Eddie Vedder’s solo Phoenix concert to be broadcast live on Sunday; Vedder to perform in El Paso Nov. 7

(Nov. 2012 story)

Eddie Vedder’s solo concert on Sunday, Nov. 4 will be broadcast live on Pearl Jam’s Sirius XM radio channel.

The concert is set to start at 8:30 p.m. MT and is a rare chance to catch a Vedder concert outside of actually attending one of his shows.

Vedder has not broadcasted his solo shows before and he has suspended Pearl Jam’s open taping policy of concerts for his shows to create a more intimate setting.

Sunday’s Phoenix show will then be rebroadcast on Sirius XM on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 10 p.m. MT; Thursday, Nov. 8 at noon MT; and Saturday, Nov. 10 at 5 p.m. MT.

Vedder is set to perform at The Plaza Theatre in Downtown El Paso on Wednesday, Nov. 7 with opening act Glen Hasard. It is will be Vedder’s first concert in El Paso as a solo act or as part of Pearl Jam, although he did perform with the band in Las Cruces in September 1995.

Tickets for The Plaza Theatre show are $75 plus fees, available at The Plaza Theatre box office and Ticketmaster locations, orticketmaster.com

If you want to get a feel for what his solo shows are like check out the 2011 DVD “Water on the Road” which was filmed at two Washington, D.C. shows in 2008. Several of the DVD’s songs can be found on YouTube, as well.

The singer/songwriter is touring in support of his second solo album, “Ukelele Songs,” released last year. The album features originals and covers. He began touring that summer and was bound for El Paso last April.

But many of those spring shows, including the one at The Plaza Theatre, were postponed because of temporary nerve damage in his back that affected his right arm.

Vedder’s solo shows have been intimate – audiences of a thousand or two – and Vedder opens up the mic to take questions. Fans have asked about the origins of songs and who he’s voting for. They’ve even asked if he’s on drugs.

“Am I high? Not yet,” Vedder said in response to a question heard on a bootleg of his Los Angeles April 13, 2008 show.

It turned out to be a good question because it gave Vedder a chance to explain why he’s taken up the ukulele.

“In fact when I wrote this one (“Goodbye”), even getting high wouldn’t get me to normal. I was really kind of low,” Vedder said on the bootleg. “And then I met this friend called the ukulele. And it was such a happy sounding instrument. It was very happy and I was really down. I was like ‘perfect, I’m going to take you down with me.’ You know, as you do with your friends, you take them down. … So this thing, at least it didn’t talk back and it did whatever I told it and so it’s sad songs on a happy instrument.”

(Nov. 2012 story)