Pearl Jam Madison Square Garden Concert History

Ed mentions that he can feel the stage rocking during the Corduroy outro. Following Given to Fly, Ed notes it’s their 36th time in the city and 10th at the Garden, and continues, “…here with this garden party you never know what’s going to happen, like this next thing we didn’t know was going to happen until not too long ago…” He then introduces Rick Nielsen and Tom Petersson from Cheap Trick, who were “newly anointed, appointed, indentured” (according to Ed) into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, leading to the first full performance of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.” After the song, Rick Nielsen is seen taking a picture of the crowd to which Ed notes, “this is amazing…Rick’s been at it so long, I didn’t know he’d know how to work an iPhone.” Nothingman begins the “man” trilogy, played for the first time in nearly 5 years, and 10 years since they’ve done it in this order. Before Leatherman, Ed talks about the Leatherman and equates it to Chris McCandless from Into the Wild in the early 1900’s, noting “I know that’s exciting…history.” Ed plays to the crowd during the Save it for Later tag, with a frantic finish. Mike is playing out of his mind on the 2 ½ minute Even Flow solo, and then Matt also takes a solo! Ed throws the mic into the crowd for the finish. Sirens is dedicated to Lance Corporal Tom Rorke who “lost his life tragically last year at the age of 23 and he’s got a lot of family and friends here tonight, like a lot, maybe a hundred of them. He put himself in harm’s way in a dignified manner, and tragically got lost in a crazy accident.” Big moment as the crowd gets loud at the end of Jeremy. Ed slips one “get out of my fuckin’ face” in the middle of Leash. Stone gets a spotlight for both solos in Do the Evolution. After the break, Ed jokes about going to Canada next, and how “they might not even have the internet up there.” You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away is Ed solo with the harmonica. Mike gets soulful on the underrated All or None solo. A fantastic Present Tense leads into both songs from Singles, with the crowd getting another chance to grab the microphone during Breath. Last Kiss’ is played to the back. Surprise guest Sting comes on stage during the first chorus of Driven to Tears and takes over the rest of the song, after which Ed gushes “let’s hear it one more time, that’s incredible…that’s all time favorite singer, favorite bass player, favorite activist, favorite humanist…that was a real honor…what do we do next?” House lights are up for Baba O’Riley, and at one point, Ed chastises someone for not giving a tambourine to a kid, muttering “give it to the kid you fuck.” Mike plays a long, feedback-drenched The Star Spangled Banner tag to close out the evening.

Written by: Nick Smith

Go opens with the classic album version intro. Ed mentions towards the end of the extended Corduroy that “I can feel it rocking,” referring to the infamous 2003 Garden performance. Following Given to Fly, Ed says he was going to request that the crowd shake the stage again, but it already happened! Low Light features a ridiculously long hold on the last note. Release makes a rare mid-set appearance, dedicated to Jen and Tim. For the last lines of Even Flow, Ed throws the mic to someone in the crowd for the last chorus, getting it back at the end, saying “yeah, you’re in the band man.” Matt is introduced as “the assassin, the thoroughbred, the Lamborghini,” and then Ed points out Kenneth, the fan who sang on Even Flow, on background vocals: “Nice job Kenneth…in about 2 and a half hours you might have to sing a couple because I might be gone…I’m glad I got back up.” An extra line is added to In Hiding, “…cracks along the walls…I was tripping balls.” Rats is dedicated to Enrico Salvatore “Ratso” Rizzo, Dustin Hoffman’s character in Midnight Cowboy. Ed sings some of “Dangerous Business” (from Ishtar, another Hoffman film) before Wishlist, in which Ed gets political during the outro. Before Do The Evolution, Ed says, “Alright this is the song, this is where we get seismic…see if we can feel it,” and almost immediately he mentions they can feel it bouncing. After some South American-style call and response, Evolution goes right into Why Go without missing a literal beat. RVM features some forgive/forget improv by Ed. Out of the first encore break, Ed is sporting a Marathon Man shirt, another Dustin Hoffman film. The End is played for the first time since 2013. Future Days is dedicated to Kevin, who’s fighting an autoimmune disease, and his wife Kim. This leads Ed to talk about EB, and says the song was written about his wife, leading to a piano-driven, sparse performance of the song. Crowd is singing loud and strong for Chloe Dancer, and continues into Crown of Thorns. “Takin’ It to the Streets” is an unusual choice, Ed says it was requested by an old friend, saying “Happy birthday Jack, you motherfucker,” and they run through just a couple of minutes of it. Ed goes off on the Townshend guitar windmills at the end of the Save It For Later tag. Small Town is played to the back of the arena. Black is haunting and beautiful over 8 minutes, with an epic solo by Mike, who then takes a trip into the crowd during the Alive solo, getting close to the top of the first level. Matt Cameron’s son Ray gets Mike’s guitar roughly halfway through RITFW, leaving him to help out on tambourine duty. Mike gets the guitar back for Indifference, using a bow to add some effects.