Ament nearly got choked up as he talked about coming so far together.
“It’s an unusual situation,” Vedder said.īut the afternoon was emotional anyway. The band acknowledged that it was surreal to stand there and listen to a recording as audience members bobbed their heads in front of an empty stage. Vedder compared the current process of making a record together to surfer Kelly Slater’s attempt to create the perfect wave far from the ocean, but instead of water, the group was trying to make something of “an anxiousness, an anger, a sadness, a joy, a regret.” He played there with his metal band Shadow in 1987, when the Sunset Strip outside was the teased-hair capital of the world, and his solos on the new record are metallic in their speed and ferocity. McCready said the Troubadour stage took him back. A Grammy winner for 2021 producer of the year, Watt has worked with the Rolling Stones, Post Malone, Miley Cyrus and Vedder on his 2022 solo album “Earthling.”
