Pearl Jam played the 1990s deep cut ‘The Whale Song’ for the first time ever on Friday (September 27) – watch the footage below.
The band were playing at the Ohana Festival in Dana Point, California when they decided to dig deep into their catalogue to play the song, which was released on the 1999 compilation ‘Music For Our Mother Ocean 3’, and was later included on 2003’s ‘Lost Dogs’.
The song was written by the band’s drummer at the time Jack Irons, and for this performance they were joined by Jack’s son Zach Irons. See fan-captured footage of the song here:
Introducing the song, frontman Eddie Vedder said: “It’s a song written by one of our great drummers named Jack Irons. We asked Jack but he could not be here. But we didn’t just get the next best thing, we got something equally as good as his dad, it’s Mr. Zach Irons who’s gonna join us on this next song. He’s gonna play guitar, left-handed, and we’re gonna sing and we hope it connects and sends vibrations to our friends under the water.”
Earlier this month, the band played a cover of Ted Nugent’s 1975 track ‘Stranglehold’ in Baltimore, with Vedder ad-libbing: I don’t own a gun/ I don’t ever want to own a gun/ I don’t own a gun, never want to own a gun.”
Nugent, who is an outspoken pro-gun ownership activist, responded online by writing: “Hey Eddie join me on my RAV [Real America’s Voice show] spirit campfire to discuss how your insane liberal policies have created an explosion in engineered violent recidivism while you fight to disarm helpless innocent citizens.”
Pearl Jam have been vocal about resisting the increase in gun violence in the US, dedicating their 2018 single ‘Can’t Deny Me’ to the campaigning students at Parkland.
NME caught Pearl Jam’s performance at Mad Cool 2024 this summer, writing: “There is no doubt that the band aren’t new to these huge headline shows, and the structure is clearly one that has been refined throughout their years on the road. However, with this performance, Pearl Jam prove that this is far from a copy-and-paste set, and the sentiments about their deep connection to Spanish fans are by no means hollow words.”
In other news, this week, the former Pearl Jam guitarist Josh Klinghoffer pleaded not guilty to the charge of vehicular manslaughter in court in California.