News & Reaction Episodes

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Matt Cameron Retirement Roundtable

On July 7th, 2025, the news broke that Matt Cameron, Pearl Jam’s drummer for the last 27 years, would be stepping down effective immediately. It was a stunning revelation to the Pearl Jam world. As a unit, this band has been at the top of their game creating seven studio albums and hundreds of memorable live shows with Cameron behind the dish. But with the band having reached their 60’s now, the idea of them lasting forever was untenable. We just didn’t expect it to come so soon.

As we do in this podcast community during times like these, we gathered together to share all of our personal reactions to Matt Cameron leaving. You’ll hear some familiar podcast voices, and a few new ones as well as we navigate through this difficult time. It was a therapeutic discussion. No speculations or predictions, just pure admiration for someone who was one of the best to ever do it. Our hope is that this can be as therapeutic for you the listener as it was for all of us, so please take a listen and feel free to share your own thoughts about what happened through any of our social media platforms.

Pearl Jam 2023 Tour Announcement Reaction Episode

It’s that time again! After a big come back year in 2022 with many highs and even a few lows, Pearl Jam has just announced their tour plans for 2023. It’s a nine-date run in the midwest from north to south featuring shows in St. Paul, Chicago, Indianapolis, Dallas/Forth Worth and Austin. On this special episode we breakdown all of the tour dates and what people may expect night in and night out, the length of the tour and why they may have gone this route, the accessibility of the locations, potential financial concerns and so much more. If you need all of your pre-tour information before the you win the Ten Club lottery, we touch up on everything!

Pearl Jam’s Yield: A 25th Anniversary Retrospective

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Yield, we’re taking a stroll down memory lane to take a look into the album’s great impact that it’s had on fans for the last quarter decade. We’ll discuss how the album has impacted us personally, what it meant for Pearl Jam during that time period, how the absence of Jack Irons impacted the chances that some of these songs had to get played live and the master studio production work led by the best in the game, Brendan O’Brien. Enjoy the anniversary!

Pearl Jam 2022 Tour Announcement Reaction

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!

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Eddie Vedder and The Earthlings Tour Reaction

Happy tour! Hey, it’s not technically Pearl Jam, but it’s live music within this realm. So we’re taking the time doing exactly what we were built to do on this podcast and that’s react to what we heard live. Randy ventured out to see the supergroup for their first official night at the Beacon Theater, and although Dirty Frank and Timeless Melody were reserved for a night, it was still an extremely rewarding experience when the expectations, with the new songs being fairly underwhelming, were better than we ever could’ve anticipated. We’ll talk about the new stuff, some of the old stuff, and we’ll track a little bit of what was going on in Newark in real time. This episode poses the question: is this a once in a lifetime tour event? Should we take advantage of it before Chad Smith goes back to the Chili Peppers, where maybe the only opportunity that we’ll get to see them in the future is at best during Ohana Fest? Let’s discuss!

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Pearl Jam @ Ohana Festival Instant Reaction Episode

Ohana and Ohana Encore weekend was a long time in the making, but the shows are now in our rearviewmirror. There’s a lot for us to talk about, such as all of the new Gigaton songs that either debuted or tore the house down. In this episode we’ll react to everything that went down at both Ohana and Ohana Encore weekend and try to put our best analysis on how great these shows were. The Gigaton songs will be the most heavily featured, but we’ll also talk about some of the rarities tossed in there such as Sweet Lew and Let Me Sleep, a few of the special guests like Brandi Carlile who joined them, and some of the old songs that felt wonderful to hear again. All of the instant reaction jam packed into this episode recorded just 24 hours after the last show’s end!

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Pearl Jam @ Sea.Hear.Now Festival Instant Reaction Episode

Hey! a Pearl Jam show JUST happened for the first time in three years! Let’s react to it a little bit! So much to unwrap on this first night back from all the new Gigaton tracks to the old songs getting a new groove, Pearl Jam proved in the latter stages of their career post pandemic that they still got it! We’ll run down the entire setlist, not unlike a regular episode except a little more casual and less music to hear. Literally every topic under the sun is covered for this (I did forget to mention the tour bus on the beach, but shit happens). Even talk about a certain boss who caught the attention of many gossip hounds during this weekend. After you’re done hearing our thoughts, check out the Concertpedia entry for the show!

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