It's nothing new to see Eddie Vedder take the stage toting a bottle of wine and a folder of papers as he did Wednesday (9/30) at the first of four sold-out nights at the Gibson Amphitheatre. For this tour of 15 shows in eight cities, though, those props carry meaning: this is Pearl Jam [ tickets ] rifling through their songbook, assembling entirely different shows nightly with only a few recurring tunes.

Most acts don't support the No. 1 album in the country this way. Then again, few have the capacity to make every song sizzle in a viscerally potent 25-tune set; this is Pearl Jam opting to use simplicity, directness and fortitude to guide them through two decades of song.

"Why Go"--a tune that turns 20 next year--"Animal" and "World Wide Suicide" opened the show with the flurry of a boxing match, the breaks between rounds nearly eliminated. The trio of tunes signaled--and this largely held true for the two hours the quintet was onstage--that this would be a full-throttle, no-nonsense evening; even the softer songs would that allow everyone to catch their breath (enthralling readings of "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" and "Present Tense") simmered with a contagious intensity.

Seven songs from the new album "Backspacer," which sold 189,000 copies in its first week, made it into Wednesday's set. "The Fixer" exposed a rare, playful, light-hearted spirit; "Just Breathe," performed with a string quartet during the first encore, reveled in the tenderness that Vedder has increasingly used to great effect over the last decade. "Ten," given the deluxe treatment in March, was also well-represented, with the album's "Black," "Even Flow" and "Porch" receiving some of the night's sharpest performances.

In this jumble of songs that touched on nearly every album in their canon--Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" closed the night on the heels of "State of Love and Trust" from the "Singles" soundtrack--the commonality that kept creeping up was their assimilation of classic-rock foundations and flourishes. Hendrixian bits provided the flair in "Tremor Christ"; "World Wide Suicide" fits a Beatles-Ramones continuum; "Got Some" rolled with the fury of a '60s surf instrumental ; the bracingly performed "Porch" revealed in Creedence Clearwater Revival DNA; Bowie bits are sprinkled in "Big Wave."

It's a tribute to the basics of rock 'n' roll, an m.o. as exemplified by their simple yet pointed backdrop: the keyboard of a manual typewriter with a row of keys spelling out Pearl Jam.