Pearl Jam fans in the Twin Cities who've felt dissed by the band for skipping us on recent tours may or may not take solace in the fact that at least Eddie Vedder is coming here on his solo tour with Swell Season/Frames singer Glen Hansard. The pair will perform July 2 at the Orpheum Theatre. Tickets go on sale next Friday, April 1, at 1 p.m. and are actually more expensive than the average Pearl Jam seat, coming in at $79. Vedder's second solo album, the not-so-promisingly titled "Ukulele Songs," lands May 31.
Vedder joins a stretch of shows around the July 4 holiday, a week that's starting to look crowded with the Black Keys on July 3 and A Perfect Circle on July 6, both at Roy Wilkins Auditorium, plus Katy Perry on July 9 at Xcel Center and more TBA. There's an easy explanation for why these acts are coming to town then: They're all playing Milwaukee's great Summerfest around the same time. As I wrote when the Black Keys gig was announced, it's as lame as a stale corndog that these acts are all doing indoors shows here in the heart of summer. I'm quite certain I would make a lousy concert promoter, but I'm equally certain that whatever concert promoter first comes up with a new local festival for our Fourth of July weekend -- one that's not named Taste of Minnesota -- is going to clean up. All those Summerfest acts are prime for the picking, since we would be the next town over on the tour itinerary. Even promoters in Des Moines figured that one out.
