Episode 302: Calgary, AB – 9/21/2011

When proposing an episode for this week’s show, the goal was to put focus on a tour that we haven’t discussed a whole lot on this podcast – the 2011 Canadian tour. The question here was which show would be the one to cover. So we crowd sourced it and got some great answers, but the best answer was a suggestion to do the episode in tribute of former Calgary Flames star, Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, who were tragically killed recently. This made the Calgary 2011 show a no brainer to talk about.

There is a big storyline that looms over this show. This happened to be the same day that R.E.M. called it a career. Hearing the band react to the news and play a very impassioned touching tribute to them with the song It Happened Today has been the consensus call back moment from this show. Pearl Jam could have made a decision to play one of their more well known radio singles like Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts or Man On The Moon, but we’ll talk about how they selected the right song for the right moment.

There are also songs in this setlist that connect to something that the band has done recently such as Brain Of J, Rats, Crazy Mary and even something relevant in concerns to Johnny Guitar!