Eddie Vedder Dedicates ‘No Surrender’ Performance to Bruce Springsteen

“We will lean on music when words fail us,” Pearl Jam frontman says during post-election set

Eddie Vedder dedicated Pearl Jam’s post-election performance of Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 classic “No Surrender” to the Boss himself. The band performed it on Saturday, Nov. 23, at Engie Stadium in Sydney, Australia, their final date of their Dark Matter world tour.

Vedder began by mentioning how Springsteen was wrapping up his last show of his tour, which Vedder would’ve attended had he not also had his Pearl Jam show on the other side of the world in Sydney, and added that they had been texting that morning.

“Bruce Springsteen is magic, and he makes magic, and he works hard to make magic,” Vedder said. “And then sometimes it’s easy for him to make magic, but he also has songs of strength,” and ones that people can depend on, he continued.

He added: “I know for him, as well as us, it’s been a tricky time in our nation back home. We’re going to be OK. It’s just going to take some time, a bit of a reset. But we will lean on music when words fail us.” Both Vedder and Springsteen supported the Harris-Walz ticket.

Vedder then launched into a solo rendition of Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. track. The pair had previously performed “No Surrender” together in October 2004 for the Vote for Change concert at the former Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where they also performed “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and “Better Man.”

Springsteen and the E Street Band wrapped their Canadian tour in Vancouver on Friday, Nov. 22. They head to the U.K. and Europe in May.