping, Do the Evolution, Spin the Black Circle, Alive, Baba O'Riley

Pearl Jam's Austin setlist Tuesday, Sept. 19

Throw Your Arms Around Me

Wash

Sometimes

Low Light

Black

Retrograde

Once

Never Destination

Why Go

1/2 Full

Daughter

Unemployable

Dance of the Clairvoyants

Habit

Who You Are

Glorified G

Rearviewmirror

Encore — Imagine, Last Kiss, Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns, State of Love and Trust, Jeremy, Better Man, Alive, Rockin' in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Pearl Jam concluded its Gigaton tour with a pair of shows in Austin