 Photo credit Bruce Gilbert
Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, HI
December 2, 2006
It was more than a tour-ender, more than a birthday celebration and more than a homecoming: Pearl Jam’s Honolulu show will go down in the annals of Hawaiian music history as quite possibly the greatest rock show ever held in the islands, and dats no joke, brah.
The freewheeling (a multiple wine-bottle night for Eddie Vedder),
forthright (an amazing cover of the Hawaiian anthem, Izzy
Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Hawai’i ’78”) and frantic show (32 songs) covered
every era of the band’s catalogue, from the 15-year-old “Oceans” to the
freshly-ridden “Big Wave.”
Vedder was in rare form, wearing a tribute T-shirt to his good friend, eight-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater.
Swigging from his wine bottle, Vedder performed with reckless abandon,
thrashing about the stage and changing lyrics on the fly to match the
setting.
But the night belonged to keyboardist Kenneth “Boom” Gaspar,
a Hawaiian native and surf buddy of Vedder’s. Gaspar performed in front
of his friends and family with Pearl Jam for the first time and held
himself in the regal manner of the royal Hawaiian that he is, behind
the keys on “Crazy Mary” and “Love Boat Captain.”
“Not only are
we happy to be ending this long year, which at times got a little rough
and it felt like we were dying, but now it feels like we have died and
gone to heaven,” said Vedder to the crowd. Agreed, Eddie, totally
agreed.
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