Pearl Jam Tennessee Concert History

After a busy off-day exploring Music City (including LO4L community members encountering Eddie at Third Man Records), the band hits the stage in inspired form, opening with a rendition of Long Road that rang more of hope than of loss. (It’s noteworthy that, unlike at many stadium shows, Ed makes no mention of the heavy rains that blanketed the region that day.) Garden makes its 2025 debut in the rather unusual second spot. At first a bit tentative, it grows to quickly showcase both Mike and Stone strumming playful licks. Next, to the surprise of literally everyone, Rearviewmirror appears very early — and with a significantly abbreviated outro, perhaps a sign of things to come. The early power section continues with Hail, Hail into a recovered false-started React, Respond that Ed himself reacted to by saying “Like that intro so much, can we do it one more time?” After Once, Ed takes a seat and mentions how great Tennessee has been and how grateful they are, then introduces a special guest:

“Tonight we have a very special guest – we grew up, this gentlemen was someone we looked up to, before the Ramones… some of our first guitar heroes: Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, he was right up there; it was one of the reasons why you loved live records, and later why we decided to release bootlegs because of his influence; he’s such an incredible human being on top of it; it is our honor, because at this point he’s become a good friend to the group, he’s recorded with Mike and Matt Cameron, and we get to play with him tonight and we’re very, very honored to welcome Mr. Peter Frampton. This is the first time we’ve gotten to do this … and this might be the only time. Thanks again, Peter, for being here, we’re so grateful. Certainly most people do not know… this song was named after the color of his famous Les Paul guitar…”

What follows next is a version of Black that is absolutely singular. After the second verse, Peter takes the lead, his tone and notes uniquely his own, yet melting into the canvas of the song seamlessly. Ed had turned to watch him play at this point, visibly enchanted, and holds back on singing the verse lyrics. Singing the next lines, Peter continues to add distinct layers, but he never strays from the fabric of the song. Peter, seated next to Mike, turns on his stool, and they both play with bravado while facing each other, each of them beaming. Ed and Jeff in particular look on, immersed in the moment. Peter and Mike keep playing, up, up, up… then they come back down to Earth, just in time to meander into an ethereal “doo doo doo doo” section that soon becomes a tag of Frampton’s Do You Feel Like We Do that trails off to end this special moment. Hugs are exchanged, and Peter exits. Jaws, however, are not so quick to recover from the floor.

Rightly, the band rebuilds momentum with a splendid Even Flow, after which Ed has some humorous banter with a fan that was protesting to “let Stone sing” — easily Ed at his funniest. They then settle into a short section of stalwarts that wraps with a beautiful rendition of Wishlist. Ed then thanks a Nashville local for a new guitar that he received, a Mr. Jack White, praising him as a “great human, great artist, great inventor” and great friend. He introduces the next song:

“This song is about when you’re from a country and you go to other countries, and they look at you a little sideways, like you’re responsible for everything that your country’s doing, when actually – there’s only so much you can be responsible for… this song’s called Insignificance.”

It had last been played in St. Paul, the first show of the 2023 tour, and before that not since 2016; this version was markedly tighter than those and received very well by an appreciative crowd. With little fanfare, the band moves into Won’t Tell, just its fourteenth — and, to date, last — playing. While no doubt a nice box to check for many in attendance, this version simply isn’t as compelling as some previous plays had been. Ed tells a meandering story about seeing the Pretenders as a 16-year-old living in San Diego that leads to him to realize he’s rambling and all he really wanted to say was that he wanted to step on somebody’s hand on the rail (which happened to be Jeremy Rasmussen from the Taco Jam truck). The band then launches into a respectable delivery of Spin the Black Circle, most notably driven by Matt’s hard-hitting drumming. Better Man is next, including an intra-song speech by Ed about relationships, working hard when you’re in them, getting out of abusive relationships and into better ones. Surprising no one, Porch closes the main set.

The encore kicks off with Just Breathe, with Ed sporting a new hat (also given to him by Jeremy Rasmussen). After, he brings Ashley McCready and April Cameron on stage, wishing them a happy Mother’s Day and wishing the McCreadys a happy twentieth wedding anniversary, an appropriate segue into State of Love and Trust. Played with the lights mostly up, the band is quite upbeat and moving around the stage. This continues into Crazy Mary, with Mike playing up near Boom. Evolution is next, leading into a rousing Sonic Reducer – with Ed making note that the writer of the original lyrics, David Thomas, had passed a couple weeks prior, and that he was going to sing tonight’s version with those original words. Alive is played with Mike on a gorgeous vintage 1958 Flying V that was hand-delivered – and swiftly swept away afterwards – by Gibson from their vault. The opening band, Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, come out to help on an energetic RITFW. Finally, Ledbetter closes out the night.

The band returns to Music City on a balmy-for-May Tuesday. High expectations coming into this show, with conversations in the community centered around possible guest appearances and the probability of deeper cuts to honor the backdrop of being in this legendary town. Indifference as the opener meets that excitement level right away, and this version doesn’t disappoint; the crowd certainly hits their cue and sings their lungs out! Next, Low Light finally makes its tour debut, with a strong showing from Ed and Mike pulling out that beautiful ’59 Les Paul. Perhaps it wasn’t supposed to debut there, however, as Ed then shares:

“We hear you love music here in Nashville, and that’s what we love doing best, so this seems like a good match – two songs in, and I’m going to say that I made a mistake in the setlist… I didn’t need to tell you that… but in this day and age, I want to be transparent and respect the relationship we’ve grown over the last many years…”

Small Town is a warm embrace, with a lovely outro vocal by Ed. The first Dark Matter song to ever be played in Nashville is Scared of Fear and by this point in the tour, it feels tight and groovy. Mike’s spacey guitar work over the bridge is fantastic, and it leads into some intricate solo work. Masterful version. Why Go and Given to Fly are textbook, and the crowd is really showing some energy now. Ed looks out the the crowd and makes mention of all the travelers:

“I’m noticing a lot of people from a lot of different places – Chicago, Boston – what’s that right there? LA? Sonics! (a fan in GA is holding a #33 Sweet Lew yellow Sonics jersey up) Now I’m confused… anyways, this is such a great city… I just learned of a cool punk joint just outside of town, it’s got a great name it’s called Dark Matter!”

A perfect spot for Dark Matter to be dropped into, and the band is feeling this one. As usual, Matt is showcased here, and the whole venue seems to be reverberating with Jeff’s bass line and the kick drums dominating. After Wreckage, Ed makes a comment about the building saying “This is the Bridgestone Arena, yeah? Is that like, tires and shit? Alright, let’s burn some rubber” to kick off Running. This version feels very bouncy and has a great groove; it’s definitely come into its own. Afterwards, Ed gives a shout out to his bandmates:

“I wanna say something about Mr. Mike McCready here, at the risk of embarrassing himself in front of all these musicians… what is he gonna do, fire me? Is he gonna quit? I just wanna say, when you come to a city like this, where there’s street performers, people playing guitar on any given corner, that might be twice as good as you… and they are getting dollars put into their guitar case. When something happens that you get voted into something like, say the rock n roll hall of fame… you accept it as an honor and it’s nice to be recognized by your peers… and, you always knew you were gonna be institutionalized at some point. (ha) You still don’t really acknowledge or accept it. However, there are some people on this stage that got elected for the second time! If you’re inducted twice into the RRHOF — like Mr. Matt Cameron! At that point I think you have to realize that “Yes, I am a fucking badass!” Let’s congratulate him, our hero – PJ, Soundgarden – Mr. Matt Fuckin’ Cameron.”

Of course, here is the rightful place for Even Flow and it’s a barn burner. Mike is all over the place, including down in front of the GA rail, interacting with the fans – and the crowd gets LOUD. Ed then tells a sweet story about a fan:

“Somebody told me a story yesterday, that reminded me of those times and it got intense around the end of the first record… when the second record went on sale at midnight. I think there was a place in Ohio where they broke windows… it was an intense thing. What an honor to have this kind of attention; we just wanted people to be safe – it was an interesting time. This young girl, age 13, and she was begging her parents, “Pleeeeease let me go to the record store and be there at midnight.” Her parents being wise and smart, and maybe not that they didn’t trust their daughter, but maybe not trusting all of the Pearl Jam freaks waiting in line at midnight. She went to bed disappointed and a little angry at her parents. She woke up the next day on a school day at the breakfast table and her dad walks into the kitchen and throws the CD in front of her cereal bowl. If you’re a parent with a daughter, a dad with a daughter, you know how much of a privilege that is. That story really rang true and it meant a lot to me, and to know that this woman Laura is here tonight. When she was losing her Dad, just last year, they talked about that story and had another laugh and a bit of a cry. And we wish he could be here. And then she came here by herself to celebrate her 46th birthday, but I just knew she wouldn’t be alone if she was with us!”

To follow that is Daughter, enhanced by the too-relevant “government, leave women’s bodies alone!” Another Brick In The Wall tag. Then comes a glorious Brain of J with a fan (friend of LO4L Jason Brown) getting pulled onstage to sing the last bits of the song alongside Ed. Jack White had gifted a new guitar to Ed, who confirms that we won’t be seeing him that night, as he’s touring in Texas, but he gushes about how great of a human Jack is, having spent some great time with him in Japan recently. Jack taught Ed that the secret between having quality product and making money – is that you won’t make money, but you’ll make people happy. “This song is about the fuckers who take all of your money… it’s called Green Disease!” and what an on-point rendition it is; they’ve clearly rehearsed it a bit since it last showed up in Chicago back in 2023. Jeremy sounds fantastic, with Jeff’s bass tone taking us right back to 1992. The singalong on this one is next-level. For a lot of people that attended multiple shows on this tour, this next one closes out their Dark Matter bingo card… Got to Give gets just its third play, and it simply doesn’t sound good. One of the guitars isn’t meshing with the rest of the band, and it’s distracting in all of the worst ways. Even Matt seems a bit off here. At some point mid-song, a guitar switch is made, but the damage is done. Ed shows his space-nerd side, mentioning that a friend in the crowd tonight has travelled over 200 million miles, over twice the distance to the sun – NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, which sets up Corduroy. Oddly, a strange placement here, Come Back is next, and without any setup, as we so often get a dedication for this one in recent years. It’s a lovely version, with Ed feeling like he’s meandering a bit against a backdrop of such gorgeous musical texture. Something about this version feels right at home in Nashville; a little more improvisation all around, just fitting of the setting. Porch closes out your main set complete with circle jam. Coming back from the encore break, Ed states:

“You know, there’s so much music here in this town and there’s so much music that comes through this town, just I gotta tell you, on behalf of us and the crew, it’s just so appreciated that we can show up and have this kind of energy come, reflect back to us. We are so grateful, it’s been a long time, you know… as some of us have lived longer than we might have thought we would’ve or we’ve lived long enough to have experience more than we thought we would have or we certainly have been in a band longer than we thought we would have, I wish upon you all the rewards of long relationships. If you’re out there… loyalty and kindness and forgiveness, goes such a long way… why am I talking about this? I have no idea whatsoever… you know what it is? I guess it’s stuff that I’ve been thinking a lot about and I’ve been feeling and then, if you’re gonna put a mic in front of me, in front of people that I think about and I care about, then this is what’s gonna happen… and the reason why, it doesn’t happen all the time… I don’t even know if this is happening right now… I think it comes from, the fact that we don’t know if it might not ever happen again, and you want to take the mic and tell people that you admire and respect and are grateful to, you want to tell them that while you have the chance. Which brings me to the sad news that we got last week, that we unexpectedly lost a great Australian surfer, whom at one time was beating Kelly Slater… Kelly called me, pretty upset – I just wanted to introduce you, to let you know that we lost a great one – Mr. Shane Herring. If you’d be so good to light up your phones, let’s send this one back to the folks back home thinking about him.”

The speech leads to Keep Me In Your Heart which is a gem of a song, and Ed does it amazing justice this time, and every time. A powerful moment. Setting Sun is interrupted for a medical emergency. “We can’t talk about the fragility of life and play a song while somebody’s on the ground – thanks, Nashville.” The song is restarted, which causes it to lose some of its power, but they finish strong. The energy starts to come back to the crowd with Do the Evolution up next, then really cranks up with the next oddly-placed song: Rearviewmirror in a slot other than main set closer! This clearly whips some fans into a frenzy, which matches well with a non-extended, punchy version of RVM. In the home stretch, Alive precedes Baba with the house lights coming towards the end of Alive. Always the bittersweet moment, looking around the arena and seeing the sea of joyous faces, but knowing that the end of the show is near. Baba is a fun version, with Ed donning the sequin jacket and tossing tambourines out. At the end of Baba, the same fan that had earlier been pulled on stage gives a Cubs jersey to Ed, who proceeds to twirl it overhead as All Along the Watchtower begins. Ed then pours some wine into a sequined shoe that he had and serves it to the guy who gave him the jersey. Notably, Jeff is now sporting the Sonics jersey from earlier. Strong first night in Nashville!