Eddie Vedder’s voice is in the twilight of its career. As a long-time and pathetically loyal fan, I’ve more than come to terms with that. One any given night, it’s hit or miss. Last night, while giving the second to last musical performance before David Letterman hangs up his tasseled loafers, Vedder was mixed bag. That’s the best you can hope for when you’ve been drinking and smoking and singing the shit out of 30+ song set lists for almost 25 years. But fuck it, right? Rock stars are supposed to burn out.
With over 10 appearances on the show, Eddie Vedder made for an obvious choice as one of Letterman’s final musical guests. He and Pearl Jam have a long history with The Late Show, dating back all the way to the mid 90s when Eddie made a surprise appearance to sing the end of “Black.” Since then, the band practically made the show a must-stop during any promotion of a new album and when they released their self-titled effort in 2006 they played a full blown concert for Letterman at the Ed Sullivan Theater. So yeah, fitting that Vedder would perform one last time. What’s not-so-fitting, however, is that he played “Better Man,” a song about a woman stuck in an abusive relationship with nowhere else to go.
Here’s a full slate of all Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder solo performances from The Late Show.