Pearl Jam Returns to the Stage at Ohana Festival With a New Live Chapter

The appearance came during the 10th anniversary edition of Ohana Festival, the annual Southern California event co-founded by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. Running September 25 through September 27, this year’s festival assembled a broad lineup that included Maná, Tyler Childers, Alabama Shakes, Fontaines D.C., Pixies, Rilo Kiley, Billy Idol, Bad Religion and other performers.

Yet Pearl Jam arrived with one of the weekend’s most closely watched stories.

A Different Lineup Behind the Music

The band's Ohana appearances marked its first live performances since longtime drummer Matt Cameron announced his departure in 2025 after 27 years with Pearl Jam.

For the festival, Abe Laboriel Jr. stepped behind the drum kit. Laboriel is widely known for his longtime work with Paul McCartney and has extensive experience performing major rock shows in arenas and stadiums.

Vedder introduced Laboriel as filling in, leaving his longer-term status with Pearl Jam undefined.

That distinction matters. Rather than presenting Ohana as the formal beginning of a permanently reorganized Pearl Jam, the performances offered audiences their first opportunity to hear how the band's familiar catalog could sound with a different drummer providing its foundation.

Pearl Jam has always relied heavily on live interplay. Songs can stretch beyond their studio arrangements, set lists frequently change, and performances often respond to the atmosphere of the venue and audience.

Changing the musician responsible for the rhythmic foundation inevitably introduces another variable into that live formula.

Familiar Songs in a New Setting

Pearl Jam made an unexpected appearance during the festival's opening night on September 25, ahead of its announced September 27 headlining performance.

The surprise set provided an early look at the new live configuration.

Material performed during the appearance included "Corduroy," "Even Flow" and "I Got Id," connecting different stages of Pearl Jam's career. The group also incorporated Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl," continuing its longstanding practice of bringing outside songs into its live repertoire.

The selections provided an effective introduction to this version of the band because they depend heavily on ensemble chemistry.

"Even Flow," in particular, has spent decades evolving onstage. Its familiar guitar-driven structure provides room for Pearl Jam to expand the arrangement, making live versions distinct from the original studio recording.

"Corduroy" similarly remains a natural concert piece, built around momentum, guitar interplay and Vedder's unmistakable vocal presence.

Rather than treating its established catalog as something fixed, Pearl Jam continues to approach these songs as material that can change depending on the musicians, venue and circumstances.

Ohana Provides an Appropriate Stage

The setting also gave the performances additional context.

Ohana Festival has become closely connected with Vedder since its launch in 2016. Its location beside the Pacific Ocean distinguishes it from conventional stadium and arena dates, while its programming regularly combines established artists with performers from different generations and genres.

The 2026 lineup demonstrated that approach particularly well.

Rock acts shared the weekend with alternative, indie, Americana and Latin performers. Maná's appearance was especially significant, with the Mexican group becoming the first Latin rock band to headline Ohana during the festival's decade-long history.

For Pearl Jam, appearing in this environment feels different from simply adding another date to a traditional tour.

Ohana functions partly as a gathering built around musical discovery and collaboration, making it an appropriate setting for a band entering an unfamiliar live chapter.

More Than Nostalgia

It would be easy for a band with Pearl Jam's history to construct performances primarily around nostalgia.

The group emerged from Seattle's early-1990s rock scene and built a catalog containing songs that remain deeply connected to that era. Yet its continued presence on festival stages demonstrates how a longstanding catalog can remain active rather than becoming a museum piece.

That is particularly apparent when circumstances force the musicians to adapt.

With Laboriel behind the kit, familiar material now operates within a subtly altered musical framework. The songs remain recognizable, but the personnel change creates an opportunity for different rhythmic interpretations and interactions among the musicians.

The Ohana performances therefore represent both continuity and transition.

Pearl Jam remains centered around Vedder, guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, and bassist Jeff Ament, while its live rhythm section enters unfamiliar territory.

For audiences, that makes these performances notable beyond the set list itself. They provide the first glimpse of how one of American rock's longest-running major bands is approaching the stage after an important personnel change.

More than three decades into its career, Pearl Jam is once again demonstrating one of live music's defining qualities: even familiar songs can change when the people performing them enter a new chapter.