Pearl Jam brought their cover of Temple Of The Dog’s ‘Hunger Strike’ back to their setlist for the first time in 10 years during a gig in Sydney.
The band last covered the song live in October 2014 at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit, performing it with Temple of the Dog’s late frontman Chris Cornell. Notably they have not performed it since Cornell died in 2017 at the age of 52.
They dusted the cover off again for the final show of their ‘Dark Matter‘ world tour yesterday (November 23). Meanwhile, frontman Eddie Vedder covered Bruce Springsteen’s ‘No Surrender’ for the first time since 2006.
It’s not the only time the grunge legends have put their own spin on other artists’ songs on their tour. Last month, they teamed up with Vedder’s daughter Harper for a cover of Taylor Swift‘s ‘The Best Day’ at Ohana Fest. Elsewhere at the festival, Pearl Jam played their 1990s deep cut ‘The Whale Song’ for the first time ever.
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.”
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.”
