Bruce performed the song only once: 

 

 

2004-10-13 Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, NJ 

 

On the final night of Springsteen's Vote For Change Tour on 13 Oct 2004 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ, Eddie Vedder joined the E Street Band on stage for a few songs including Better man. Special invitation Vote For Change event with Jackson Browne, John Fogerty and Patti Scialfa performing. Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder joins Bruce for "No Surrender" and "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", before tackling Vedder's "Better Man". "Racing In The Street" is performed with Jackson Browne.

 

 

 

Setlist:

 

AS LONG AS I (CAN BE WITH YOU) / LOVE (STAND UP)  / With Jackson Browne: RUNNING ON EMPTY  /  THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER / BORN IN THE U.S.A. / BADLANDS / LONESOME DAY / NO SURRENDER (with Eddie Vedder) / DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (with Eddie Vedder) / BETTER MAN (with Eddie Vedder) / JOHNNY 99 / CENTERFIELD (with John Fogerty) / DEJA VU (ALL OVER AGAIN) (with John Fogerty) / FORTUNATE SON (with John Fogerty) / THE PROMISED LAND (with John Fogerty) / THE RISING / RACING IN THE STREET (with Jackson Browne) / MARY'S PLACE - THE MONKEY TIME / BORN TO RUN / PROUD MARY (with John Fogerty) / BAD MOON RISING (with John Fogerty) / TRAVELIN' BAND (with John Fogerty) / ( WHAT'S SO FUNNY 'BOUT) PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING (with Jackson Browne, Eddie Vedder, and John Fogerty) / PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER (with Jackson Browne, Eddie Vedder, and John Fogerty)

 

"Better Man" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. It is the eleventh track on the band's third studio album, Vitalogy (1994). The song was written by Eddie Vedder. He said, "I wrote 'Better Man' before I could drink—legally—on a four-track in my old apartment." In another interview, Vedder stated, "Sometimes I think of how far I've come from the teenager sitting on the bed in San Diego writing 'Better Man' and wondering if anyone would ever even hear it." Its melody and chord progression are based loosely on the song "Save It for Later" by The English Beat,which the band sometimes jams to live after "Better Man". Al Weisel of Rolling Stone called the song a "haunting ballad about a woman trapped in a bad relationship." When "Better Man" was performed on VH1 Storytellers in 2006, Vedder introduced it as a song about "abusive relationships." Before a performance of the song at Pearl Jam's show on April 3, 1994 in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre, Vedder clearly said "it's dedicated to the bastard that married my Momma." He was referring to his stepfather, Peter Mueller, a California attorney whom Vedder had long believed to be his biological father and who divorced his mother in the early 1980s.