Pearl Jam still on top Sunday at sold-out Fenway Park

BOSTON — Hey! Hey! Pearl Jam is still at the top of its game, and those in the sold-out crowd at Fenway Park Sunday night were certainly the lucky ones.

Thirty-three years after the release of their debut album “Ten,” Pearl Jam are still one of the most exciting and inspired live bands around, as they proved during their exceptional two-and-a-half-hour, 26-song set, which included a nine-song encore, as well as plenty of political musings, poignant memories and crowd-pleasing baseball discussions.

In their 34th Bay Area show and fifth at Fenway (another show Tuesday will make the band their 35th and sixth, respectively), Pearl Jam is still a great live band that seems to get better with age. The band has aged like a bottle of fine wine that Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder often drinks between songs. At least, I think it’s fine wine. But there’s no doubting the band’s musicianship and musical excellence.

If Vedder is the soul of Pearl Jam, it’s his bandmates – Pearl Jam’s resident “guitar god” Mike McCready, equally talented guitarist Stone Gossard, bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Matt Cameron – who are the beating rock ‘n’ roll heart that brings the songs to life.

With nothing but the illuminated Citgo sign overlooking Kenmore Square to guide them, Pearl Jam began playing on a darkened stage, making them look like shadow puppets with their silhouettes the only evidence that there was a band on stage.

And then there was the music.

Pearl Jam opened with a pair of introspective, soulful tracks: “Footsteps” and “Release.”

Wearing a short-brimmed beige Western hat, a mustache and goatee, a dungaree jacket and matching jeans, Vedder’s deep vocals caressed “Release” until it became a cathartic release and the first show of the evening that hinted at the great music to come.

After burning through the two impressive slow numbers, the stage lights gradually came up and Pearl Jam soared into the stratosphere with “Given to Fly” and “Hail, Hail.”

One of rock’n’roll’s greatest torchbearers, Vedder is also a huge baseball fan and the fact that he was playing on the “hallowed ground” of Fenway Park never escaped his consciousness for a second.

But it was Ament — who started the night in a T-shirt with Larry Bird’s face on it and ended the night in a Red Sox baseball cap and Jayson Tatum’s Celtics jersey — who seemed to be having the most fun playing in Boston.

Calling playing at Fenway Park the pinnacle of performance, Vedder said the first time they played in Boston was right behind the Green Monster in a now-defunct small club, which he added is such a big difference from playing in the legendary ballpark.

Vedder displayed his greatest rage on the triumphant “Corduroy,” which remains one of Pearl Jam’s best songs with a horrifying title. Not only did he belt out the melody to the sky, but McCready also unleashed a searing guitar solo that seemed to have the power to scorch the earth.

Following a trio of already experienced heavyweights, Pearl Jam performed two songs from the latest album “Dark Matter.” Although the majority of the audience didn’t seem to be familiar with the two songs, “Scared of Fear” and “React, Respond,” they seemed to have what it takes to become staples of the band.

Vedder dedicated “Down” to Howard Zinn, author of “A People’s History of the United States,” whom the singer called arguably the greatest historian of our time and a “true Bostonian.” I don’t know if that’s true, but Zinn certainly has a song that resonates with people.

In one of the most poignant moments of the night, Vedder spoke about his good friend Chris Cornell, the lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave, who suffered from depression and committed suicide seven years earlier. Vedder recalled how the two grown men used to climb a large tree in Liberty Park in Seattle and sit in the branches 200 feet up. He also recounted how he had climbed the same tree a few weeks ago.

“It wasn’t as much fun on its own, but it brought back a lot of memories… and then, like he (Cornell) was on the branch next to me, I heard, ‘It’s okay,'” Vedder said before launching into “In My Tree.”

“Even Flow,” from the band’s debut album, “Ten,” was as powerful and potent as ever, with its incendiary guitar riffs and powder keg drums. During the song’s rocking jam, McCready—whom Vedder compared to Kevin “Youk” Youkilis of the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox—delivered a searing solo with his guitar behind his neck.

The deliciously depraved sermon “Do the Evolution,” which examines human selfishness, self-righteousness and short-sightedness, has found a more frightening resonance today.

In response to Nugent’s comments against him, Vedder insisted that they are “brothers of the mystic bow (as in bow and arrow)” but Vedder is simply not a big fan of guns. Vedder added that he thinks it is reasonable and not radical to simply put in place “common sense gun laws” to keep AK47s out of the hands of people who are not responsible enough to handle a firearm.

To reinforce his views, Vedder performed two songs back-to-back, “Glorified G” and “Jeremy.” Politics aside, they were two of the best rockers of the night.

Introducing the new song “Something Special,” almost as if he were making a commercial for roll-on deodorant, Vedder said the song could be about a father singing to his daughter, a mother singing to her son, a father singing to her son, a mother singing to her daughter, or just a song for cat ladies without kids. No matter who the song is for, it’s a great song.

After ending the main set with a raucous “Rearviewmirror,” Vedder, seated on a barstool and strapped to an acoustic guitar, delivered the most poignant story of the evening.

Beginning with his childhood memories of watching Carlton Fisk waving the ball into the air in the 12th inning of Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, Vedder said that when he looks at the Green Monster, he can’t escape the number 49 with the big red heart around it, which is in memory of Tim Wakefield.

Vedder then shared a great Wakefield story about how, before a game, Theo Epstein orchestrated Wakefield (with Jason Varitek as catcher) throwing one of his “magic pitches” right down the middle of the plate with Vedder in the batter’s box.

Dedicating “Just Breathe” to Wakefield and his wife, Stacy, Vedder said the news of Wakefield’s tragic passing hit him deeply, made even more tragic by the news of his wife’s passing shortly after.

Sitting down with Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who opened for Pearl Jam, the two sang a duet on Hansard’s “A Song of Good Hope.”

A last-minute addition that replaced “Never Destination” on the setlist, the screaming rocker “Blood” certainly got the blood flowing and the adrenaline pumping.

At the beginning of “Better Man,” Vedder opened up his heart, strumming solemnly on an electric guitar. Then, with the ferocious power of Cameron’s drums and the onslaught of the three guitarists McCready, Gossard and a Pete Townshend-inspired Vedder, the crowd began leaping into the aisle in a total frenzy. Surprisingly and much to the better, Vedder didn’t let the audience take over the song by singing along, as he has often done in the past. Maybe he’s saving that for Tuesday night.

Wearing a vintage Aerosmith T-shirt, McCready shredded his guitar with punk rock abandon on “State of Love and Trust” and played with arena rock grandeur on “Alive.”

Vedder donned a blue Red Sox batting helmet as he threw tambourines into the audience for Neil Young’s scathing, socially critical opus, “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Drawing on the spirit of Jimi Hendrix, McCready delivered a searing version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the end of Pearl Jam’s signature song, “Yellow Ledbetter.”