Eddie Vedder honors late rock great Mark Lanegan during Seattle concert

Following a lengthy intermission, Vedder, one of Lanegan’s peers and a leader among a Seattle generation that has lost too many of its brightest musical lights far too young, led his all-star band on stage without much pomp. After a quiet-storm cover of R.E.M.’s “Drive” and a version of “Here Comes the Sun” that felt a little “Harvest Moon,” Vedder looked out into the crowd, acknowledging the number of familiar faces in his hometown, and addressed the elephant in the room.

Vedder spoke of the “challenges” of the last two years and more recently, seemingly a reference to the pandemic and the band’s own bout with the coronavirus, which caused them to reschedule a few dates on this short tour.

“We felt good last night and excited to do it again,” he said. “Then I got here about 4 o’clock and all of a sudden my body started shaking a little bit. And I started to feel really terrible and I think it was because I was having an allergic reaction to sadness. Because we lost, um, Mark Lanegan.”

As his voice began to tremble, the crowd erupted in applause, as if putting one hand on Vedder’s shoulder while saluting Lanegan with the other.

“A lot of really great musicians — some people know Seattle because of the musicians that have come out of the great Northwest,” Vedder continued, regaining his composure. “Some of those guys were one-of-a-kind singers and Mark was certainly that. Such a strong voice. It’s hard to come to terms, at least at this point. He’s gonna be deeply missed and at least we will always have his voice to listen to and his words and his books to read — he wrote two incredible books in the last two years. So, just wanted to process it and put it out there and let his wife and loved ones know that people in his old stomping grounds are thinking about him, and love him and miss him.”