"I'm still alive" is the chorus of the most famous Pearl Jam anthem.

Even if the text meant something completely different thirty years ago, today one hears less bitter defiance than the by no means self-evident fact that the band has so far been able to escape the fatal death drift of grunge.

In February, the great singer Mark Lanegan died, Chris Cornell, Layne Stalay and Kurt Cobain committed suicide or succumbed to drug addiction.

There was also an overdose when Pearl Jam was founded.

After the death of Andrew Wood, guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament had to find a new singer.

And found Eddie Vedder.

With that in mind, today's Pearl Jam performance is a celebration of survival.

Vedder's "Take care of yourself!" admonitions, which he called out to the packed audience in front of the stage in the sold-out Berlin Waldbühne on Tuesday evening, are therefore more than an attitude.

This audience has mostly aged with the band, consists of thirty to sixty year olds, a few young people are accompanied by their parents.

Migrants and "People of Color" can only be found at the admissions staff or at the beer and pretzel service.

Most viewers are seasoned Pearl Jam concertgoers, and they know exactly when to clap at double speed on "MFC" or yell "Hello!" at the top of their lungs on the never-ending wonderful ballad "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town."

Here the audience provides the choreography,

while the band acts more spontaneously than groups with a well-timed theater show like Rammstein.

Thanks to this band-audience dynamic, old songs like the riff-rocker "Even Flow" (which will inevitably be played) and the punky "Corduroy", which was doubled this evening, still work well live.

The most touching moment of the evening

Eddie Vedder's charisma is neither in dispute nor easy to explain.

The audience loves him and laughs heartily when he reads out a note with German greetings and almost capitulates at the word "Waldbühne".

The rock star has long since ceased to present himself as a melancholic, even if the current state of the world seems much darker than in the years after 1989, when grunge dominated (white) pop culture for a few years and guitar rock revived in the name of world disenchantment.

Tonight, Vedder isn't talking about the war (although lead guitarist Mike McCready is wearing a Ukraine-lettering t-shirt);

he is simply in a good mood, refreshes his throat with wine from the bottle in between, praises the beauty of the amphitheater, praises the weather and, above all, rejoices with the audience

The performance had been postponed twice because of the pandemic.

The most touching moment of the evening made it clear what that can mean in individual cases.

A teacher from Lüneburg bought tickets for the concert in 2020;

then he became seriously ill with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

He is now in need of heavy nursing care with a low life expectancy.

But he still wanted to experience this concert, which was difficult because of the organization and the accessibility.

A few days ago, the "Taz" published an article about the case entitled "Last Wish: Pearl Jam".

This finally came true when Eddie Vedder told the story and the patient was pushed onto the stage by his wife and daughter in a wheelchair.

Is that a Rolling Stones cover band?

The recent Pearl Jam album "Gigaton" got rather faint reviews.

However, two songs from it decisively enrich the band's live portfolio: the ecstatic "Quick Escape" and above all "Dance Of The Clairvoyants" with the powerful pushing bass and Mike McCready's playing of the funk rhythm counterpointed with weird stuttering licks.

It sounds a bit like Talking Heads, but not every fan likes that.

Some of the audience also seemed a little unsettled when Pearl Jam suddenly became a Rolling Stones cover band and played a powerful version of "Street Fighting Man".

The management of the rock legacy has long been part of the band's self-imposed cultural mission.

And because Vedder appreciates the Ramones Museum in Berlin so much, a light classic by the New York punk legends was also covered with “I Believe In Miracles”.

Finally, the Waldbühne had reached its best.

A brilliant summer night sky and 22,000 enthusiastic people who had just started singing the hymn to life and survival with the band after a strange shrinked version of "Yellow Ledbetter" - but the concert was already over because of the noise protection regulations.

McCready had to finish his "Alive" guitar solo, which the crowd used to chant arm-slinging and "Yeah" chanting, at exactly 10:00 p.m. sharp.

A Pearl Jam concert that breaks off after just two hours rather than ends?

The audience didn't want to admit it, the applause was mixed with whistles and jeers, while the clearing up on stage was already beginning.

Would there now be a rampage in the forest like the Stones did in 1965?

Not with the grizzled Pearl Jam fans.

The resentment evaporated after a few minutes in the balmy evening air and we went home almost contentedly.

It was nice.