Oakland will forever live on as an extremely important city in Pearl Jam history. These back to back nights are already going down in history as one of those pinpoint moments that are part of the band’s continued evolution. Unlike night 1’s surprises and spontaneity, night 2 felt like a polished night full of surprises. They got the first show jitters out of the way, and now that both Josh and Stuv have a good feel for what they were doing, the band was able to feel comfortable going a little bit out of their comfort zone. The stretch from Throw Your Hatred Down until Brain Of J is something that you’ll maybe never hear from the band again. Dissident! W.M.A.! We’re gonna talk about how this might be the best set we’ve seen on this tour so far and how Richard Stuverud was the star of the show. And also, Rearviewmirror and Crazy Mary make their tour debuts! Hot damn! There’s so much, so just listen in and enjoy. Wait until the end to hear from Given To Live beneficiary Reece, who it took two years for him to get to his dream concert.
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This was originally supposed to be one episode combining both nights in Oakland, but given everything that happened, there is no way that we can wait this long to react to it! Obviously, this is the story of the tour right here, and potentially the story of the year when the final chapter is written. With Covid-19 cases still rampant in California, there was actually a bit of a super spreader at the LA show, many fans returned home with the disease that’s been ruining our lives for over two years. And sadly, it got to Matt Cameron too. When the band opens up with Rockin In The Free World, it’s a total shocker. But then we get a glimpse of Josh behind the kit instead of Matt. That is clearly the biggest storyline of the show and we’ll dig down deep into all of it including Richard Stuverud’s role and the wonderful moment with Josh Arroyo.
Every time that there’s a show, you can count on us to react to it! We focus on the Phoenix show from Monday here, show number 4 of 9 and of course there are things to talk about. We’ll get into the Wash opener setting the tone, all of the great speeches about freedom, voting and an introduction to his niece Molly, some of the changes and cuts that impacted the set and what the strongest performances were. And like last episode, we’ll lament the lack of Gigaton usage and plead for an appearance of Rearviewmirror. Enjoy, see you after Oakland!
We had some great shows this weekend! Lot’s of good conversation here to break everything down. Is Gigaton lacking more representation? Where’s Rearviewmirror? How great was the Taylor Hawkins tribute? We discuss everything and get into what may be in store for Phoenix! Enjoy! http://patreon.com/liveon4legs – sign up to listen!
It’s finally happened! We’ve waited for two years to see what the 2020 Gigaton tour was going to be like and we have finally had our first taste. Randy and John dig through the tour opener in San Diego and dissect the most important stories coming out of it. The biggest discussion here is the thematic way that this set was structured, taken elements from ocean related songs and putting them together with their connection to the city and Pearl Jam’s history. Which meant opening with Oceans and closing with the Reverse Mamasan Trilogy! We’ll also get to talk about which out of the Gigaton songs impressed us the most, digging into Retrograde, Dance Of The Clairvoyants and River Cross. And there were no lack of tributes at this show. We’ll take a minute to discuss Ed’s emotional dedication to his brother Chris that led to Long Road as well as a wonderful tribute to Taylor Hawkins. This will be the only tour reaction episode available on all podcast platforms. If you want more instant reaction episodes, the easiest thing to do is become a Patron. Right now we are raising funds for our documentary project and expenses needed for that and touring across country. All help is welcomed. You can join up for as low as $1 a month, or $10 for the year under the bonus leg tier, or for other perks such as episode requests and fan profile episodes, you can join up for $5 a month through the Gigaleg Tier, or $10 a month on the Horizon Leg. Sign up on liveon4legs.com by clicking the become a Patron button, or go to patreon.com/liveon4legs to join!
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!
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re back with another installment of the Late Night series! This is the first of many episodes in a row where we’ll cover the band playing The Late Show with David Letterman. This is the first one, and it’s interesting because it’s not solely focused on the just the one performance. Obviously everyone knows the friendship that Letterman has built with the band from all of these appearances to the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of fame induction, but it all started because Letterman couldn’t get a specific song out of his head – Black. For weeks and weeks in early 1996, he begged Paul Schaffer every night for the band to play Black. Then he started to beg for Eddie to swing by and sing it. These went on for weeks and weeks until Ed finally showed up and did it. We’ll run through the entire timeline of that story and why it’s never good to watch people talk about you on TV while you’re high. Of course we’ll end up getting into the Hail, Hail performance as well, mostly to discuss Stone the traffic cone, but also a ripper of a performance that may go down as one of the best versions of the song of all-time.
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!
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.
In our fifth installment of the Late Night Series, we’ve approached possibly their most important moment on television and maybe one of the most important ever. SNL 1994 happened at a pivotal time and a turning point in the band’s history. Only a week after the passing of Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam was thrust into the spotlight and seen as part of the healing process from Kurt’s death. For that, they were given the extremely rare opportunity to play three songs that night. Something that acts like the Rolling Stones and U2 have done before, but not many others. The result? All three performances are mind blowing. Especially Rearviewmirror, which is one of the best overall Pearl Jam live cuts ever. This also came at a time where, unbeknownst to them, Dave Abbruzzese’s time with the band was coming to an end. There’s a lot to discuss in this one including some rehearsal moments that we have access to. All you need to know is that Pearl Jam is fabulouso!
Ahh, our first Evolution episode of 2022! This episode features the evolution of our first cover, the Victoria Williams-penned Crazy Mary. We’ll talk about how it came to be that Pearl Jam recorded this for the Sweet Relief benefit and how early versions of the song included Victoria’s presence. While the song was held off on the live stage for a while after 1992, it started to sprout back up as tags and teases in 1998, including one of my favorites as a Better Man tag. In 2000, the song is brought back, but clearly without the presence yet of the man who would truly create this song’s identity – Boom Gaspar. When Boom joined the band in 2003, they were searching for a signature song for him. They had Love Boat Captain, but they needed to start integrating him on songs that were already setlist staples, and the rest is history. We’ll get into the duels, the long solos, sharing wine bottles, the jams, and a rather scary moment in Philadelphia. Many great versions are discussed and loved here! No L-O-I-T-E-R-I-N-G allowed, give it a listen!
Welcome to another edition of the profile episodes! In this one we’re talking with Horizon Leg member Greg Schwab who requested this week’s East Troy 2003 episode. We’re gonna get into a bunch of different topics and show stories with him, but the one to look out for is the Eddie Vedder Chicago show from the mid-2000s. The show he had to quit the Ten Club after. Find out why, check out the show! If you subscribe to the Horizon Leg and haven’t done an episode yet, please reach out! We are close to having them all finished until we get more leg subscribers. PS to the Chicago show: Greg at the last minute bought a ticket (two, actually) to Ed’s solo Chicago show last week to bring that story around full circle.
In this episode of the late night series, we look back on the 1993 Video Music Awards performance where they premiered Animal for the first time in a public setting, and had Neil Young join up for Rockin’ In The Free World. Only a little more than a month before the release of Vs. and Pearl Jam is starting to creep back into the public eye. However, not without resistance. Being on top of the world wasn’t what the band had in mind, and all of this media sensationalism got the best of Ed. We’ll go through both performances and why Ed isn’t very camera friendly, but the rest of the band, and Neil, more than make up for it.
Happy New Year everyone! What’s a better way to kick off 2022 than to relive one of two occasions where the band has played on New Year’s Eve. As a matter of fact, the 1992 NYE show was the first Patreon exclusive we ever did so it makes sense that we tackle the 1991 show for this year! This was one of the very few shows where Nirvana was on the bill instead of the Smashing Pumpkins on the RHCP tour. If you were wondering if there were a rift between the bands having to deal with each other backstage, you wouldn’t be wrong. We’re gonna spend a good chunk of this episode discussing how Pearl Jam and Nirvana’s trajectories at this point in time were very different, yet Pearl Jam would end up rising faster than you’d think. It’s a 7-song set with a ton of energy, possibly the largest crowd PJ had played in front of in their year and change long existence.
Happy Holidays! Bet you didn’t see this coming. I know we promised that Crazy Mary would be next on the list, but we figured we’d take a festive detour to cover a song that’s only been played 8 times in their history. Believe it or not, Let Me Sleep does have a pretty interesting Evolution. A story of lore will tell us that the song’s creation happened earlier than we anticipated, and that is a story we re-tell here. The song would be played once in 1994, and then not again in 2006, when it was featured on the Immagine En Cornice DVD, however that version wasn’t actually live in front of an audience! It would go 613 shows before being legitimately played again. The story of the song actually has a lot of depth, and a big piece to this episode is hearing that story unravel as time passes on. It isn’t just a Christmas song, but a look into what life is like for others who aren’t as fortunate to be celebrating the holiday in the presence of loved ones. We’ll talk all 8 versions and watch it evolve!
Hi everyone, before you check out this profile episode that’s an insight on Clay’s life as a Pearl Jam fan, we regret to inform you that due to technical difficulties, we lost the first chunk of the episode and did not re-record. Never fear, because Clay provides us with many good stories to keep you guys entertained for the hour. Get to hear about his ventures on the 2005 Canadian tour, what rare song he can’t seem to escape from and check out his song choice at the end of the episode. Once again, sorry for the mishap! You’ll be caught up once listening.
We’re back with our third episode featuring extensive and exclusive coverage of Pearl Jam’s late night performances. In this one we’ll discuss the important Bob Dylan 30th anniversary show broadcast on PPV where Mike and Ed performed Masters Of War. It was on this night that the guys mingled with some of the legends of rock n roll, names that would be synonymous to the story of Pearl Jam such as Neil Young and Tom Petty, as well as George Harrison, Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, Johnny Cash and the voice of a generation himself – Bob Dylan. We’ll talk about a conversation between Eddie and Bob that potentially changed the entire landscape of Pearl Jam, as well as one of Ed’s greatest vocal performances in this tremendous Masters Of War.
This episode covers the band’s lone appearance at the pinnacle of New York City club venues. In November of 1991 while touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam took a quick detour to play the legendary CBGB’s for a short, low attended set. It was their only appearance at the famed punk venue. It’s an 8-song set with a very unique opener in Black along with the standard fare off of Ten from 1991. Check it out to hear our coverage on the show, and maybe a quick word from a former member of Pearl Jam? You’ll just have to find out.
**This Evolution episode is free to all liveon4legs.com users! For more from this series, subscribe to our Patreon to listen to episodes on Immortality, In My Tree, Release and many more!**
“50 million years ago, a large hyena crawled into its way into the water and it would become the whale. It’s Evolution, baby!”
Welcome to the 15th installment of our highly popular mini-series where we take a song and dig deep into its origin story and how the song has grown live from tour to tour. This episode is a biggie because we’re talking about Given To Fly – our first Yield song of the series. A staple of any setlist, memorable or standard, Given To Fly came into the game sounding like nothing that Pearl Jam had ever done before. Sure, In My Tree, Present Tense and maybe one or two Vitalogy songs had the patented soaring aspect that GTF thrives on, but Given To Fly was truly the first of its kind. A pop song with an edge that featured cathartic crowd participation moments. We’ll talk about how GTF not only evolved over time within the song’s pacing, and even a little pandering, but also how the band evolved around the song. Once it became a fan favorite, the outlook of setlist construction and song utilization for tours moving forward were drastically changed. Why? FLY! Tune in to find out! Stay tuned to the end of the episode for a reveal of what the next Evolution episode we’re covering is going to be! Hint: think a little outside the box, but nothing too crazy.
Welcome to a brand new series that we’re featuring on Live On 4 Legs! In this series, we take an in-depth look into Pearl Jam’s stints on late night TV. Everything from award shows to band tributes to plenty of Letterman appearances promoting new albums, it’ll all be covered extensively. These are classic performances that sort of stand alone in Pearl Jam’s pantheon, and since our focus is usually dedicated towards full 30+ song setlists, we needed to create an opportunity to give these big moments the Live On 4 Legs treatment they deserve. This is the second episode of our brand new running series that focuses on the 1992 MTV VMAs. After an Unplugged performance for the ages elevated this band to the height of the Grunge phenomena, Pearl Jam was the hottest band in the world. They had just released a new music video for Jeremy that debuted to instant rave reviews due to its controversial subject matter and imagery, but you couldn’t turn on MTV for five minutes in September of 1992 without hearing the song. Invited to perform at the TV station’s less than prestigious award show that rewarded music for their visual art, they made a conscious effort to suggest performing a song that wasn’t their brand new hit, but with major pushback from the network, they didn’t get their way. The anger seemed to fuel Ed during this performance as we get one of the most vigorous and intense versions of Jeremy ever played.