Watch Pearl Jam Cover the Beatles' "Her Majesty" in Toronto

The band also covered Neil Young and paid tribute to Gord Downie on their final Canadian tour date

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Sep 9, 2022

Pearl Jam brought arena-sized intimacy to Toronto last night for the fourth and final Canadian stop on their North American tour behind 2020's Gigaton, and paid tribute to both Canadian songwriting royalty and an actual monarch on the evening.

After the passing of Queen Elizabeth II was announced earlier in the day, Pearl Jam worked a timely cover of the Beatles' "Her Majesty" into their set.

As you'll see below, Eddie Vedder told the crowd, "This is just a little one I'm going to borrow from Paul McCartney for about 90 seconds," before segueing into Pearl Jam's "All Those Yesterdays."

In tribute to their old friend Neil Young, with whom they released Mirror Ball back in 1995, Pearl Jam worked a bit of the Canadian's "Cinnamon Girl" into "I Got Id," before closing the evening with a cover of "Rockin' In the Free World."

The set also included tributes to the late Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie, including the return of a "Gord Fucking Downie" T-shirt worn by bassist Jeff Ament

JamBase notes that Pearl Jam opened their encore with a performance of "Light Years" dedicated to Downie, after Vedder noticed a fan with sign requesting it be played, while a publicly compiled setlist points to the frontman's "Here, Here and Here" from Secret Path being played as Pearl Jam took the stage.

Read Exclaim!'s review of Pearl Jam's September 3 show in Ottawa.

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