TORONTO - On Saturday night, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder joined U2 on stage at the Air Canada Centre. Last night, Bono returned the favour.

After a two-and-a-half hour set that made multiple references to the “distinguished, dignified” Irish lads, Pearl Jam launched into Neil Young’s Keep on Rocking in the Free World for their third encore. With the lights completely raised in the venue, the unmistakable shape of a short rock star in a cowboy hat became clear: Bono was at the mic. The surprise guest appearance raised the show from mediocre to memorable.

Pearl Jam are rock ’n’ roll survivors. The Seattle group has outwit, outplayed and outlasted almost all their 1990’s “grunge” peers and the fall of the music industry in general by becoming a touring machine. They haven’t had a hit in years, and their activities hardly generate a mention in the media these days. But 14 years after their groundbreaking debut disc, Ten, they’re still alive, selling out shows at stadiums like the Air Canada Centre with little effort or promotion.

Last night’s ACC gig is part of an extensive cross-Canada tour that hits such oft-neglected markets at Thunder Bay and St. John’s.

And the crowds follow, trailing them from town to town, obsessive over the ever-changing set lists.

The band has even developed a successful authorized bootleg system. They’ve sold more than 3 million live discs so far, and you could buy a CD of last night’s show for $10 just hours after it ended.

The band that was considered leaders of a brand new movement a decade ago has now become like a very old one.

Judging by the drunken, university-aged crowd, the Lollapalooza generation has abandoned them, but Gen Y has fully embraced Pearl Jam as the new Grateful Dead.

Pearl Jam don’t do much in the way of spectacle these days. They don’t have to. They simply launch into a classic like Given to Fly or Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, singer Eddie Vedder reaching his arms and voice up to the rafters to grab hold of the faithful, and the sold-out crowd responded with much enthusiastic nodding and pot smoking. Yes, just like Deadheads.

“Good evening, a toast,” saluted Vedder. “My hotel room window looks out at something,” he continued.

“I don’t know what it’s called, a big tower in the middle of the city. It makes me homesick because we have one, too. It’s comforting to know that our big cities have something in common: They are both sporting rather large erections.”

The singer isn’t normally one for jokes, but he did crack another soon after:

“I want to thank U2 for opening for us” he laughed, referring to the band’s multi-night stand at the ACC. Later, he admitted his group drank $1,500 worth of vodka with the Bono and the boys on Sunday night.

There were several musical U2 references throughout the set, too: Impromptu segues into bits of the Irish band’s hits A Sort of Homecoming and Bad, which Vedder called “one of the greatest songs ever.”

Comparing themselves to the best live band on earth is a bad idea. While U2 has proven to be vital in the 21st century, their live shows spectacular displays of showmanship and innovative stage design, Pearl Jam in 2005 has little to offer anyone but their, albeit many, diehard fans. The audience knows every word, every nuance and new trick from guitarists Stone Gossard and Mike McCready, delighting in the extended solos and clever combinations of hits, album tracks and covers. From the opening riff of Indifference they knew to get their lighters out for the line “I will light the match this morning.” They knew to “boo” when touring keyboardist Boom Gaspar was introduced.

For their part, Pearl Jam delivered an upbeat, rocking set heavy on their best known tunes, such as Even Flow, Daughter and Do the Evolution.

When Vedder took the stage solo for the tender Better Man, the audience erupted into a thunderous roar. They cheered and sang along on a sweet version of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon, featuring back-up vocals from Carrie Brownstein, of opening act Sleater-Kinney.

But despite the massive love-in, something was missing. A sense of occasion. A sense of danger. A sense of now.

You could call Pearl Jam timeless. You could also call them outdated. They’ve earned the right to be classic rockers, but even when they play their biggest hit, Alive, it doesn’t feel like a classic moment.

Vedder certainly didn’t turn up his performance a notch. (Although he did run to one side of the stage instead of just facing drummer Matt Cameron.)

It was just another rock song from by-gone era, back when Pearl Jam actually mattered.

For two and a half hours, Pearl Jam preached to a grateful flock.

Then at the end, they were upstaged by a man in a cowboy hat and tambourine.

Just because they can make a good living being serious, damned good players with a massive back catalogue, doesn’t make them relevant in the outside world once the lights go up.

As Bono’s presence only highlighted, they’re certainly no U2.

SELECTED SET LIST

Here’s what Pearl Jam played last night at the ACC:

Love Boat Captain

A Sort of Homecoming  (U2 cover, excerpt)

Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town

Even Flow

Daughter

Better Man (Vedder solo)

Bad (U2 cover, excerpt)

Black (extended)

Do the Evolution

You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover)

Present Tense

Wishlist

Harvest Moon (Neil Young cover, with Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney)

Indifference

Alive

Jeremy Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World (Neil Young cover with Bono)