Despite struggles, Pearl Jam tour hits Fresno’s Save Mart Center — and it’s a reunion

One could have forgiven Pearl Jam if it had chosen to cancel out on Monday night’s tour stop at Fresno’s Save Mart Center arena.

After all, the band is currently down a member, drummer Matt Cameron having tested positive for COVID 19 last week, and vocalist Eddie Vedder admitted early during the show that he was also sick, with the stomach flu or food poisoning or some such.

“You sing from the guts, and I can feel it. It’s hurting right now,” he said.

“I’ve never been on stage feeling this (expletive).”

He hid it well during the two-hour-plus set, leaving the stage occasionally and handing over vocal duties on a couple of songs (2003’s “Don’t Give Me No Lip” and a countrified version of Prince’s “Purple Rain”), but mostly nailing his signature vocal timbre and singing style (his body contorted around the mic stand).

A reunion with Dave Krusen

Going into the show, there was some question about who would be sitting in behind the drum kit. During two shows in Oakland last week, the band split drum duties between the band’s touring guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, bassist Jeff Ament (can everyone in the band play drums?) and Seattle musician Richard Stuverud.

They also pulled in a pair of local musicians.

Klingoffer and Stuverud returned to the kit in Fresno, but split duties with Pearl Jam’s original drummer, Dave Krusen.

This was the first time Krusen had played with Pearl Jam since the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall in 2017 and the most songs he’s played with them since he left the band in 1991.

As expected, the set pulled heavy from the band’s debut album, “Ten.”

They played all but two songs — “Oceans” and “Release.”

The sense of history was palpable for Vedder, though it could have been the illness talking.

“I’ve just been delivered back into this basement in 1990, 1991. It’s a trip, man,” Vedder said, during a block of songs that included “Jeremy”and “Alive.”

Who was the opener, Pluralone?

The “Gigaton” tour has certainly put a spotlight on Klinghoffer.

The guitarist spent 10 years with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers before joining Pearl Jam last year. Along with playing guitar (and now drumming in the band) Klinghoffer is opening each night with a 30-minute set from his solo project Pluralone.

Klinghoffer plays guitar and sings over drum machine beats, though he gets help from Ament and Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard (or at least he did at the Fresno show, where he opted to forgo his set list and play several Jane’s Addiction covers, which he may or may not have ever played before).

Pluralone does have an album out, now.

Random thoughts on the night

• You have to admire a band that can flip its set list on any given night and still deliver the goods. Those who did a set-list search before Monday night’s show noticed the band has changed it up from city to city (and also has the catalog to do so). There’s good mystery in it. You have to show up to see what they play or just miss out. It lends a sort of one-night only aspect to the concert that you don’t get much from arena-rock bands these days.

• Pearl Jam has a history with Neil Young. In Oakland last week, the band opened with a cover of “Rockin’ in the Free World.” For the Fresno show they played “Throw Your Hatred Down,” a song they recorded with Young on his 1995 album “Mirror Ball.”

• There was a moment when Vedder was just standing on the side of the stage throwing guitar picks into the crowd while the band jammed on behind him. There was a visible sense of joy in that act.

• Vedder name-dropped Lemoore. Twice. He said it had some of the best surfing in the world, no doubt a reference the famous Surf Ranch.

• Vedder’s voice is very much part of the instrumentation of Pearl Jam. This is true of any band, but hearing Pearl Jam live you understand how much Vedder’s tone and timbre add to the band’s soundscape.

• The band kept the house lights up, like full on, for the better part of the encore (which included a cover of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”). It’s something I’ve rarely seen at an arena rock show and it was maybe a little jarring. But it also was awesome to see a band upend the “encore” trope and finish the set without the benefit of some big flashy ending.

Set list for 5/16/22 at Save Mart Center

With Joshua Klinghoffer on drums

• Small Town

• Given to Fly

• Evolution

• Wishlist

• Don’t Gimme No Lip

With Dave Krusen on drums

• Once

• Why Go

• Even Flow

• Garden

• Black

With Richard Stuverud on drums

• Animal

• Quick Escape

• Throw Your Hatred Down (Neil Young cover)

• Purple Rain (Prince cover)

With Dave Krusen on drums

• Porch

Encore

• Jeremy

• Deep

• State of Love and Trust

• Alive

• Baba O’Riley (Who cover)

• Yellow Ledbetter