Eddie Vedder, with a different stringed instrument for seemingly every song, played a bunch of them, and those who packed the sold-out Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara seemed satisfied to have gotten their 78 bucks worth of entertainment.

The Pearl Jam frontman was traveling light for this West Coast tour — which ended Wednesday night at the Spreckels Theatre in San Diego. For his S.B. stop late last week, he was pretty much a guy with a bunch of guitars (and also a mandolin and a ukulele) and a stool, plucking songs from his vast repertoire of band songs, solo stuff and several well-chosen covers.

This was truly an intergenerational gathering, including geezers of rock, Pearl Jam fans and a bunch of screechy middle school girls all bent on bonding with Eddie.

As the usual concert excitement turned to impatience, with fans even cheering the roadies in white lab coats temporarily mistaken for rock stars, the applause became a quick crescendo then faded, and the bubble-gummers even tried a wave but it was about as calm as Lake Cachuma.

About half past 9, the lights went out, making it even darker than the next time zone where I parked my truck, and a lone spotlight found Vedder not onstage but on one of the small, unused balconies high to the right of the stage.

He acknowledged the cheers, then tossed what looked like a bedsheet over the side, threatening a little Rapunzel action. That's exactly what happened as Vedder rappelled down the sheet and strode onstage. It was tough to beat his intro. I'd like to see Meat Loaf try that one.

Vedder was relaxed and chatty throughout, bantering with the crowd, which took directions well. When Vedder told the crowd to shut the bleep up and when he invited a sing-along, they did with religious fervor.

Talking directly to the middle-schoolers from Ojai whom he evidently met before the show, the rock star offered some sage career advice: "Align yourself with Satan at an early age and you all will have a tour bus."

He also marveled at the wonders of Santa Barbara, and maybe the rent that only he and a few of the fans could afford. When Vedder asked, "Whereya from?" only about a quarter claimed to be Santa Barbara born and raised. "Have you been to the rest of the world?" the rock star asked the fans. "I have and it's a dark and scary place. No wonder you're all so happy."

Pausing for a smoke break about halfway through, Vedder read a poem, newly written that day, extolling the joys of being a drunken student at UCSB.

He got a rousing roar of approval, especially when he sort of rhymed "Devo" with "Montecito."

The locals would recall that the greatest song ever written about UCSB and about college life in general was by a couple of gauchos: "Barbara's Song," off the only Los Guys album from the '90s.

Time to rock

But the crowd didn't come for local history; they came for Vedder's and Pearl Jam's back pages on this, his first solo tour.

Getting a chance to show off his own guitar licks, Vedder was proficient and then some, his hand becoming a blur when it came time to rock out and his big baritone filling the room.

The Pearl Jam biggies such as "I Am Mine" had the sitters swaying, and the crowd passed the memory test on the sing-along version of the Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," correctly shouting, "Hey!" at the chorus.

Later, they got the "Don't back down" part right from the Tom Petty hit of the same name.

Near the end, Vedder covered a Bob Dylan tune, "Forever Young."

Wild' Vedder

In between, there was lots of stuff off Vedder's solo soundtrack album "Into the Wild," a perfect choice for his surfer dude persona.

The opener was Liam Finn, kid of the Split Enz dudes accompanied by one Eliza Jane Barnes, who occasionally caterwauled not unlike Deborah Iyall of Romeo Void, once upon a time on this very stage.

The other band members were of the plug-in variety — they were machines. Otherwise, how could there be guitar solos with no guitar player? Maybe they were really skinny or else Finn took turns really playing a real guitar, letting some ghost guitar continue to play itself as he sat beating on a drum set.

His major miscalculation occurred when he asked for requests. The shouted answer was a no-brainer: "Eddie Vedder!"

Finn's songs were memorable only for their lack of musicality and too much screaming. The set ender featured extra screaming and since when did static become a musical instrument?

— E-mail music writer Bill Locey at blocey@pacbell.net.