Not content to take one side in the eternal Seattle-ite debate between Nirvana and Pearl Jam, reunited garage rock legends the Sonics performed with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder this weekend, just two weeks after sharing a stage with former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. Vedder joined the band for a cover of the old, Holland-Dozier-Holland penned Motown hit “Leaving Here” as a part of the band’s Record Store Day set at Seattle’s Easy Street Records.
The song is a familiar one for both parties. It appears on the Sonics’ new album This Is the Sonics—the band’s first album of new recordings in almost 50 years. Pearl Jam also covered the song for a benefit album in 1996. Unsurprisingly, this Sonics-Vedder rendition hews closer to the rough, raucous Sonics sound than to Pearl Jam’s arena grunge. Vedder, as is his usual wont, brings palpable enthusiasm to his performance, calling it “an honor and an unexpected privilege.”
Watch a video—with surprisingly good quality sound despite being clearly shot with a phone—of the performance below:
Be the first to comment!