Well well well, we’re almost done with studio albums. This episode takes us to the album that lasted for the longest time as their “newest” record in Lightning Bolt. This one right now may feel as though it may be falling out of favor with crowds due to a lengthy tour backing the record and a shiny new Gigaton to attach to. But the album has it’s share of moments that can be celebrated off a Pearl Jam record. Within the Swallowed Wholes and My Father’s Sons of the world, there are some underrated ones in here including Yellow Moon and even Pendulum for how much it’s been played. What will make it to Super Tier?
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I have a gut feeling this is gonna be good… We haven’t done a DEVO episode in a long time, many of you who have joined recently have possibly never listened to one. Essentially the premise is that we devolve a bit and talk about things that we don’t usually cover anywhere else. A week before the tour starts, we want to hype you up and get excited for this. So we originally brought five songs each to the table where we’d ask the question how many times they’ll be played on this west coast run. However, the numbers got way too interesting and got us thinking a little bigger. Maybe some milestones? Enjoy the nice and lighthearted episode!
Continuing our preparation for the upcoming May tour dates, we’re looking back at a show from Phoenix during the Binaural era. The show is placed during a very strong stretch for the band as the following night would become an all-time classic – their 10th anniversary in Las Vegas. But Phoenix has been a rather quiet stop for Pearl Jam over the years. A lot of people remember the Open Road improv that they did back in 1995, but there were shows that happened there during every album tour from 1998 til 2003, although they’d wait 10 years before they showed up again during Lightning Bolt. Is Phoenix an undervalued Pearl Jam city? Should the shows from there be discussed more often. We do our best to answer those questions with the hope that this year’s show can change the impression of the city. A lot of great performances here including a few that were extremely rare during the Binaural era. Timeless Melody shows up in the middle of the main set, a song by the La’s that was covered thanks to Matt Cameron’s suggestion. We will also get the rarely heard Romanza intro heading into Better Man. Get ready for great versions of Grievance, State Of Love And Trust, Given To Fly, Insignificance, Do The Evolution and I Got Shit scattered throughout the episode!
This week I’m doing a Tier List for Pearl Jam’s Backspacer album! I know a lot of people who love Backspacer, I definitely liked it more when it came out than I do now, but that’s not to say that there aren’t good songs to discuss here. Sure, Johnny Guitar won’t have much of my backing, but Amongst The Waves will. I do my best not to shit on this album way too much, but sometimes these songs just don’t age as well as others and that’s what I’m attempting to prove here. Share your opinions, I welcome them. But as I write in every description, no one has any business being angry over any of this. They are just songs.
The theme of this show is the importance of family. This being a hometown show for both Ed and Matt, there are a lot of band member relatives taking in the performance – Ed’s mother and three brothers are in attendance, Matt’s mother, siblings and son Ray are all there, and Mike’s dad Roy is in attendance as well. As much as this is a family show for the band, it was a bonding moment for those who witnessed this on the rail. We invite our long-time friends Debra McMurtrey and Dukes Wooters onto the show to talk about how their friendship developed on this night and to discuss the special bonds that we share with each other through our connection to the band that makes it all so special. This is our first show in the next handful of weeks that’s going to zero in on some of the locations that Pearl Jam will stop at on the upcoming tour in May. This night was the last time they were in San Diego and the purpose of the show was to create a hometown party type atmosphere. They played a 34-song, 3 hour and 20 minute set on this night that’s memorable for a lot of reasons. Not just because we get to see Ed’s mother Karen take down a bottle of wine in the same way her son is known to do, but this set was filled with so many audibles and surprises that would make for special moments in any Pearl Jam show. Some of those surprises include Tremor Christ, Army Reserve, Speed Of Sound, In My Tree and the live debut of Sleeping By Myself. We’ll get into all that and more good stuff from Deb and Dukes, including a breakdown of Ray Cameron’s lackluster Rockin’ In The Free World performance.
Welcome to another edition of Hallucinogenic Recipe! Patrick and Brian are back and invite guest and Patreon Dan Leehr into the conversation to talk about the background of the Orpheum Theater’s release on both bootleg and video. This is a fascinating conversation, Dan was vital in the digitizing process of the video you’ve mostly likely seen on YouTube. He’ll talk about how he got access to this show and the whole process of putting it together. If you ever wanted to know how the sausage was made in the bootlegging world, this is fantastic insight!
You may say Self-Titled, I may say Avocado. Regardless of what the album is actually called, it has 13 tracks that are up for discussion in this episode. I’ll be ranking these in what will be a brutal challenge to figure out placements, however, there may be one that stands out above the rest. Is that going to be the super tier song? Gee, maybe watch for that answer, huh? I’ll have opinions in this one as I always do. We’re getting on the dad Ed era now where things get a little interesting in a way that perhaps the 90s albums didn’t. Some people may not agree with my opinions and that is fine. I don’t care if you disagree with me, I care if you’re a whiny baby about it. Constructive conversation is always the key to understanding, so let’s try and understand instead of torching the channel down?
Thanks to our wonderful listeners and followers on social media, after a grueling two months worth of polls to select this week’s episode, the people have spoken and selected the legendary Katowice II 2000 show as the winner! The people chose well. This show is considered the cream of the crop of the official bootlegs from the Binaural tour and was sealed with the elusive Apeman logo as a show that the band thought of fondly. This show is unique for its era, both in story and in setlist. After playing the same arena, Spodek, the night prior in front of a sold out crowd of 8,000, the original tour route was going to bring them to Budapest, Hungary. That show was canceled for unknown reasons, leading the band to play a second night in Spodek to a crowd less than half the size as the previous night. They came onto the stage with a setlist mapped out, but after taking one look into the crowd and seeing a completely different atmosphere, they decided to make up the setlist on the fly instead. This led to a 4-song slow burn opening, some rare songs for the time spread all throughout the set, and many Binaural songs in their prime. We’ll run down the entire set and gush over some of the extremely rare placement of some of their most common songs. We’ll also get into a discussion about the recent premium ticket sales for the upcoming 2022 North American leg, and how the average Pearl Jam fan is having an extremely difficult time being able to afford them at the prices offered.
We’re strolling along through Pearl Jam’s discog and taking a stop right here at 2002’s Riot Act. One of the best tours and times to be a Pearl Jam fan, this album was fired up with anger steaming from the Bu$h administration, and sorrow after the Roskilde tragedy. Some tracks are absolute classics and still live on in the pantheon of Pearl Jam’s live material today. Others have barely gotten a sniff of the setlist since 2003. Let’s see how everything breaks down on this week’s edition of the Tier Lists! Opinions are great to have, you should own yours just as I’m owning mine. No one is wrong and no one is lesser than for thinking a certain way. There’s so much toxicity in this world, let’s keep it out of Pearl Jam!
Hello Patrons! Patrick and Brian are back with another episode of their elusive recipe. In this one they are going to discuss the popular bootleg compilations that had widespread distribution back in the 90s – No Fucking Messiah and Pearls of Wisdom. Check it out as they share their memories of collecting, finding and paying for these comps! *Note: we had some audio issues during recording, some parts were incredibly difficult to salvage and I did my best to boost it as much as I could. You may have to listen a little harder in spots, but it’s not for an extended period of time.
A night full of broken barricades and pepper spray, one of the glanced over shows from the No Code tour happened in Hartford, Connecticut only days following the massive Randall’s Island shows. As wild as some of the mid-90’s shows such as Miami 1994 got, this one had a moment that ended in the arrest of 13 fans. During Blood, a massive surge from the lawn crowd broke down the barricade, forcing riot police to invoke pepper spray, which in return caused fans in the seats to leave their section and rush towards the stage. The situation was handled better by Ed than by the police, but after a show that kicked off it’s main set with a ton of momentum, the band couldn’t let the situation potentially end the night sooner than anticipated. In this episode, we’ll touch up on that entire ordeal as well as a great moment during Not For You where Ed gives a speech similar to the infamous Porch speech at Randall’s Island. Also in this episode, we’ll touch up on ticket updates after the Ten Club lottery dropped, and we celebrate the life of Foo Fighters drummer, Taylor Hawkins.
Ahh the sixth installment of the weekly series chronicling Pearl Jam’s studio albums and breaking them down by tier ranks. This one is tricky, but for the songs on Binaural, the cream rises to the top. What will be crowned ‘S’ tier from this record and go on to the final round? Got opinions? Do share, just don’t be a whiny baby about them and we can have a conversation!
Welcome to another edition of the Horizon Profiles! In this one we speak to Nick Smith, long-time Patron and liveon4legs.com staff writer. He’ll talk about his Pearl Jam origins happening on a bus during a ride home from an amusement park. We’ll discuss his love for No Code, his travels all over the place to see the band, and some of his all time favorite songs and moments. Tune in!
After a long trip back into 1992 to get a taste of the band’s rise to fame, this episode brings you back to the 1998 Yield tour right after Matt Cameron joined the band. It’s the second show of the second leg emanating from East Lansing, Michigan, home of the Michigan State Spartans. Thanks to our Horizon Leg Patron Nick Smith for requesting this show and joining us briefly to chat about it! The second half of the Yield tour is well renowned for so many reasons. Although this show may not be recognized as much as others such as Mansfield or Madison Square Garden, this can be seen as a show that had the seedlings to building into what you’d get to see later in the tour. Reason for that comes from a fan holding up a sign requesting that the band play Breath. This is seemingly the beginning of what would all culminate at that memorable MSG show. The story from this one is Matt Cameron. After some tougher shows on the first leg where he was still attempting to get the catalog under his belt, he came back in August on an absolute tear. We’ll get to talk about some of the Cameron stand outs from this night such as Spin The Black Circle, Brain of J, Rearviewmirror, Hail, Hail, I Got Shit and Black. This version of RVM is one that you won’t want to miss.
We’ve come to our next episode in our tier list series featuring my all-time favorite Pearl Jam album, Yield. Of course, I have a really tough time trying to fit these pieces into the puzzle. It’s very top heavy. But I figure it out and think I did the right thing, however there may be one or two songs that could surprise you! What could they be? This is meant to be fun and hopefully you enjoy the insight that I bring to the table, but there is a potential that you may disagree with me. And guess what? That is FINE. We should all have different tastes. I’m open to hearing why people attach to the songs that they do and learning those stories deepens my connection with the band. Arguing is pointless because your favorite things are your favorite things and shouting about them or complaining that others don’t agree with you gets you where? Absolutely no where. Pearl. Jam. Fans. Are. Better. Than. THAT!
It’s one of the most important Pearl Jam shows in their history with iconic moments that are likely engrained in your memory from as far back as 1992. In this episode, we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the MTV Unplugged performance. We’ll touch up on everything that led up to this very moment happening. How they were called to do the show when they were in Europe and had less than three days to prepare before performing. It kind of came off the heels of that legendary Zurich show where they played on such a small stage that they were basically forced to switch over to acoustic, and like to PJ20 movies tells it, that moment led directly to this event happening. We’re going to tell some stories from this show that maybe you’re a bit unfamiliar with, including an incident where the band was forced to rent equipment due to their own not arriving from Europe in time. You’ll get to hear some quotes from Jeff, Mike and Stone discussing about how this and other facets of the event happened. At the time they returned, the band saw their popularity in the states rise as Ten was sneaking onto Billboard’s Top 20. The songs! Of course the songs are important. Some of the most impactful performances of all-time. From a stand out State Of Love And Trust proving that most of their catalog was going to transition well, to Black being one of the greatest Eddie vocal performances of all-time including the absolutely iconic We Belong Together tag, and then of course, Porch. We’ll go through and break down the entire moment where Eddie wrote PRO CHOICE!!! on his arm. Again, just legendary moments. And we’ll share maybe a story you haven’t heard, do you know what Vs. song was being played in a commercial break during this? We’ll have your answer in the episode! Also joining us for this one is our friends at Hallucinogenic Recipe, Patrick and Brian, who will talk about the aspects of finding this on bootleg and some of the strange titles that were given to State Of Love And Trust.
Welcome back to the fourth installment of our weekly episodic Tier List rankings! In this one we’re doing No Code, one of my favorites, but the A-list material may not be able to be beat! Check it out and see where I rank the songs and comment below on whether you agree or not. Hey! You’re allowed to have differing opinions! But guess what’s pointless to have? A hissy fit if someone disagrees with you! It’s not worth the trouble. The wonderful thing about this band is that there’s so much material to sink your teeth into that it’s almost impossible for us to share favorites on anything. I respect what you guys think and that helps me learn a little bit more coming from a different perspective!
The moment we’ve all been waiting for! For two years during this horrible pandemic we’ve had to suffer through quarantining, disease, and the aggravation that live music wouldn’t be here to alleviate them. So now we can finally set our plans, get to the GA line early and stock up on merch for the first occasion in a very long time! We’re reacting to the news here because it’s obviously going to be the only thing people want to hear about right now (aside from maybe Unplugged). We go through all of the dates, talk about some of the new venues and the last time Pearl Jam stepped foot in those places, maybe make a few predictions along the way, and let you know where you may be able to find us for events and hangouts on show day. Buckle up, the boys are back!
Welcome on back for another edition of the Horizon profile episodes! This episode is the profile of Sean Rashkis, a long-time Patron and liveon4legs.com contributor. We spend a lot of time talking about his early 90s show run hitting everything up in Northern California, including many of the early Bridge School shows. Hear some of Sean’s stories of his travels and favorite moments of the band’s, and of course the expected rapid fire questions that we present on every episode.
“Another wild, fabulous Holland show… in other words, it has to be seen to be believed” If you’ve frequented the Five Horizons site over the past few decades, you would know that most of their show descriptions have a detailed re-telling of the performances, elaborating on the songs and speeches to give you the sense of what happened. If you’ve read the description for this Rotterdam show before, you’d know that the quote above would be the only indication of what this show was about. At the time, they hosted video on their site, but now you can find this entire show on YouTube, so for many of you that may have read this over the past handful of years, you may have no idea what you’re in for. Let’s just say Mike McCready gives us his all. Along with all that… this was the final show of Pearl Jam’s five-night run in Holland during March of 1992. The band his always spoken highly of this run of shows and how much they loved the area and the local fans. We discussed Den Haag and Utrecht already, but this one is a good end-cap of their European run in 1992. In the last two episodes, we talked a lot about stage divers presence and how it interfered with what was happening on stage. This time, Ed takes a new approach putting a stop to it before it even began. The crowd obliges, for the most part, and the band’s energy is truly able to resonate on stage. The band is having fun playing the music they are proud of writing, and when they’d head back to the states in a week’s time, they’ll find out that everything has changed.