MONTREAL -- Pearl Jam came to party like it was 1992.

In the early part of this decade, Pearl Jam emerged as the best-selling of Seattle's holy musical triumvirate. But Eddie Vedder and company never earned the critical and artistic reputation of their partners in grunge -- Soundgarden and Nirvana.

Pearl Jam's longing for such a reputation has led to several attempts in recent years to avoid the commercial success of their first album, Ten. The band stopped making videos, restricted their touring and took on Ticketmaster over charges of hiking concert prices.

They also began releasing albums that were less and less commercially viable than their predecessors. VS., out in 1993, and 1994's Vitalogy sold well -- both moved nearly a million copies in the first week -- but follow-ups, No Code and this year's Yield have been only moderate sellers. A strange progression for what was once dubbed the biggest rock band in the world.

But they're back, baby, yeah.

In an effort to reclaim their rock 'n' roll throne amidst the wasteland that their alternative revolution has devolved into, Pearl Jam has embarked on their biggest tour in four years.

But in the process they have completed their evolution into this generation's Rolling Stones (Nirvana, of course, already had the Beatles title sewn up).

At last night's nearly sold-out show -- only a few hundred seats were empty in Montreal's 18,000 capacity Molson Centre -- Vedder, Stone Gossard (guitar), Mike McCready (guitar), Jeff Ament (bass) and fill-in drummer Matt Cameron played like the neo-classic rock band we all knew they would become.

Like the last few Stones tours, the crowd may have cheered for the newer material but they showed up to hear the old songs. Even Flow, Animal and Jeremy provoked screams and cheers right from the first few chords and sing-alongs followed soon after.

In fact, the only song from Yield that got a similar reaction was the slow but powerful Wish List -- during which a giant mirrorball sent globes of light spinning across the crowd, mixing in with the sea of waving lighters.

For his part, Vedder has cheered up considerably. Gone are the days of extended whines about how tough it is being a rock star. Instead, between-song banter was kept to a minimum (except when he attempted to suck up to the crowd by speaking French) and Vedder even attempted a joke.

During a cover of Pink Floyd's The Wall, Vedder replaced "hey, teachers" with "Hey, Mr. President. Leave those kids alone." He also dedicated the song Better Man to Hillary Clinton.

The stage itself was extremely minimalist. Aside from the mirrorball, the only special effects were five giant candles and a white sheet with colors (and occasionally clouds) projected on it. The band didn't even wear any flannel.

Their set was extremely tight and the band played with lots of energy. Even the absence of regular drummer Jack Irons went unnoticed due to Cameron's flawless playing.

Nevertheless, the glory days of grunge still could not be recaptured. When the band set out on their first major tour with Lollapalooza '92, their aural ferocity was reflected in the seething cauldron of moshers and crowd surfers.

In '98, the crowd started out doing the wave and the stadium chairs got in the way of any slam dancing.

But the people couldn't care less. I guess singing along to encore songs Alive and a kickass version of Teenage Wasteland was enough for them.

Eddie Vedder likes to surround himself with rock 'n' roll royalty. He sang with the surviving members of The Doors when they were inducted into the rock hall of fame and recorded an album with Neil Young. They even hired Iggy Pop to open several of their tour dates.

But last night's openers, faded power pop stars Cheap Trick, just didn't fit the royal bill. Sure, they wore velvet and had funny hair, but the crowd managed to ignore them.

The band played mostly new material -- they have new material? -- and restricted their classics to slow songs like Heaven Tonight, at the end of which they almost had to beg for applause. In fact, their loudest crowd reaction was quieter than the screams during Pearl Jam's mic check.

I guess that's because Cheap Trick play the kind of glam rock that grunge helped to get rid of in the first place. Isn't it ironic?

(PEARL JAM HEADLINE A SOLD-OUT SHOW IN BARRIE, ONT., THIS SATURDAY)

JAM! Rating: 3.5 out of 5