Pearl Jam's guitarists have never been known for their tap-heavy, Eddie Van Halen-style shredfests. But, as the nearly 5-year-old video above proves, the Seattle boys can melt some faces when the situation calls for it.
Check out this video of Pearl Jam performing a vintage Van Halen medley—"Eruption" into "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"—November 30, 2013, in Spokane, Washington.
The band actually started playing the medley about a month earlier in the tour, back when they hit Hartford, Connecticut, on October 25. "The last time we played here, in 2010, we played a song and we said it was the only time we would ever play this song," Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder told the Hartford crowd. "And it was the only time we ever played this song. But as soon as we walked into the back room tonight, I was, like, 'This is where we played that song! And, for some reason, I just really need to play that song again!' But before we play that song, he's going to play this song."
"He," of course, is guitarist Mike McCready, who—in the November video above—nails Eddie Van Halen's calling-card guitar solo on a well-worn Fender Strat. Sure, the song has become something of a party trick, not to mention a YouTube cliche in guitar land; still, it's nice to know Pearl Jam has this sort of fire power under the hood—in case of emergencies!
