Sandwiched in between Benaroya and Santa Barbara, the band stopped over at The Bridge School for 2 short acoustic sets in 2003. After a lackluster night one, could they recapture some of the magic on night two? And what exactly did Ol’ Dick Cheney have? We talk about the range of covers (Masters of War, Crazy Mary, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away) and even a Bridge debut (Down). There might even be an appearance from Young Neil himself. Enjoy this Patreon-exclusive episode and check back later this week for our Evolution Series episode on Release! Thanks everyone!
Exclusive Content for Patrons
Hi everyone! Welcome back to our monthly traditional where we take 4 uber Pearl Jam fans and make them fight to the death over songs they like. This was a good one as we had a returning champion, 2 newcomers and a host duke it out to create the best of what would be a Gigaton era set. But of course to keep it interesting, we had some new challenges and rules to adhere to. In this episode, everyone had 2 of these 4 albums blocked – Binaural, Riot Act, Avocado and Backspacer making it more like what a recent show may look like and avoiding using some popular deep cuts as crutches. We also were limited to a maximum of 1 No Code song per set. The challenges you give man… Joining us for this episode will be champion from the 1998 setlist draft Gabe Spece, Kevin Murray, Tom Gregory and some dude who types these blurbs. Check out the episode! Obrigado!
As promised, here is the complete audio of the album we put together on today’s DEVO episode. If you haven’t heard it, go listen to that first then come back to this. We’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
1. Open Road (Phoenix 9/13/95)
2. All Night (Lost Dogs)
3. Brain of J (Salt Lake City 11/2/95)
4. Words Seem Out Of Place (Melbourne 3/17/95)
5. I Got Id (Merkinball)
6. The Price of Everything (Seattle 2/6/95)
7. Habit (No Code)
8. Falling Down (Red Rocks 6/20/95)
9. Lukin (No Code)
10. Hard to Imagine (Lost Dogs)
11. Sunburn (Rarities/Unreleased Cuts)
12. False Delivery/I Don’t Know About the Future (Tokyo 2/20/95)
13. Long Road (Merkinball)
In this bonus episode, we talk about what would have happened, hypothetically, if the band had been inspired to put out an album in 1995 in between Vitalogy and No Code…new material was coming fast and furious, some of it never saw the light of day, others maybe only played once and then forgotten. John collected all of this into a 13-song album and reveals it to Randy one song at a time; some songs you’ll definitely recognize, others you might never have heard before! Plus, we also kind of write a movie script along with it? This one goes deep and gets super nerdy, give it a listen and let us know what you think! We’ll post the entire album audio later today, so be on the lookout for that as well! Thanks everyone!
It’s that time of the month again! We continue on with our year + long Bridge School series here with the first show from 2003. It is a short 7 song show that occurred in a very busy week for Pearl Jam sandwiched in between Benaroya and the Santa Barbara shows. It’s clear that they were playing a lot of the same songs these nights, including Johnny Cash cover 25 Minutes to Go, Masters of War and then brand new song Man of the Hour. However, this isn’t one of their more impressive efforts from the Bridge shows. As mentioned, it is a shorter set than usual, they had been playing the event every other year and the excitement of the other shows surrounding this time period made for more interesting conversation. Can you believe that we did an episode in under 40 minutes? I can’t, this will feel like a breeze compared to everything else we do. Even though we don’t love this show all that much, we have enough to say about it. Add it to the stats. Enjoy!
Hello patrons! This month’s setlist draft is a little different, we’re drafting an acoustic show that the band would have played at the Bridge School in 2020. John is joined by Matt Thompson, Deb McMurtrey, Drew Vipond, and Patrick Boegel for a draft full of surprises…listen and let us know who you think had the best one!
*On 10/22/2020 this episode will be free to listen for all patrons and non-patrons alike. After 24 hours, this will be changed to a subscriber only episode*
Happy PJ30! In this episode, we go back the absolute furthest that you can go in the Pearl Jam live catalog allllll the way back to the very first show at the Off Ramp in October of 1990. We go into full detail on what the band went through to get to this point in such a short amount of time and talk about their mindset while plowing through to accomplish something unheard of. Some of the songs played for the first time sound great, and it’s impressive that 3 or 4 of those songs ended up being some of their most popular songs they had. Versions of Release, Alive, Even Flow, Black… they may not sound perfect, but if you haven’t listened to this before, I think you’d be surprised with how impressive they’re presented. Enjoy the episode! For Patreon first-timers, We’d love for you to become a full-time contributor so you can gain access to more episodes and fun exclusive events. For $1 a month, you get more PJ goodness than anyone could ever want. A chance to tell your story on an episode, participation in our setlist drafts or forums, a bootleg every month and of course the extra episode content (Song evolution episodes and Bridge School shows). Try it for $1 this month and if you like the content and would like to contribute to helping the show grow, your help is greatly appreciated by the hosts and listeners alike!
Another month means another Bridge School installment! We take up part 2 of the 2001 shows. Night 1 was a little rusty, it was their first time performing since the Binaural tour and emotions were a little high since the country was still grieving 9/11. But night 2 the gloves were off a little bit and they came out of the gate roaring, first with a rendition of The Kids Are Alright. And later in the set we are treated to a brand new song in I Am Mine and the live debut of Low Light! We’ll talk about both song’s evolutions and how we hear these songs on the live stage 19 years later. Enjoy this one!
Listen as Randy, Gabe, Matt, and Sean attempt to craft the perfect 1998 Yield tour setlist. Remember to vote for your favorite over the next few days! Will anyone take Last Kiss? Will Randy’s plans fall apart after his laptop almost did? Listen and find out!
Hi, new edition of Devo here where we basically get to fuck around and not be so serious about the band. This week we’ve decided to put together a compilation album featuring incredibly random artists, current and past, and what they would cover if included on a Pearl Jam tribute album. What would artists from all over the spectrum such as R.E.M, Taylor Swift, Tool and even Limp Bizkit cover if they got a chance to do a Pearl Jam song? 14 bands, 14 choices. Check out what we decided and feel free to make arguments for your choices below!
This is a re-release of the Patreon exclusive Evolution Series episode on Rearviewmirror to be distributed on all platforms. We have opened up the vault for all listeners for anyone who has wanted to join our Patreon, but has not pulled the trigger yet. This is exactly what’s in store. If you like this episode and want more, we have 16 more available through Patreon, which will soon include the release of Nothingman coming next week. To join for as low as $1 a month, head over to patreon.com/liveon4legs, or the Patreon app, or Liveon4legs.com and click the orange ‘become a Patron’ button to subscribe and enjoy the extra content! There’s plenty to go around!
It’s time to emancipate! In our 10th installment of our live song evolution series we’ll discuss the 11th most played song in the band’s catalog – Rearviewmirror! We’ll talk about this song’s humble origins, going from a little random jingle that Ed has in his pocket for some time to being Ed’s first major musical writing contribution to the band, and it being a pivotal track for Vs. The live evolution is interesting, because of course it all begins with Dave A. (who infamously throws his sticks at the end of the recording) and shows some struggle in the very early stages before this song revs its engine and finds its power. We’ll talk in thorough detail about the Atlanta 94 and SNL versions that are among the best, the spacey and lengthy bridges that were started with Jack and polished by Matt, and an absolutely epic version from Buenos Aires in 2005 that takes the song in so many different directions. Don’t give thanks or apologize, just enjoy the episode!
Hey everyone! Welcome to the 8th episode of our year and change long Bridge School series and this month we begin the 2001 shows. It was their first show since the unforgettable Key Arena performance in November of the prior year as the band was taking some time off to grieve from the tragedy of Roskilde.
Unfortunately in the time between, another tragedy struck on a much bigger landscape as the terrorist attacks from 9/11 took place only a month and a half before this performance. While the band displayed some rustiness, the show found its groove midway through as we were witness to a handful of debuts such as Last Soldier, Driftin and a John Lennon cover that would become a staple of the 2003 anti-war setlists Gimme Some Truth.
And of course once again, our good friend Marikor gets another dedication and heartfelt moment from Ed during Last Kiss. Check out the show and let us know what you guys think!
A little surprise for you all today. We usually post these setlist drafts over at our Patreon page, but for this month we decided to do something different. Since we had such a good month of Wrigley content in July, we wanted to follow that up by tailoring our setlist draft to be specific to Wrigley. So there are sets being drafted, however there are caveats. They MUST add a rain delay into their setlist. How will that all play out?
Hey Patrons! A brand new exclusive episode comes your way this week as we look at the first EVER show that the band played in Europe! A 13 song set where the band played an unannounced show in front of 300 people and left an great impression. The most amazing things about this show are how much the band knows about the band before the album even got to drop in Europe. They were developing right in front of everyone’s eyes and ears and this is just the very beginning of what would become the most pivotal year in the band’s 30 year history. Enjoy the show!
On a crisp Halloween night with Stone Gossard playing the role as some sort of bat man and Mike going incognito, the band plays the second night of the 1999 benefit thus being their final show in the decade that propelled them to stardom. With the band in good spirits, they would break out a small set featuring mostly common Bridge material except for one brand new song that would end up being the first single off Binaural Nothing As It Seems. While the band takes a more electric than usual approach to some of these tracks, they are clearly at the top of their game comfortable enough to perform some extended jams off some of their most popular songs such as Daughter and Better Man. And we also get a sweet moment between Ed and a Bridge School student during Last Kiss that revealed a soft side to Ed. Next month, we’re on to 2001! Longer sets and lots more surprises! Looking forward to keeping this series moving. Let us know what you think!
This month’s setlist draft features a few new voices that we’ve yet to hear from on a draft yet, and that’s because this is the battle for Europe! Four patrons representing four European countries will duke it out in the month that the band was supposed to play in some of their home countries (sorry Marty..) Our competitors this month are: Longtime LO4L patron Aurelien Moureaux will represent his home country of France, Luke Dalley will battle for the Brits and represent England, call it Holland or call it The Netherlands, either way Tom van Hemert will be representing that territory, and creating the only setlist that Scotland has seen in 20 years Marty Higgins will make his plea for the band to return. Setlist poll will be posted tomorrow so let us know who you think has the best chance to win one for their country!
The title says it all. we decide the final 5 on our list of favorite Pearl Jam songs. Any predictions here? I’ve give you a hint, every song is amazing. Plus extra content with Jonathan Cohen mostly talking about drummers
It’s Evolution, baby! In this episode we take on the task of dissecting the evolution of Immortality – a song that does not have a single bad version to its name. We’ll go through the early origins of the song and the time period in which it was written, why it was written, and that one powerful version of it from the Orpheum Theater that still takes people’s breath away. The performances from that point on have changed drastically, but its always been a song you could feel in the room, whether it’s the emotional reverb from Mike’s guitar or the Keith Moon-style drumming from Jack. We dig deep into classic versions of this song and take it from when it was a big fish in the small theaters to nowadays, where it fills the atmosphere at legendary venues the likes of Wrigley Field, and coming full circle at Fenway Park.
Hey folks, it’s the end of another month which means we owe you all another show from the Bridge School Series. Since we’re in chronological order here, we start with the band’s penultimate show of the decade. In this episode we talk about how successful the year 1999 was for them even without being on tour and that’s all due to the rise of Last Kiss’ popularity. That as well as another late 90’s era cover song Soldier of Love are both played in this one. Also, we get the first ever appearance of a Binaural song live with the debut of Thin Air. We’ll talk about what the band was doing to transition into 2000 and a brand new album, the first featuring Matt Cameron. Two things we forgot to mention, I don’t think we picked a Bridge School moment (for me it’s Soldier of Love) and also the fan club single Driftin was written on Ed’s plane ticket on the flight home from this show. Strangest Tribe also written this year and released on the same single. Apologies for any audio issues on this one. Hope you enjoy as always.
Everyone likes lists. For some reason we’ve never gotten to what might be one of the most important personal lists to us and that’s our favorite songs of all time. We decided to keep it to the Top 25 and since this needs to be suspenseful, we’ll release these episodes in 3 pieces. So we kick it off counting down from 25-16 and we’ll do it again next week from 15-6 and then finally our Top 5. If you’d like to share your Top 5 with us, let us know down in the comments and we’ll share it on our episode.
Also – extra clips left off the Marseille episode. We get pissed at Matt because his opinion on Fuckin Up is absolutely awful, and even more Dirty Frank discussion. If you listen to this episode, give this post a like to let us know!