Perhaps you’ve seen Chris Cornell sing “Hunger Strike” at his solo gigs in recent years. But when’s the last time you’ve seen the guy hook back up with his Temple of the Dog band mates, a.k.a. Pearl Jam, as he did during a recent show in Los Angeles?

I noticed this fan footage from this week at L.A.’s Gibson Amphitheatre embedded on the Rolling Stone Rock Daily blog. It’s the first time the super-group has reunited since 2003, says RS daily.

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Last week, the monsters of Northwest rock loomed everywhere, from Pearl Jam’s two-night stand at KeyArena to Heart’s rockin’ Puyallup Fair performance and Alice in Chains’ triumphant comeback set at Seattle’s Moore Theatre.

Tacoma’s Fabulous Wailers set the stage for all of the above way back in the early ‘60s with early hits “Tall Cool One” and “Louie Louie.” And while their set last Saturday at new South Tacoma Way rock club, the Stonegate, didn’t generate the same fanfare as, say, Pearl Jam, it was definitely noteworthy in that the Wailers, too, were unleashing new material on their fans.
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Re: A request for confirmation I made here. Nice Supersonics/beer rant, Eddie Vedder. God bless you, YouTube. And big props to TRC reader “Kevindot1″ for pointing this one out.

So you remember that little kid Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder acknowledged Monday night at KeyArena? Well, that little squirt hails from right here in Grit City.

The kid’s dad, Jeff Evans, sent us an e-mail about what he calls “a life changing night.” It gave me the warm fuzzies and all, so I thought I’d share it with all of you, too. Here it is.

Today I took my seven (almost eight) year old son to his first concert, of any type. I debated on it, but I really believed that he was ready to have this experience, to have it and hold it, and appreciate it for the rest of his life. He was ready.
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Behold, the monsters of Northwest rock! First Seattle rock kings Pearl Jam took over KeyArena for two epic nights, Monday and Tuesday. Tonight, Alice in Chains will unleash material from comeback album “Black Gives Way to Blue” to a full house at Seattle’s Moore Theatre.

But last night it was all about Heart, the underrated queenpins of Seattle rock. (So why didn’t guitar goddess Nancy Wilson make Rolling Stone’s controversial greatest guitarists list again? That chica has served up some mighty tasty riffs over the years. But at least Guitar Hero is finally giving her props. But I digress.)
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I missed Pearl Jam’s second show last night at KeyArena. But big props to reader Kevin Healy for the set list he forwarded from a fan forum:

Set List: Sometimes, Why Go, All Night, The Fixer, Dissident, Johnny Guitar, Faithfull, Lukin, Not For You/(“Modern Girl” by Sleater-Kinney), No Way, Unthought Known, Unemployable, Comatose, Insignificance, Present Tense, Got Some, Go

1st encore: Just Breathe w/the Octava String Quartet, The End w/the Octava String Quartet, Black, In My Tree, Spin The Black Circle

2nd encore: Supersonic (sung as “SuperSonics” with new lyrics about SuperSonics basketball team), Do The Evolution, The Real Me (by Townshend) w/the Syncopated Taint Horn Quartet, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner)

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I didn’t get approved to shoot video of Pearl Jam last night. But bootleggers don’t need no steenking photo pass. So here’s a clip that reader and fellow blogger-type Bernie Zimmermann uploaded to the ol’ YouTube machine. The video includes “Indifference” and Eddie Vedder talking about Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic. Enjoy it while it lasts (assuming PJ cares about grainy clips of their sets showing up on the Internet.) And check Bernie’s take on last night’s show over here.

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Pearl Jam spent the better part of the last decade championing lefty causes and bashing neocon antics, notably on “Bushleager” and “Worldwide Suicide,” among other cuts (not to mention many a between-song rant and that controversial Denver “Dubya” Bush mask stomp a few years back.)

So even if band leader Eddie Vedder is more content to sing about the joys of surfing than anything you’ll see on CNN these days, you had to figure politics would come up at some point Monday night during Pearl Jam’s homecoming set at KeyArena, the first half of a two-night stand that continues today at 7:30 p.m.
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Half of Pearl Jam’s two-night stand at KeyArena is in the books, and as promised I’ve got the rest of the set list. (I started posting during the show until wi-fi slowed down to a distracting, glacial pace.)

Check back later and I’ll have more notes and photos. Meanwhile, hit the more button to see which of the new “Backspacer” cuts the band played and which Who cover they dusted off this time around.
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Last year, many of you witnessed Fergie putting her stamp on arena rock classic “Barracuda” at the Puyallup Fair. But on Wednesday (Sept. 23) you can see and hear the real deal when Northwest rock legend Heart takes over the grandstand. And just to get you in the mood I’ve got a couple more clips from my interview with guitar goddess Nancy Wilson regarding one of her band’s signature songs.
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