Alternative
Pearl Jam played in full on Friday night at the Ohana Festival in Dana Point, California, inside a set billed as “Eddie Vedder and Friends”, with Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums. They opened with “Corduroy”.
They went on through “Hail, Hail”, “Scared of Fear”, “Wishlist”, “Dark Matter”, “I Got Shit”, “Do the Evolution”, “Won’t Tell”, “Pretty Green”, “Green Disease”, “Lukin” and “Porch”, and came back for “Better Man”, “Even Flow”, the Dead Boys’ “Sonic Reducer” and The Who’s “Baba O’Riley”.
It was the band’s first show since Matt Cameron left in July 2025 after 27 years, and in fourteen months they had not said who would replace him. Vedder told the crowd that Laboriel was “filling in tonight”; Far Out Magazine, though, has him down as a new permanent member. The band has announced no permanent replacement.
Laboriel has drummed for Paul McCartney since “Driving Rain” (2001) and played on Vedder’s solo album “Earthling” (2022). He is the son of session bassist Abe Laboriel and has toured with Sting and with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood. Pearl Jam close Ohana on Sunday, and it is the only show they have scheduled for the rest of 2026.
Text by Marçal Bonastre