Tracking 25 Songs That Could Reach Milestone Numbers in 2022

We’ve talked about bold predictions. We’ve talked about what this tour’s setlists may look like. Soon we’re going to talk about five memorable moments that have happened in every city Pearl Jam will be in. There is no lack of conversations happening right now, and that’s the best part about the anticipation building up to a tour. We know how important this one is for obvious reasons, however we wanted to look at this from a different approach for what we should be celebrating on the 37-show run this year.

This may be a nerdy aspect, but from my perspective one of my favorite things to follow along with in this band is the stats and numbers game. Having studied these numbers for a full year (thanks to the wonderful livefootsteps.org resource) makes me feel like I know the play count for nearly every song in their catalog. From Five Horizons on down, the community of loyal fans have done such a marvelous job preserving their history and allowing us to even have these conversations about stats so many years later. It’s part of the reason why we’re doing our part with the Concertpedia as well.

While discussing another topic involving numbers, John and I found ourselves digging deeper into our conversation trying to find out which songs are on the verge of hitting a big play count milestone. After about a half hour of making predictions, we decided this would be put to better use if this was written up for everyone to read along with and enjoy.

I’ll go through 25 songs that at least have a good shot at hitting a big milestone number, or have an interesting backstory to talk about. Joining me for this essay is creator of livefootsteps.org, Dave JanTausch, who will be adding in his additional analysis to demonstrate why the numbers are what they are and zeroing in on some of the trends. Make sure you keep visiting his site for the entire tour year, as he’ll have a milestone tracker to follow along with.

Important Note: We have ~80 (55 missing, 24 incomplete) shows that we don’t know the setlist for, mostly in 1991 and 1992. That means we don’t exactly know the true count for some of the Ten songs. Even Flow could be hitting close to 1,000 for all we know. With that being said, we are of course only counting the numbers that we have available to us.

Alive: Quest to 800

Currently at 786, Needs 14

From day one this was always going to be the keeper. It would’ve hit 800 and beyond if the band didn’t abandon it in the wake of Roskilde. Pretty safe to say that by the time the band is in Europe, we’ll be able to properly celebrate this milestone. It’s always guaranteed to get played, and the last time it didn’t in an arena or festival setting was in Perth, Australia in 2014. When was the last time it was left off two nights in a row?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

Alive had several breaks of two shows or more, but they were all because of TV appearances, benefit concerts or awards performances that took place in 2015, twice in 2010, and 2008/2009 for Conan and The Who. At the Spectrum in 2009, they held off playing it at the first two shows, but broke it out on night’s three and four in memorable fashion. The last time barring any special circumstance was in 2007 before Wembley. 2006 only had a break because of the Bridge School benefit, and there was another missing block for the AOL Sessions and Late Night shows. In 2004-2005, they got serious for Vote for Change, forgoing the song there, at the benefit for the Northwest School at the Paramount, and surprisingly they skipped it at Easy Street Records. 2004 had probably the largest blackout (7) because of more acoustic sets at the Showbox and Santa Barbara Bowl, Bridge School and Benaroya Hall. They barely played it in Australia in 2003, but that is probably the most significant time outside of the post-Roskilde stretch.

Predicted Milestone Show: July 5, Copenhagen

Porch: Quest to 600

Currently at 596, Needs 4

Porch’s heyday was back in 1991 and 1992, where the song and its revved up energy became the background for many of Ed’s antics, from climbing up scaffolding to jumping off amplifiers. After the spectacle slowly started to get phased out after the Atlanta 1994 show, Porch would still hang around the set, but it would become less and less of a guarantee to get played until much later in the 2000’s. So 600 plays may seem a little light for such a highlighted song, but what’s the reason why we’re talking that number and not 800?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

With early missing/incomplete setlists, it’s only estimated that Porch may gain 50-60 plays, but it doesn’t make up for the few hundred it missed. They fell out of love with the song. The early 90’s saw plays around the 80% average for four years. By 1996, it was cut to 50%, and then further cut to 23% in 1998. Over the next decade, it peaked at 60% in 2005, but was played as low as 30% of the shows in 2003. It would settle around 40-50% for the next several years until its resurgence in 2013, where they were playing it 80-90% of the time, usually closing the main set or first encore. In 2018, it was played at 100% of shows that year. I foresee it continuing that curve in 2022.

Predicted Milestone Show: May 12, Oakland

Black: Quest to 600

Currently at 579, Needs 21

Black got out to a bit of a slow start due to Ed feeling as though it was too personal for the band to play. However, as we moved into 1992, the MTV Unplugged version became near and dear to everybody’s hearts. They had no choice but to play it nearly every night for the rest of that tour year. It still remains one of the most commonly played songs off Ten and has evolved into what will sometimes be a 10 minute masterpiece with amazing crowd participation towards the end of the song. Those theatrical performances started to come together at some point during the Riot Act years, but much credit goes to the South American audience for making it what it is. Let’s get a gauge of this song’s usage over the last decade, going back to when Backspacer was released.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

It’s been played in 61.26% of shows since September 20, 2009, which was the debut of the Backspacer album. It averages mostly around 50-60% a year, but there was a dip from 2006-2009 down to 40%. 2011 saw it played at nearly 70% of shows, and it’s stayed pretty consistent in the seven years that followed.

Predicted Milestone Show: July 24, Amsterdam

Corduroy: Quest to 600

Currently at 578, Needs 22

As with most Vitalogy songs in 1994, Corduroy debuted during that tour as merely a shell of what it would become. In 1995 they played it a ton, very close to every night. While it gained a ton of steam and momentum, if you trace back to 1998, it was played at well over 95% of shows during the big tour years. In 2003, it would take a modest dive down to 80%. This song stands as the 5th most played in their catalog, and if we aren’t counting Ten songs, it leads the pack. Since the song’s debut, how many shows have happened and what percentage of those shows involved Corduroy?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

There have been 734 shows since Corduroy debuted and it was played at 78.7% of them. In the last 3 major tour years, it was played more than its average: 2015 – 81.8%, 2016 – 96%, 2018 – 84.62%. Even with four shows in 2021, it was played at three of them. No surprise here, but I see this trending upwards in 2022.

Predicted Milestone Show: July 24, Amsterdam

Given To Fly: Quest to 500

Currently at 475, Needs 25

After almost 25 years of service, Given To Fly is finally hitting this massive playcount milestone. Its Yield counterpart, Do The Evolution, has been played a total of 519 times. It’s just a small margin between the two songs that debuted on the same night and went through similar trajectories. Given To Fly has remained consistently involved, but what’s interesting here is all of the different setlist placements it’s been used in. While 25 plays seems like a no-brainer to accomplish this year, let’s dig into what the sweet spot for this song has been since its arrival.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

5% of the time (8 times) they’ve opened with Given to Fly, 2 of the 8 were back in 2018. Will that continue?

Predicted Milestone Show: September 11, New York City

Rearviewmirror: Quest to 500

Currently at 469, Needs 31

So, the first five songs on this list seem like locks to hit their milestones, but Rearviewmirror has a little bit more work to do in order to get there. Out of 37 shows, this really needs to close the main set or encore 1 every single night in order to accomplish this. While it’s very close, I don’t think it quite hits the mark. My guess is that we’re shooting for 20 out of the 37 times. Can I be proven wrong?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

RVM trends have it averaging 59% of shows. The last time it trended at 90% was back in ‘94. The highest percentage in the last decade was 82% in 2015, which if played that many times this year wouldn’t make the cut at 500, just shy by one. However, there has been a steady upwards trend if that continued, and if Gigaton doesn’t dominate the whole tour, it has a shot.

Predicted Milestone Show: Sometime in 2023.

State Of Love And Trust: Quest to 400

Currently at 393, Needs 7

You’d never consider SOLAT a rare song at all. You don’t get close to 400 plays by being a song that gets ignored. But when you look at when it debuted on July 10th, 1991, it could be seen as a little light. There are songs that debuted well after this that have eclipsed it, such as the aforementioned Corduroy, Given to Fly, and Rearviewmirror, along with Animal, Daughter and Better Man. Where did things stall out for SOLAT? What would be an accurate projection of how it could do on the three legs this year?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

SOLAT has been flirting with 30% plays over the last decade. It should easily get to 300. The mid-to-late 2000’s saw a dip in the overall average, you can’t really fault the song, it just doesn’t fit into the setlists sometimes. Averaging out over the 3 legs, I’d say each leg gets it 3-4 times, for a total of around 11 times this year.

Predicted Milestone Show: July 12, Budapest

Yellow Ledbetter: Quest to 400

Currently at 374, Needs 26

We’ve had this conversation before about closers. There aren’t very many options for the band to say goodbye. Yellow Ledbetter is clearly the most obvious choice in the mix, and will get its fair share of celebration no matter what. How often will we see Indifference inserted? How many shows will end with either Rockin’ In The Free World or All Along The Watchtower? It just seems like 26 is too a massive number to attain. I have my doubts, but can this milestone legitimately happen in 2022?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

It was played 51 times in 2006, for a total of 60.71% of the shows that year, but that number may be inflated due to the whopping 84 shows that year. It was played 26 times in 2005, which had the same amount of shows that this year does at 37. However, some of those numbers have trended lower in recent years: 12 plays out of 26 shows in 2018, 11 plays in 24 shows in 2016, and 14 plays in 32 shows in 2014. The last time it was played at more than 50% of shows for the year was back in 2012. While this may be achievable, it’s nowhere near a foregone conclusion.

Predicted Milestone Show: September 22, Denver

Spin The Black Circle: Quest to 200

Currently at 188, Needs 12

This is one of those songs that, as Ed gets older, feels like it’ll be in the rotation less and less. In the same vein as Blood, it seems like if his vocals can’t stretch to hit all of those fierce roars, similar to what made the song so good in 1995, it’s maybe good for one appearance per leg at best. Perhaps less. There was a point in 2018 where the song was played in drop tuning, which is a clear indicator that its best days are long gone. I think we may need a few more years to celebrate this milestone.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

It’s been gradually losing steam for the last decade, maxing out at 31% of shows in 2014. Even in 2006 where the show count was at its highest, it could not reach the 12 plays that would be required to hit this milestone this year. If this continues to trend downward, it could be even longer than we may be expecting.

Predicted Milestone Show: Not anytime soon.

Nothing As It Seems: Quest to 100

Currently at 99, Needs 1

Not much to say here. When they need a big McCready moment outside of Even Flow, or need to mix in a more common Binaural song, we’ll see this one show up. One play should occur within the first nine shows.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

The song went through a dry spell, only being played one time during the massive 2006 Avocado tour, but since 2013, the only year where they didn’t play it twice or more was in the short 2015 South American run. This should be easy to accomplish.

Predicted Milestone Show: May 13, Oakland

Faithfull: Quest to 100

Currently at 98, Needs 2

A fan favorite song, that the band will usually play by request if they see a sign in the crowd, doesn’t have very far to go to hit the triple digit mark. Although this seems easy enough to hit, there is potentially a factor that may be holding this back.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

Faithfull in the last handful of years has taken baby steps up until this point, but what’s concerning may be that going into the 2018 tour it was sitting at the same number of plays. There’s no indication that they are done with the song at all even after ignoring it four years ago. If this is a tour where most songs are gonna be brought back out, two plays should be enough by the end of the year.

Predicted Milestone Show: July 8, London

Habit: Quest to 100

Currently at 98, Needs 2

If this song had continued its momentum from the late 90’s and the Binaural tour into the mid and late 2000’s, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. After the 2003 tour, this finished off at 83 plays. If you can do the math here, the numbers on this song for the last 19 years have not been very good. So when did this song hit a wall?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

Habit hit a wall in 2003. Since its debut, it climbed to nearly 63% of the shows played. It nosedived after that, losing half its luster after 1996, leveling off for a few years to only 33% of shows. In 2003, it dipped even lower, below its average of 14.4%, to only 10%, never peaking over that average again since that tour. With the current trends, I’m not sure if this will get to the finish line. If it does, it’ll sit at 100.

Predicted Milestone Show: 2023.

Down: Quest to 100

Currently at 97, Needs 3

For a b-side from the Riot Act era, this is actually a very impressive number. It’s turned into one of these rarities that isn’t actually that rare type of song. You can’t say that about a lot of the other songs you’d consider rare. What’s interesting to know here is where this stands against all of the other Riot Act songs that were in heavy rotation when it first debuted. Also, where does it stand among the other Lost Dogs tracks?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

While Down was played at just under 25% of the shows on the Riot Act tour, it was able to thrive outside of the era. If this was on the record, it would be the third most played song behind I Am Mine and Save You. As for Lost Dogs, it’s currently the fourth most played, but you may want to look at some of the songs it’s surrounded by. Ledbetter has been around since 1993, Footsteps has been played since 1992 and it’s only 21 plays ahead of Down, and Wash, which sits in fifth, will come up later on this list.

Predicted Milestone Show: July 3, Stockholm

Love Boat Captain: Quest to 100

Currently at 96, Needs 4

It’s interesting that Love Boat Captain and Down are back-to-back here, because from the way they were both utilized in 2003, you’d never assume that Down would be the one to creep up further. There is one definite show where this will be played and that’s in Copenhagen, Denmark. The original date of this show was set to be 6/29/2020, which if you know your dates is almost exactly twenty years to the day that the Roskilde tragedy occurred. Let’s hope we hear it three more times, and maybe even 15 more tacked onto that. Let’s compare what happened with both Down and LBC following Riot Act’s initial run.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

LBC was a staple in 2003, coming in at 66%. That ended up being a total of 56 plays also counting 2002. In the same time period, Down was only played 21 times. They were essentially neck and neck during 2005 and 2006, but where the tide started to turn was from 2007 to 2014. LBC was played a total of four times during that span, missing the entirety of the 2013 Lightning Bolt legs. During that portion of time, Down cruised to rack up 39 total plays. It wasn’t until the band started to perform the alternate version of LBC that it was sprinkled in more in the last decade. The trends don’t look to be in favor of this reaching the milestone, as this might be a difficult one to catch outside of Denmark.

Predicted Milestone Show: Ends the year on 99

The Fixer: Quest to 100

Currently at 96, Needs 4

I got nothing with this one. It’s as high as it is because it’s a by-product of its time and happened to be the song that was used as heavy promotion in the four years that Backspacer was being toured for. An indication of how much the band has fallen off with this one is that Unthought Known, Just Breathe, and Got Some have all surpassed the 100 mark. But this? There isn’t a lot of nostalgia lingering for this record. I really can’t see it being played in any semi-major capacity ever again. How has this fared since the end of the Backspacer era?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

The Fixer dropped down inside Tuckerman’s Ravine after riding high since its debut. A high of 97-damn-percent dropped to 3% in 2013, and it’s barely kept its head above water since. Needing 4 plays this year to hit 100, I don’t really see it happening.

Predicted Milestone Show: Never?

Lightning Bolt: Quest to 100

Currently at 96, Needs 4

Outside of Mind Your Manners (which currently sits at 113), if this was any other song from this record I’d say absolutely not. But Lightning Bolt, out of everything, has the feel of the one sole keeper from the album it shares a name with. Kind of like Unthought Known, it can bring big energy out of the crowd. Any song that brings that to the table sticks around. They left it out of the four festival shows last year, but I think that was more due to progressing forward with Gigaton. Now that they can spread this out a little bit and test more songs out in the arena setting, I see it doing more damage…kind of like its namesake does. Let’s look at how Lightning Bolt fared throughout the entire run of touring for the record.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

Lightning Bolt was played at every show in 2013 following its debut at Wrigley Field. The trend continued into 2014, the only shows that it wasn’t played at were the two Bridge School shows. It was played at 72% of the shows in both 2015 and 2016, and then split shows in 2018, only being played at 50%. Trends say that this should easily reach its milestone unless the band is completely reluctant to play anything off this record.

Predicted Milestone Show: May 20, Las Vegas

Wash: Quest to 100

Currently at 95, Needs 5

Wash was always one of these songs that would go on an absurd hiatus, show up for one show, and then not get played again for another handful of years. It’s wild to me that there are still songs that were prominent in 1991 that haven’t reached this benchmark yet, with the next song being the most shocking. But Wash has always been one of these songs that was held off for the big moments where if it opened up on a night, you would have an expectation to hear deep cuts for the entire show. Let’s figure out some of these ridiculous lapses in the song’s history.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

Wash falls into the category of songs that may have been on a handful of those lost or incomplete setlists from the early days. But that can’t be proven. It was scarcely used in the Vs. era and minimally played in 1996. In between then and the Binaural tour, the song went 130 shows without being played, before finally showing up deep in the encore by request in Pittsburgh of 2000. It would take nearly the entire 2003 tour, 103 shows, before it was played again, at the end of the tour in Holmdel where Ed famously used a pizza box with the lyrics written on them to help him through it. Between 2006 and 2008, it had a 69 show layoff, but nothing since has come close to matching it. It’s been good for at least once a tour since 2010, but the most it’s been played in a tour year since then was three. Five is more of a stretch than a possibility.

Predicted Milestone Show: 2024? 2025?

Oceans: Quest to 100

Currently at, 95, Needs, 5

I get how Wash might’ve been left out for so long. It was a b-side that just didn’t fit in with what they were doing with Jack Irons or even early on with Matt Cameron. But Oceans? An actual song off what’s still their biggest record to date? I get that if we had the information for those 79 lost setlists that it’s highly likely that we would’ve seen Oceans on more than five, but how did this become the black sheep off of Ten?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

Oceans has had a small resurgence in the last 5 years. The year with the most plays is 2018 with 28% of shows, the next highest was 1992. Even that year and 1991 had the most unknown sets, and it was still played less than a quarter of the time, 21%. 1993-95 held around 13-16% of shows, then it dropped off and hovered around the single digit percentages for 15 years. Outside of those unknown sets, a big reason why it isn’t in triple digits right now is due to the lack of performances during the 1992 Lollapalooza tour – it was played once.

Predicted Milestone Show: 2023/2024

In My Tree: Quest to 100

Currently at 93, Needs 7

This is insulting. How do they look at a song like this and say, eh, let’s not play it every night? Well for one, it was a Jack Irons specialty. Incredibly difficult for any drummer to replicate what he did with this song, and many people stand by that. Completely fair. Any other band that has changed drummers as much as Pearl Jam has done would probably have given up on it, but that’s just not what Pearl Jam does. Seven is a lot, but if they want to do a good service towards some of the longtime hardcore fans, and maybe even some podcasters, then it would be a wise decision to have In My Tree in the rotation more regularly. Wondering if the tease that we heard at the Seattle Earthlings show is any indication that Ed feels the same.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

This one has dipped in and out a bit over the years. Since Cameron wasn’t playing it too often at first, it was held out for 63 shows in between 1998 and 2000. It was left off of the Pacific Coast and first North American leg in 2003 for a total of 69 shows, but when it came back, it returned as the alternate version for a handful of shows and was played nine times. It would undergo two more long delays, 49 shows in between 2005 and 2006, and 74 from then until 2009. After that, it bounced around a little bit. It hasn’t been left off a tour year completely since 2008, and was played at four shows in 2018. It would be tough to accomplish based off of those numbers.

Predicted Milestone Show: 2023

In Hiding: Quest to 100

Currently at 92, Needs 8

This song was clearly in a lot of people’s minds for the past two years and the lyrics practically suggest that the character in the story is doing some sort of self-imposed quarantining, whether it’s on drugs or not I suppose is irrelevant. At some point the master of the dad joke will have to make this reference and it will obviously go over well with the crowd. But eight times? I’m not so sure.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

Since 2008, In Hiding hasn’t been played at more than 20% of shows of a year’s tour. While that number may seem a bit unremarkable, it has gone through times where it wasn’t uncommon to see this on four or five shows a tour. Six in 2013, five in both 2009 and 2010, and four in 2014 and 2018. So it may end up accruing some plays, and if it continues that pace, it should reach the milestone by 2023 depending on the touring schedule.

Predicted Milestone Show: 2023

Light Years: Quest to 100

Currently at 91, Needs 9

Another one that is a little tough to see reaching where it needs to. But performances of this song are usually derived from the loss of someone close to them. While so many people, public and personal, have passed away since the emergence of COVID, Light Years I’m sure will be broken out a couple times at some point. Nine plays for a Binaural song in 2022 would be absolutely wild.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

The only year where this was played more than nine times was in its touring year of 2000. The last time that a Binaural song was played more than nine times during a touring year was in 2006, with Grievance at 13 and Insignificance at 18. That was 16 years ago. It would be nothing short of a miracle if it ever happened again.

Predicted Milestone Show: 2023

Red Mosquito: Quest to 100

Currently at 90, Needs 10

Can Danny Clinch follow in the footsteps of Josh Klinghoffer and become a full-time touring member of Pearl Jam? If he can, then this would be a shoo-in to get played at least 10 times. The last three shows that this was played, from Fenway in 2018 to Sea.Hear.Now and the first night at Ohana, it was played with Clinch helping out on harmonica. This song has been at its performance peak when it had special guests to help enhance it. So what else would this need in order to hit ten?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

The highest percentage of shows in a year that Red Mosquito has been played is 47%, and it didn’t happen during No Code in 1996. It took place in 2009 when Ben Harper toured with Pearl Jam as the opening act. He was invited on stage to play slide guitar and made a massive moment of the song every time they went back to it. It happened 16 times. In 2010, Harper would join them for three festival shows in Europe to recapture the magic. The best bet to get this to 100 is to hope there is always a special guest on hand that can bring something unique to the performance.

Predicted Milestone Show: If they receive some help, September 20, Oklahoma City. If they don’t, then we’ll see where it’s at heading into 2023.

Long Road: Quest to 100

Currently at 90, Needs 10

Long Road is hands down one of Pearl Jam’s best show openers. It starts the show on such an emotional surge that it sets you up for a perfect night every single time. With that being said, it would lose its luster if it was played every single night. So while one of my personal hopes for this tour is to see this song, and I made a bold prediction about what may happen with it in San Diego, I’d be oblivious to think that I could get it at all eight that I’m attending. What should we expect from it though?

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

The presence of Pendulum as the opener during the initial Lightning Bolt run kind of pushed this down a bit. In 2013, it was played five times, but only once in its patented opening slot. It was the opener for every appearance it made in 2014, but that only amounted to two times. This could potentially be the difference between this song having a chance this year and not. We have very little indication of how Gigaton songs could be utilized in the opening role, but if they dominate in that role, it may not bode very well for Long Road.

Predicted Milestone Show: 2023

Breath: Quest to 100

Currently at 86, Needs 14

Breath isn’t here to be discussed as a viable option to reach the milestone. It’s here because this year we’ll get to celebrate an important anniversary that put this song back into the forefront thanks to the fans. September 11th, 1998 at Madison Square Garden, the band got through what could almost be described as a trainwreck performance of Breath, but that didn’t matter because it showed that they were listening to the voices expressing their love for the song. What will be 24 years later on September 11th, 2022, of course this date in New York City means way more than it did in 1998, but the band will be back in Madison Square Garden at the scene where one of the most memorable Pearl Jam moments ever took place. And yes, I will be there that night, because I never miss an MSG show, and I will hopefully be bringing thousands of signs that read BREATH in the same way in which it was noticed back then.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

During the layoff in between 1994 and 1998, the song was sitting on a total of 40 plays since day one in 1990. Since the night they brought it back, the song hasn’t been quite an inevitability to be played. It went through more fairly long stretches where it was ignored. After MSG in 1998, it was played for two more times and then got held off for 52 shows before getting played exactly one time in 2000. It would take 46 more shows before getting played in 2003 which had a decent run getting played a shade over 15% of shows that year. The biggest delay would happen in 2006 where on an 84 show run, they’d only find one instance to add it to the set, missing 75 shows in between. After that, it was still played sparingly, but it has shown up in big moments such as ballpark shows and even back in MSG for shows in 2010 and 2016.

Predicted Milestone Show: Not anytime soon, unfortunately

Wasted Reprise: Quest to 100

Currently at 84, Needs 16

This is the end of the line here. At the end of this column I’m not even sure why I decided to keep it around, but I guess there’s enough to talk about where it would make for an interesting topic. Whenever they need a good moment to transition into a song such as Better Man or the song that it’s reprising, it’s a good way to bring it down a bit, give Boom a second or two to shine and maybe have Ed tell a quick story. It’s not important nor truly memorable, unless he decides to go on a ten minute rant like he did in Hartford of 2013. But look, they are going to play Better Man almost every night. Life Wasted is gonna find its way into the mix as well. This lasts for a total of about a minute on a good night, and just like Lukin, this is a stat padder to make what might be a 29-song set into a 30. It’s a good cheat code for that.

Dave’s LiveFootsteps.org One Big Stat:

Wasted Reprise hasn’t necessarily needed Life Wasted in order to be thrown in the mix, but Life Wasted has needed its Reprise more often than not. The last time it was played without the intro was back in 2016, at the exclusive Third Man Records show. There were two shows where Reprise wasn’t used with Life Wasted in 2015 and 2014, but for the three years prior to that, these two songs were attached at the hip, not leaving each other’s side for any of the eleven shows they were played at in between 2011-2013. In 2010 however, they must’ve been seeing other people for part of it. Just two shows where they’re played back-to-back before getting split up for the rest of the run.

Predicted Milestone Show: PJ40