Eddie Vedder Talks Riding ‘The Surfboard of Hope’ at Tribeca ‘Matter of Time’ Film Premiere and Performance

By the time the world premiere of the documentary Matter of Time and a panel with key figures from it finished, the Tribeca Festival audience gathered in lower Manhattan on Thursday (June 12) was jonesing for the final part of the night’s programming: a solo acoustic performance by Eddie Vedder. Much to their relief, they didn’t have to wait long.

“That was a quick five-minute changeover,” the Pearl Jam frontman said as he took the stage. “That was very Saturday Night Live – and it’s only Thursday.”

Vedder wasn’t just in Tribeca as a performer, but as an activist and philanthropist. Matter of Time documents the work of the EB Research Partnership, a nonprofit founded by Vedder and his wife, Jill, dedicated to treating the rare genetic disorder Epidermolysis Bullosa, and a pair of Seattle concerts Vedder played during the organization’s Venture Into Cures Summit in October 2023.

After thanking “Bob” – “He bought my mom dinner once for her birthday, so I feel like I can call him Bob now,” Vedder quipped of Tribeca Festival co-founder Robert De Niro – the singer turned to the audience. “I just can’t thank you enough for taking that journey with us,” he said. “To accept all that information and all that emotion and be supporting and give us a way to ride the surfboard of hope – we are very, very grateful.”

As the screen behind him displayed pictures of EB patients – most of them children – Vedder launched into his first song, a heartfelt cover of Warren Zevon’s “Keep Me In Your Heart.” The selection was emblematic of the six-song set, where a loose, reflective Vedder leaned heavily on covers. “If I f–k it up, you don’t really have to tell anybody,” he joked before the next song, a rendition of Tom Waits’ “Picture In a Frame” that he said he hadn’t planned to play.

After bringing out the singer-songwriter Glen Hansard to handle guitar duties for Hansard’s own “The Song of Good Hope,” Vedder continued on solo with a rousing version of Pearl Jam’s Ten classic “Porch.” He may have flubbed a transition in the song – “I think I just messed that up!” he remarked during it – but the audience gave him a standing ovation anyway.

“That was very generous, thank you,” Vedder said, before referencing Dr. Jean Tang, a Stanford researcher featured in Matter of Time. During Thursday’s panel, she explained that, with EBRP’s help, a new gene therapy treatment for the condition received FDA approval two months ago. “It wasn’t quite as loud as the ovation that science got, and I couldn’t be happier about that,” Vedder happily declared. “I’ll take a backseat to rock star Jean Tang any day.”

Moderated by Tribeca’s Casey Baron, Tang appeared on the brief panel with Jill Vedder, Matter of Time director Matt Finlin, EBRP CEO Michael Hund, and a young EB patient, Rowan, and her mother, Kate. “We need the cure, I’ve been waiting eight years!” Rowan good-naturedly told Tang. “But thank you for your science stuff.”

As the documentary and panel detailed, EB research has increased by leaps and bounds since the creation of EBRP in 2010. For the Vedders, the cause is personal: They were spurred into action after meeting a friend’s child who had EB. “There was nothing then,” Jill said during the panel. Today, with three FDA-approved treatments available, “it really feels like this [a cure] can happen in our lifetime. It really does feel close, and I’m really proud of our families for opening themselves up. We asked a lot of you to be in this film. Thank you for trusting us.”

While Matter of Time weaves in several Vedder performances from his two concerts at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall – Pearl Jam classics like “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town” and “Better Man” and deep cuts like 2020’s “River Cross” shine – the film is primarily about the lives of EB patients and their families, and the researchers who are working toward a cure. Many of them attended the 2023 shows; the most powerful musical moment in the documentary isn’t any Pearl Jam song, but rather “Say Hi,” which Vedder wrote for the young patient Eli – “My friend, my teacher, my hero,” as Vedder describes him to the Seattle concert audience – who is featured heavily in the documentary and attended Thursday night’s premiere.

In Matter of Time, Jill says EBRP’s research isn’t just critical to curing EB – a devastating disease that one parent in the film says makes patients’ skin “slide off like skin on a ripe peach” – but to providing a model for private funding to support research of rare conditions at a time when public funding is often insufficient. Another parent in the film sums up the extent to which the Vedders’ activism has impacted the EB community: “They changed dread into hope.”

So, naturally, Tang received as impassioned an ovation when she spoke on Thursday as Vedder did – something that clearly buoyed him as he wrapped his set, with covers of Wayne Cochran’s “Last Kiss,” which Pearl Jam has played regularly for nearly 30 years, and Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down,” which also features prominently in the documentary. When the crowd stood one final time to applaud, it wasn’t just for Vedder’s energetic performance, but for the efforts and perseverance on display throughout the evening. “Much love,” Vedder said, as he stood to exit. “Thank you.”