The only thing better than one Big Day Out headliner is two on stage at the same time, and that’s exactly what happened at the Perth leg of the tour on Sunday when Arcade Fire‘s Win Butler joined Pearl Jam onstage to help Eddie Vedder cover Neil Young‘s track Rockin’ In The Free World.
Pearl Jam are no strangers to the cover, having belted it out in Dallas with Sleater-Kinney‘s Carrie Brownstein and Annie Clark from St. Vincent. This time, Butler made a surprise entrance on stage during the first verse, took over vocals for the second verse and then harmonised with Vedder on the third.
The Neil Young classic is just one of many cover songs the Seattle grunge legends have been throwing in their BDO sets, treating audiences to songs like Hunters & Collector‘s Throw Your Arms Around Me and Mother Love Bone‘s Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns.
The two bands are clearly feeling the love for one another, with Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament wearing a Reflektor t-shirt. But the cover was the last song to ever be performed on the Perth Big Day Out main stage, with both promoter AJ Maddah and CEO Adam Zammit confirming that the festival favourite will not be heading west in 2015.
WATCH: Pearl Jam and Win Butler – Rockin’ In The Free World
