Pearl Jam to revisit ‘Hunger Strike’ and dedicate ‘No Surrender’ cover to Bruce Springsteen at Sydney show

Seattle grunge icons Pearl Jam wrap up their 2024 touring run with a special show in Sydney.

Their final show Dark Matter The world tour (and the final date of their first Australian tour in a decade) took place at Sydney’s ENGIE Stadium on Saturday (November 23) and featured a 27-song set full of hits, deep cuts and typical covers.

One of the most notable covers was the band’s rendition of “Hunger Strike”, originally recorded by Temple of the Dog for their only album of the same name, which peaked at number five on the chart. Billboard 200 in 1991. The original version, considered something of a throwback supergroup due to the presence of future members of Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, features respective frontmen Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell on vocal duties on the track.

It became a grunge anthem and as a result was played by Pearl Jam from time to time, most recently appearing in the band’s set at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit in October 2014. Until then, it had been a staple of Cornell’s concert performances. his death in May 2017.

Pearl Jam’s latest Australian show also included covers of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing,” while their 11-song set opened with a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “No Surrender.”

For the first time since the band performed in New Jersey in June 2006, it was at this performance that Vedder solo, armed with an acoustic guitar, dedicated the track to its creator. Calling Springsteen “my great friend and my brother,” Vedder explained that if he hadn’t been performing at the final show of Pearl Jam’s world tour, he would have been watching The Boss wrap up their world tour in Vancouver.

“Bruce Springsteen is a magician, he makes magic, and he works hard to make magic,” Vedder told the crowd. “And sometimes it’s easy for him to do magic, but he also has songs of power.

“I know that for him, as for us, these have been difficult times in our country at home,” he continued. “We’ll be fine. It will just take some time, a little reboot. But we will rely on music when words fail us.”

Vedder previously performed “No Surrender” with Springsteen at the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey in October 2004 as part of the 2004 “Vote For Change” tour. At the same performance, Vedder also took part in a performance of “Darkness on the Edge of Town”.