Podcast Episodes

This episode will take us to the 1998 Yield Tour. It was a time where the band started to familiarize themselves with their brand new drummer Matt Cameron, so setlists weren’t as diverse as we’d see in later years, especially for the album that Yield followed up in No Code that only had one song represented on this night. 1998 was really the first year since 1994 that tickets were becoming more accessible to fans due to the band’s refusal to play Ticketmaster venues. As mentioned in this show, 98 was really one of the first years that fans began to travel along with the band from location to location. Our Patron Patrick Boegel joins us as a guest on this episode and talks about the stretch of shows he traveled for during this late August time period. This is a great show where the classics were on full display. Incredible and possibly overlooked versions of Alive, Black, Daughter, Wishlist and Immortality were the big moments where the band were truly at the top of their game.

Happy 75th “official” episode to us as we continue to embark on our Around The World journey in the Scandinavian territory covering the Oslo, Norway show from 2014. While this show has many ups as well as a few downs, its widely known for being the first ever show that the super rare Lost Dog track, Strangest Tribe, made an appearance at a show. With the Lost Dogs album being out for 10 years prior to this show, there were only a few songs that the band has held out on playing from the double disc. While songs like Undone, Hold On and on one occasion Hitchhiker have been brought to the table, Strangest Tribe was seen as one that would never be touched even though it was incredibly popular with the fanbase. We’ll talk about how big of a shock it was to hear that it was played, and having seen the other version of it, Randy will compare it to the Fenway performance. That wasn’t the only rarely heard song you got from this show. The band powered through a stretch of uncommon songs in the middle of the main set such as My Father’s Son, In Hiding, Sad, Light Years and Garden and then would power through the encore with songs like Satan’s Bed, Leash and a rare rendition of Rolling Stones cover Waiting On A Friend.

In this episode, we look back to the Fairfax 1994 show that Pearl Jam took the stage for just hours after hearing the news of Kurt Cobain’s death. On what was an emotional night, especially for Eddie, the band makes the best of a bad situation and puts together a passionate, spirited performance among the grieving fans. We’ll discuss in this episode the band’s reaction to his death and how it would impact their decisions moving forward as they would be looked upon to fill the void that Kurt left behind. The generation that mourned his death naturally drifted towards Eddie for answers, ones that he wasn’t necessarily ready to provide. We’ll also get a visit from a fellow Pearl Jam podcaster. Roche from Jamily Matters will join us to talk a little bit about being at this Fairfax show which was the first one he attended. He’ll capture the atmosphere and uncertainty in the building from the crowd during this incredibly challenging day. Also a big thank you goes out to Jed Garfunkel who requested this episode, we’ll be telling his story on the show as well.

This episode we dig back into Ten era Pearl Jam where the band was touring Europe right at the height of their popularity. Our Around The World series continues covering a Stockholm, Sweden show from 1992. This show is important for a lot of reasons. After this show, an incident where the band was robbed backstage combined with the next day at Roskilde where Ed got into a fight with a security guard led for them to cancel 7 remaining dates on this Euro tour. A few of those festival dates they were set to take the stage alongside Nirvana. As for the Stockholm show, they were in a good mood that day and debuted two cover songs in the pre-set – Driven To Tears and Throw Your Arms Around Me. The set is full of Ten songs, a Fugazi Easter egg hunt, and a unique closing sequence of Release and Footsteps.

What’s a better way to enjoy your time social distancing than reliving some of Pearl Jam’s best shows in their history? This one we don’t have to go back too far as we’ll only travel back to 2018 to cover the Krakow, Poland show – another episode in our Around The World series. This show provides another chance to talk about a smaller city/country that Pearl Jam brings their a-game to. From opening with Of The Girl to busting out uncommon favorites from the Riot Act era, the band was having fun while taking their chances on this very memorable night. But there is no argument that the most important thing that came out of this night was a rare appearance of the Lost Dog track Other Side. Only having appeared two other times at the 2010 Bridge School and Worcester in 2013, this song came as a complete surprise in this set list. Especially in the very early part of the set. This will obviously be one of the only times we get to talk about the song so we do our best to figure out why the band might not bust it out as much as the fans may want them to.

This episode was originally meant to be a celebration of the 1st leg of the Gigaton US tour, but due to circumstances surrounding the current global pandemic these plans were postponed. In the middle of recording this episode, we learned the news of the postponement. We went into this excited, discussing our plans and pumped to hear new music in Toronto and finished off dejected, not knowing what the next move would be. Now since we are all attempting to quarantine and stay as far away from COVID-19 as possible, keep in mind that Pearl Jam postponing was one of the first dominoes to fall and the news coming before bigger news such as the cancellation of March Madness gave us a major shock. Regardless of that, we do our best to put together an episode featuring a really unique setlist. If you’ve been a listener of this show since day one, you’ll remember how obsessive Matt was with hearing the song Big Wave live. Since this is our first occasion we’ve had to cover the song, Matt makes his return to the podcast for the first time in 9 months. Randy and Matt get excited that both of their white whales are back to back on this show and have somewhat of a regret for not taking the short drive to Connecticut two days after the MSG shows of 2008. Also joining us on this show is Dave JanTausch from LiveFootsteps.org, a statistical Pearl Jam tour tracker site that focuses on advanced numbers of the band’s live catalog. Dave was at this show and will talk about some of his favorite moments, including an accident that almost ruined the show for him entirely.

Coming off the heels of a major tour announcement where the band will be postponing the first leg of their Gigaton tour, we use the mantra “the show must go on” and use this time to continue to reminisce over the history of Pearl Jam. For now we go back Around The World to this year’s first stop in Europe discussing Budapest, Hungary from 1996. This is their only show in the country to date, but if all goes as planned they’ll be making their long awaited return this summer. This was a nice little No Code era show that might get lost in the shuffle. The most notable moment from this show is likely the live debut of Lost Dog, Black, Red, Yellow. We talk a lot about the No Code era during this tour and whether the band might’ve thought they were losing steam with their fanbase due to the record’s poor reputation at the time. But the band took it with stride and were still able to utilize the new songs in unique ways live. The show has fantastic versions of No Code tracks Who You Are and Habit as well as great performances of Daughter and Immortality. Joining us for this episode is Branden Palomo from the Better Band Podcast. If you want to be a guest on his show, reach out to him via social media on Facebook or Twitter.

When you think of shows from the modern era that are known for their rare gems and put it up against the set list from this Chicago performance 26 years ago, it would still be considered rare. Today’s episode features some of the earliest performances of the best tracks off of Vitalogy such as Last Exit, Not For You and Spin The Black Circle as well as songs that would be considered impossible to hear in 2020. As Ed battled a cold in front of 2,500 fan club members only days after selling out a 13,000 Chicago Stadium, he declared very early on that they were gonna play a bunch of random shit. The Vitalogy songs were still in their early stages so the fans were treated to a preview of the future, but they were also treated to some of the rarest songs in their catalog from that time. Chaser songs such as Hard To Imagine, Alone and fan club song Angel for the most part are songs that people who have been to multiple shows in the last decade or two probably have yet to witness. Can’t forget the magic number 4 on this show as many of the songs mentioned above were being played for their fourth time, including Yellow Ledbetter. The biggest moment from this show developed from Ed’s shenanigans during Porch as he had a scare after diving off an amplifier. Ed put on a hell of a show making the crowd think he was legitimately injured before finishing off another furious version of the song. Thanks to our Patron Dylan Sumpter for requesting this episode!

We travel back around the world to look into one of the shows from the 2003 Japan tour. This being an early show from the Riot Act era, the band was still getting a feel for how the new songs worked on the live stage. Joining us for this episode is patron Eddie Quintana to talk about his passion for the album and the era. Nagoya is a unique show, but one that doesn’t get brought up enough in the pantheon of Pearl Jam performances. It took place in a small college theater holding only a few thousand in attendance, and while Eddie had to use a translator to connect with the crowd, the usual songs with sing-along sections such as Better Man and Daughter lacked their usual punch. It’s interesting to witness this as we break down how the call and response in the hit songs fell by the wayside in some of these Japanese shows. Another thing that made this show different centers around a lengthy, jammy improv in the middle of the set without Eddie’s presence followed up by a completely different take on Immortality. The jammy songs were certainly in the forefront as we’ll discuss a tremendous rendition of You Are that fit the mold of this set. Other Riot Act era songs that we don’t get to discuss often such as Love Boat Captain, Get Right and the LO4L debut of Bu$hleaguer will get major focus as well.

In 2018, sandwiched between The Home Shows and two nights at historic Wrigley Field, Pearl Jam headed to Big Sky country in Missoula, Montana to benefit Rock2Vote and Sen. Jon Tester’s re-election. On this week’s Live on 4 Legs, hosts John Farrar and Chris Buckley give the local boy, bassist Jeff Ament, some love as he takes center stage for this concert, featuring Pilate, Lowlight, Bee Girl, and other Ament-centric material, as well as pointed covers of Know Your Rights, Imagine, and Throw Your Hatred Down. We’ll also spend time discussing the most controversial poster in Pearl Jam’s history depicting the White House in a blaze with the former President’s carcass remains burnt to the skull. Thanks to patron Dan Opallo for picking this week’s show to cover!

So we’ve been back n forth covering all different eras in the mid to late 90’s lately, but we don’t have to travel too far to get to this episode as only a Gigaton of news has happened since then. We cover the second night of the Seattle home shows. Thanks to our Patron, Adriane Petersen, who made the request for the episode! We emphasize it so often when discussing this one – this was a homecoming show that paid tribute to early-era Pearl Jam with songs that the folks from day one may remember seeing them playing in clubs like RCKCNDY and the Off Ramp. Oceans, Footsteps, Leash, Rats and even the essentials such as Alive, Even Flow and Porch were seen as a throwback to the band’s roots. And to prove that this one was legit, this was the only time since the album released that they hadn’t played a song off Lightning Bolt. But with all of the fun that the band had on stage with their Seattle buddies helping them along the way, we can’t help but discuss what this 35-song marathon means for future shows. Seeing as how the band is going on tour with an opener for the first time in 8 years this year, we wonder if the length of this show and the band’s lack of stamina in their older age has something to do with it. Wait for it around the end of the first encore, the band had a rough time making it out of some spots in this show that was otherwise full of energy.

This episode we continue our Around The World series with a show from the Yield tour down under in Sydney, Australia! Thanks to our Patron Paul Mereniuk for requesting this episode, you’ll hear his concert story during the show! 1998 was an interesting time for the band, they were finally out of the limelight of mainstream music and seemed to be genuinely enjoying their time performing. They took the stage this night wearing wigs saying there was a 5 for 1 deal and they got their hair done at the same place Elton John did. It showed the band was able to relax, make fun of themselves and show the crowd they were there to have a good time as well. We also see Ed get into some personal stories, something he wasn’t doing often in years prior. But while there was a lot of good going on with the band at the time, this was also a trying time that saw the end of drummer Jack Irons tenure. The Australian tour would be his last as he was having trouble sleeping and prone to constant panic attacks due to his bipolar disorder not being treated properly. This is one of a small handful of shows where we get to hear Jack play Yield songs such as Faithfull and Given To Fly that add his very unique style and presence brought to the album.

On the last episode we spoke with WWE Hall of Famer Edge about his massive Pearl Jam fandom and one of the many shows he was honored to attend happened to be in Greenville in 2016, the same show where the band performed Vs. in its entirety. As he made mention in our conversation, his reaction to the fans sitting next to him says it all… “you don’t know the SIGNIFICANCE of this!!!” We’ll hear from Edge more in this episode, but just as importantly one of our hosts was right on the rail for this show. John reminisces about the entire experience, but mainly the moments that made it feel real. After Daughter was played without a tag, something was up. Daughter as the 4th song in was a little funky as is, but as a follow up to Go and Animal, especially after the Moline and Milwaukee shows, people were hopeful that they were getting an unforgettable performance, which they did. The reasoning behind performing the album was that the show happened to fall on Record Store Day, so when Ed opened the show by declaring “let’s play some records” he wasn’t joking. Versions of Glorified G and Rearviewmirror tore the house down and Indifference mid-set without the lights on made for a memorable moment. They’d also honor the day by playing their two record related songs – Let The Records Play and Spin The Black Circle – as well as dedicated Comfortably Numb to one of Ed’s favorite records growing up.

This episode, we’ll dip into another Vitalogy era show that was a make up date from the infamous Golden Gate Park show. Joining us for this episode is Patreon subscriber Debra McMurtrey who recounts being a 16-year old at this show. Debra’s stories are what makes this episode stand out. You’ll get to hear how she initially acquired tickets to this show and her reaction when she found out it was canceled, and then her long journey of the band rescheduling this show as one of the last stops of the tour. She was crushed in the pit, crowd surfed to Animal and had a religious experience during songs like Rearviewmirror. All while her mom attempted to get some work done while chaperoning. We’ll also talk about The Ramones who opened for the band at both of the San Diego shows on their way to their final tour of their career. 30 minutes of catchy, hard-hitting punk rock to open the show and make way for Pearl Jam who were at their classic 1995 best. Highlights to look forward to from this show include Immortality, Long Road and Corduroy.

It’s time to travel Around The World! This episode is the first installment of our year-long series where we’ll tackle Pearl Jam shows from all different countries across the globe. We kick it off in New Zealand where the band was riding high on their red hot Vitalogy South Pacific Tour. This was the final appearance in a 20-show stretch that reached from Japan to The Philippines, down to Australia and finally New Zealand. The band had already been through a ton of difficulty on this tour as the crowds were unruly any place they touched down. They were also filming a documentary at the time that never saw the light of day, but it’s something you can now find on YouTube if you dig for it. The biggest takeaway from this show (that doesn’t have the finest quality of bootleg) is that Pearl Jam mania is arguably at its peak and the band making an appearance in a country that other bands usually ignore speaks to how high in demand they were at the time. They rocked all of the Vitalogy songs that were released 3 months earlier including ripping versions of Spin The Black Circle and Not For You and got some love at the end of the set performing with NZ band The Split Enz featuring Neil and Tim Finn. Renditions of History Never Repeats and I Got You were major highlights from this performance.

We’ve made it to the end of our 10-part MSG series and in this episode, Randy and Chris break down the latest Garden show to date from 2016. As both were in attendance on both nights, it was kind of impossible to judge this show without putting it up head to head with the first night, and when doing so, some of what you got from this night might be considered disappointing. A huge list of songs from this night were doubled up from night 1 including many in the exact same spots and that led to some points of criticism. With this being the Garden, expectations were fairly high and repeating some of the first night’s set left a little bit of a lackluster feel. However, it didn’t disrupt it from being a good show with a lot of Ten-era heavy tracks, including the more uncommon Garden and Deep. There were two big highlights from this night everyone remembers and they come from the special guests that joined them on stage. Cheap Trick accompanied them early in the set for Surrender and none other than Sting joined the band to sing Driven To Tears. These were the big time Garden moments that the first night might have been missing.

Thanks to the Vault #9 release, this episode will break down the Seattle show from 1993 that many of you will soon be receiving in your mailbox. While this show was a bit of an unexpected pick to be unveiled from the Vault, it features important moments in the history of Pearl Jam. As the 1993 tour was winding down, the band was looking towards the future with Vitalogy experimenting with two incredibly fresh songs for the time in Last Exit and Tremor Christ. While both songs were making only their second appearance on the live stage, you can get a sense of what the next stages were for the band – a unique rawness that encapsulated the magic of the first two albums, but also held a sense of maturity that was setting the landscape for the mid-90’s era for the band. Another major moment, and possibly the reason for the decision to make this a vault, was that this was the fourth and final time that the Mamasan was performed in its entirety live. We listen to all 3 songs and discuss the importance of it’s presence, especially Footsteps which is played sans harmonica and in a full electric ensemble.

In this episode, we’ll discuss Night 1 from Madison Square Garden in 2016, a show that came with a lot of hype and anticipation off the heels of “Tenadelphia” surely you would think the band would bring their best set to the World’s Most Famous Arena. With both Randy and Buckley in attendance this night, they have very different perspectives of this show. Randy will talk about the disappointment in being a serious collector and not getting anything new for the first time seeing the band live. The overall discussion in this episode is although this was a very solid set, did it really have that MSG magic that shows in 98, 03 and 2010 all had? The album intro to Go is a great discussion, Release in the middle of the set, a unique rendition of Future Days and a random Doobie Brothers cover will dominate conversation, but this wasn’t anywhere near the type of set that Philly or Greenville received earlier that tour.

In the summer of 2018, we witnessed a possible turning point in the band when a second show in London was canceled due to Eddie having a busted throat. This would lead to a rescheduled date that ended the European tour with tons of great moments to make up for the cancellation. LO4L Patreon donor Aurelien was there that night and joins the show to discuss his experience. A lot of what we discuss in this episode is how the situation in London possibly has something to do with how quiet the band has been in 2019. Was Ed losing his voice so much of a concern that they halted album recordings in order for him to save himself for solo shows? We’ll also talk about Can’t Deny Me and whether after almost 2 years if it should even be placed on a new album let alone in a prominent spot on it. Aside from that, the show had a lot of big moments in the set that you don’t usually get. Oceans and Nothing As It Seems as openers, Mankind, Satan’s Bed, Fatal and a whopping 4 Riot Act songs that were played! Not stuff you get from a normal performance. It also has a wonderful dedication to friend of the podcast Andrea Oakes whom the band played I Won’t Back Down for.