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Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 14 – London Cancelation

Pearl Jam was originally slated to stop in London this weekend on their current European tour. Unfortunately due to circumstances that were apparent during the Manchester show, they were forced to cancel the show due to an illness that prevented Eddie Vedder from performing. As we’ve seen the past few years as the band gets older, they’ve had to cancel and postpone more shows than they ever have before.

In this episode, we’ll react to the news and discuss how it may affect the band and the live shows moving forward. We’ll also touch up on the ticket controversy that loomed over this show and debunk conspiracy theories made connecting this to the cancelation.

Episode 290: Hyde Park – 7/8/2022

Pearl Jam loves to play in legendary venues. They’ve conquered the two oldest baseball parks in America, massive stadium venues in South America and plenty of the most famous arenas throughout the world. In London, the absolute cream of the crop when it comes to concert venues is Hyde Park. Back in 2020, Pearl Jam was scheduled to play Hyde Park alongside the Pixies, but after Covid cancelled all plans, they decided to add an extra date due to the demand. This episode covers the first night of a memorable two-night stay.

With massive screens erected for the 65k people to all witness this band from far and near, they came out firing right away. Better Man as an opener sets and amazing tone, Breath was a big surprise played early, Quick Escape featured a little Sex Pistols on the backend and a heartfelt dedication to a fan for Light Years really built up this show to feel as massive as the park. We’ll talk about all of the big moments, as well as focusing on the ticket situation which is currently going happening for the show in London this coming weekend.

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 13 – Manchester, UK

Welp, it wouldn’t be a European tour without some bumps in the road. We all know the recent history. In 2018, Ed has to go on vocal rest after night one of what was originally slated to be a two night stay. They postpone night two and had to make it up at the end of the tour. Two years ago in Paris, Ed states that the smoke from the wildfires is affecting his vocal chords. This led to the band having to cancel three shows in Europe, and for setlists to be restructured for him to save his voice.

It looks like we’re on that road again as Ed showed up to tonight’s show in Manchester far from being in top shape. We had reported that he was getting winded during songs in Dublin, but it seemed to have escalated last night. Regardless, the band came out to play the fan favorites on this night – Of The Girl, Present Tense, Immortality, I Got Shit, Inside Job, State Of Love And Trust and Fuckin’ Up were all included on the set. We invite back John Cooney who interviews friends out on site after the show. We’ll also hear from Alex Hoggard, Brad Arundale, Rob Darcy and Aurelien Moureaux talk about what they witnessed from their points of view.

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 12 – Dublin, Ireland

Leg 2 is officially underway! For the first time in 14 years, Pearl Jam has returned to Dublin, Ireland where they’ve been sorely missed for over a decade. Looking at the setlist won’t tell the entire story of this show as we’ll get to hear about some of the emotional moments brought to the table here, as well as energy and excitement. We’ll hear from John Cooney out of site interviewing a bus load of people from the Pearl Jam Ireland group, and we’ll also hear fans Lisa O’Connor and Steve Skikas weigh in as well for a show that we here on the outside had no livestream to pay attention to, so it’s great to have all of these voices relay the story!

Patreon Exclusive: Slane Castle – Slane, IRE – 7/10/1993

A little bonus episode for you guys this week as we’re about to embark on leg 2 of 2024. Back in 1993, Pearl Jam played one of the most legendary venues on the planet when they opened up for Neil Young back in the summer of 1993. Not every artist gets to play Slane Castle, and Pearl Jam hasn’t played there since. It’s on a castle property in a big field that can hold upwards up 80k people. There are artists that have released concert DVDs and performances from their time playing at Slane Castle.

We’ll dig into this short hour long performance where the band was very much in their prime and held a grasp over the crowd that was almost unlike any other era. Word has it that many fans dispersed after they played leaving less of an audience for Neil Young and Van Morrison. Check out the episode as we’ll dig through the standard Ten songs and discuss some of the earliest versions of Vs. tracks!

Episode 289: Dublin, IRE – 10/26/1996

It’s time for Pearl Jam to take the Dark Matter tour over to Europe! For the next month, we’ll be doing the same thing as we did in May – focusing on past shows from locations they’re about to embark on. First stop is Dublin, Ireland. It’s been 14 years since the band has been back there, and strangely enough, they’ve only played there six times in total! This episode covers a show from Dublin in 1996 during the No Code tour that marks first of three appearances at The Point Theatre.

This episode will lean heavily on the coverage of No Code tracks as we get in depth with Hail, Hail, In My Tree, Mankind and Who You Are. Of course with this being a Jack Irons show, he’ll dominate much of the conversation. We’ll dig into why some of the Ten songs may not have been his specialty as we touch up on tracks such as Release, Even Flow and Alive. We’ll also spend some time preparing you for the upcoming tour leg and try our hand at coming up with some ideas that could end up being huge surprises this month!

Gear Garage: Ep. 6 – Deconstructing Dark Matter (Pt. 1)

Javier is back with a jam packed edition of the Gear Garage where he kicks off a three part series breaking down every song from Dark Matter! We’ll start from the top – Scared Of Fear, React/Respond and Wreckage. Hear Javier explain what Mike and Stone have to offer on all three tracks and which one features “Caveman” Stone Gossard.

Episode 288: Hershey, PA – 7/12/2003

There are countless Pearl Jam shows where all you need to do is mention a location by name and the majority of Pearl Jam fans know exactly what you’re talking about. For one lone night at a chocolate factory, when you mention this Hershey show from 2003, everyone knows that it’s remembered for one thing – mosquito bites! No, this outdoor venue wasn’t invested with mosquitos. The band was greeted by a flasher at this show who had taken her top off in order for the band to recognize her. But what she didn’t realize was that they were coming off of one of the longest shows in their history in Mansfield, MA, meaning a six hour drive to Pennsylvania in the same night potentially left Ed a little sleep deprived. It leads to an all-time rant where he comments on the size of her breasts, a quote that has gone down as one of the most memorable things he’s ever said.

With that being said, the band faced the challenge of following up the experiment by putting together a fun show with a lot of energy. They made up for two songs that were left out of the experiment in Last Exit and Glorified G, dug into some of the deeper Riot Act cuts with Help Help and one of the last versions of Get Right to date, and we get a random appearance of a harmonica on… State Of Love And Trust? Yeah, you read that right. Also, we’ll uncover the true story about a friend of Stone’s who guested on Rockin In The Free World at this show. Where is he now? The answer may surprise you… really surprise you.

Javier makes his return in this episode and will talk about the unique tuning of Daughter, and how that helps transforms the song to make it sound acoustic, even on an electric guitar.

Episode 287: Salt Lake City, UT – 11/1/1995

As the west coast leg of the Dark Matter tour has come to a close, now is a great opportunity for us to dig into a few great Pearl Jam shows without covering upcoming tour locations. That takes us to November of 1995. A five-show run featuring shows that were postponed from earlier in the tour year that have gone down in history as some of the best of the era. After being forced to postpone a June Salt Lake City show due to weather conditions, the promise Ed had made was that the band would come back and play twice as long. Which means they came back and played two shows instead of one for their make up. This run will always be most known as hosting the live debuts for both Red Mosquito and Brain Of J, the former of which we’ll talk about in this episode.

Ed would make a quip on night two that it was like the crowd’s parents came to night one. While this show may not reach the excitement of night two, that quote has given this show an undeserved stigma that we’re out to prove is inaccurate. Some great performances go down on this night including ones from Corduroy, Deep, RVM, Immortality and what amounts to probably the longest version of Blood in the catalog. We’ll also dig into an improv titled Seven Years Waiting and a Porch closer that got a little bit weird in the solo.

We’re also only a week out from the Seattle shows, so we’ll chat about the experience and some of the best performances that held up from that night.

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 11 – Seattle Night 2

The west coast leg of the Dark Matter tour has been completed, and we went out with a bang! The hometown crowd experienced something special tonight with all eyes on the band thanks to a streaming performance on Sirius. And they came out HOT! Black as an opener for the first time since CBGB’s in 1991! Immortality early on. Come Back, Pilate and In My Tree holding down the fort. HURT?!?!? Yeah. Kitchen sink kind of shit.

Coming into this show we were presented with some news that will change the landscape of this country, if not this world. Knowing the band and what they stand for, they were not going to leave home without addressing it, and boy did they ever. Ed makes an impassioned speech about unity and ending division without mentioning anyone by name, and the message received is that we are all humans who have the same basic needs, and we need to recognize that and get back to standing up for one another instead of standing up for politicians. Love Boat Captain was the message sent this night, because all you need is love.

The entire crew is back to express their thoughts and share their happiness after a wonderful week in Seattle.

Episode 286: Groundwork Benefit Concert – 10/22/2001

We’ve made it near the end of the first leg of the Dark Matter tour! With the last stop in Seattle happening as this episode airs, we thought it would obviously be appropriate to cover a show that took place in Pearl Jam’s hometown. Since we’ve covered many of the well known Seattle shows in past episodes (check out the archive to listen, lots of good ones!) we’re turning to a benefit show from 2001 in which the band didn’t go out and tour on. The Groundwork Benefit was put together to help the Food and Agriculture Organization to solve world hunger. This night featured acts like Alanis Morrisette and R.E.M. as the headliners alongside Pearl Jam.

It’s only a 10-song set, and since it’s still in the shadow of Binaural, the album has a heavy presence at this show. No Ten or Vs. songs were played, but we do get an early version of a Riot Act song over a year before the album release. We’ll talk about John Lennon song Gimme Some Truth and how Ed initially wanted to play that during the Tribute To Heroes performance after 9/11, but it became a staple of Pearl Jam’s touring circuit during the Iraq War. But the song that’s going to resonate the most is a rare closing set performance of Long Road. It’s a ten minute version that features Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, the nephew of Nusrat who recorded a version of Long Road with Ed for the Dead Man Walking soundtrack. One of the most heartfelt versions of Long Road that you’ll ever hear.

Along with that, we’ll talk about Ed making a guest appearance during R.E.M.’s set to sing People Have The Power and It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, and also a little bit of the Athens alternative legends teasing Better Man. Javier joins in for this one, and we’ll spend a lot of time talking about our upcoming trip to see the band in Seattle!

Just to note, in this episode I may have made some small but rare mistakes regarding facts that I do apologize for. We’ll also mention the audio from the YouTube video mixing the guitars really low, but the bootleg that we play in the episode sounds completely normal. A lot of 4am bedtimes in the last month, I’m sure you all understand!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 10 – Seattle Night 1

Live directly from the Climate Pledge Arena in the very city that birthed a little band called Mookie Blaylock, the Live On 4 Legs community got together to talk about what was an amazing first night of a hometown stay! So many surprises happened on this night and everything impressed the masses. For starters, seemingly hands down the most emotional moment of the night came within a tribute to Bill Walton that followed with a heartbreaking performance of Man Of The Hour. If that was it, that would be a pretty solid show. Buttttt…

What else is there to say? Thin Air, I Am Mine tour debut, an absolutely mind blowing version of Waiting For Stevie, Satan’s Bed, Rearviewmirror, River Cross, Deep, and then of course the grand finale featuring a version of All Along The Watchtower with Deep Sea Diver and a massive surprise mixing in Little Wing with Ledbetter. This was absolutely to die for.

We’ll speak with our friends including 9-year old Coda Capps who had a TWICE in a lifetime experience this night, our buddy McRib gives us an exciting update on his Felicity’s Surprise sign, we get possibly the greatest combo in this podcast’s history where Javier talks gear with Josh Arroyo, and thoughts and reactions from our friends from all around the world. If there’s anything this night proved, it’s that it would be nearly impossible to top!

Thursday? Can’t wait!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 9 – Bottlerock Festival

Last night the band played their lone festival show of this west coast run in wine country out in Napa, California! with stricter time restraints, we only got a 2 hour set, but there were still some notable moments to make note of. For the first time in the band’s history, Lukin was used as the opener! We got a throw back to the Bridge School shows when Ed dedicated Last Kiss to Marikor, and a surprise guest appeared as Bradley Cooper joined Ed on stage to play Maybe It’s Time.

We chat with Amy, Mar and friends out on site to get their first hand experience of this one. See you in a few days where we’ll be coming to you LIVE from Seattle!!!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 8 – Los Angeles Night 2

Tuesday’s night 1 show featured a fun setlist alongside an energetic crowd. How could night 2 live up to that? How about having a fun setlist alongside an energetic crowd? Last night’s show kicked off with an audible as Footsteps was cut from the set in favor of a highly emotional Long Road. How often have we seen Ed stop the band to share something on his mind mid-song in the opener? He pauses for a second to pay tribute to his Uncle John who had passed away 10 years ago yesterday.

Speaking of yesterdays, one of the big talking points of the night are three songs played in the middle of the main set representing Yield – Untitled, MFC and All Those Yesterdays. What was the level of excitement for those songs in a bit of a shock moment? Mike Mcrib, Lori and Becky join us from outside of the Forum to give their insight on everything that happened here, including an update on the Felicity’s Surprise sign. Also, hear the outcome from a Twitter comment gone wrong in reference to Go. See you back for the wine festival on Saturday! And then, it’s off to the motherland!

Episode 285: Los Angeles, CA – 7/9/2006

Pearl Jam is playing two shows in the City Of Angels this week, so once again we’re back to cover another show from their history that they played in The Fabulous Forum. We’re going back to 2006, the Avocado tour. A tour that we can kind of connect to what they are doing now with Dark Matter considering the high representation that you’ll get each night from the album. This show in LA featured 10 of the 13 tracks while Dark Matter has consistently hovered around 8 of 11. We’ll talk a little bit about the impact of the setlists thus far on this tour and where they intersect with Avocado.

A great crowd show here (which is disappointing when you look at the ticket sales for both Forum shows for this week) and we’ll get into how they made what could be considered a standard setlist to many feel exciting. The crowd came to participate on songs like Release, Corduroy, Even Flow, Small Town, Last Kiss and Alive, but also reacted well to the brand new songs. The highlights of this set that we’ll get into come from Rearviewmirror, Crown Of Thorns, Gone, Big Wave and Inside Job, and we’ll get to see an appearance from Tim Robbins joining in on a modern take of a song by folk musician Phil Ochs.

Javier will join us to talk and teach about the Dumble amps that they’ve been using all tour, and he’ll do a breakdown of Big Wave as well. Stay tuned as he’ll join the show next week in preparation for Seattle!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 7 – Los Angeles Night 1

As the tour keeps moving forward, the band keeps finding a groove here and start to add more songs to the mix. This night brought us 10 tour debuts, including more Vs. songs! Rearviewmirror featured Andrew Watt on guitar and Leash in the encore was a very welcome addition. But also we were greeted with the first two Backspacer songs of the tour, an Oceans opener, In My Tree, Save You and for some reason they waited until the seventh show to play State Of Love And Trust!

Mcrib is back to assess all of what he saw from this night where we’ll talk about sign confiscation, and how some signs that weren’t confiscated became very important plot points of the show. Of course there was more Harrison Butker trolling, but an emotional dedication to a fan named Michele who passed away a week ago was a headlining moment as Faithfull had a redemption from the last time played in Sacramento. Enjoy this one, and we’ll see you tomorrow night!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 6 – Las Vegas Night 2

Pearl Jam threw us some curveballs during their second and final night in Vegas. We have been talking so much about how those first four album songs in the set had been such a staple so far that we wondered if they’d end up breaking from that. We got a hint of it at night 1 swapping Daughter with Dark Matter, but tonight showed that they are more than comfortable maneuvering things around in the set. No Scared Of Fear, no Upper Hand and no Waiting For Stevie, but Won’t Tell and Something Special get tossed back into the fold.

This was also a good night for rarities, and that was apparent when the began the night with Of The Girl. Adding Severed Hand, Out Of My Mind, Spin The Black Circle and for the first time in 59 shows, You Are returned to a set. This setlist has a little bit of everything, and the interactions at this show are some great talking points too. We’ll hear from our crew out on site led by Joey Goodsir and get their reaction to everything they witnessed!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 5 – Las Vegas Night 1

After the Sacramento show we were all wondering if the band was ready to take the next step within their setlist curation and add some old favorites into the fold. While Vs. still hasn’t seen more than two songs get played (Binaural now at three), a lot of crowd favorites were brought into the fold. Hard To Imagine, Hail, Hail, Tremor Christ, Breakerfall on the Binaural birthday, Inside Job. Even Eddie breaking out a cover of Maybe It’s Time from the Star Is Born soundtrack. As Joey will say in the episode, this had the feeling of a set that Ed would write at 4 am.

We’ll speak to our crew on site featuring Joey Goodsir, Mike Cribier, Ned Lally and Jeff Tracy to get their instant reaction takes, and we’ll be back Sunday morning to cap off a crazy weekend in Sin City!

Episode 284: Las Vegas, NV – 6/6/2003

The Dark Matter tour keeps trucking along as we now have four shows under our belt and are looking forward to a big weekend in Las Vegas where anything can happen! To get you even more excited for that, this week’s episode goes back to the Vegas show during the mighty 2003 Riot Act tour! Coming off of an absolutely legendary performance for their 10th anniversary show in 2000, this crowd came in with a ton of excitement and never let down all night.

This show will feature two guests who are vital to the existence of Pearl Jam – Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart. They’ll join the band for a fun rendition of Rockin’ In The Free World, but before that we’ll get into a conversation about why if it wasn’t for Nancy, Pearl Jam may not have been able to fund Ten following the death of Andy Wood. It’s a story that doesn’t get told often and it never got a mention in PJ20, but we’ll share how it all went down for you here in the episode.

This show should be recognized as a Mike McCready explosion! Mike was on fire the entire night putting on a clinic during such songs as Even Flow, Go, Love Boat Captain, Breath, Crazy Mary, Fuckin’ Up and that just scratches the surface. Javier will join us for two segments to gush over the tone of Even Flow and Crazy Mary for this one!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 4 – Sacramento

We’re in the thick of it! The tour continues onward through Northern California with this stop in Sacramento. We’ll hear from our friends from site today led by Ned Lally, and we’ll get into a lot about the energy in the building that made this a great experience. We’ll touch up on the Light Years dedication, Picture In A Frame, the confounding lack of Vs. songs, the Faithfull debacle and much more!

It’ll be a beautiful weekend in Vegas, so let’s play two!

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