Pearl Jam Wisconsin Concert History

List of Pearl Jam Concerts in Wisconsin

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October 20, 2014 – BMO Harris Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI, USA

Main Set: Pendulum, Mind Your Manners, Corduroy, Lightning Bolt, Baba O’Riley, Brain of J., Faithfull, No Way, Given To Fly, Wishlist, Pilate, Do The Evolution, MFC, Low Light, In Hiding, Push Me, Pull Me, All Those Yesterdays, Even Flow, Sirens, Rats, Setting Forth, Rearviewmirror

encore 1: Sleeping By Myself, Just Breathe, I Won’t Back Down, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Got Some, Jeremy, Lukin, Porch

encore 2: Crazy Mary, Black, Alive, Fuckin’ Up, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star-Spangled Banner)

Show Notes:

Red Dot plays over the PA before the band takes the stage, possibly for the first time since the 1998 tour. Before Baba O’Riley (unusual in the early set here), Ed mentions how things are going to be different tonight,…

Show Notes: 

Red Dot plays over the PA before the band takes the stage, possibly for the first time since the 1998 tour.

Before Baba O’Riley (unusual in the early set here), Ed mentions how things are going to be different tonight, starting with a guest “from the great state of Illinois…from the city of Rockford, royalty, legend, Mr. Rick Nielsen!” Mike and Rick are playing the same guitar. The celebration starts early, with lots of tambourines and guitar picks flying into the crowd. Ed follows with some call and response with the crowd and then sings the chorus of Surrender, “Mikey’s alright, Rickey’s alright,” and the crowd joins in.

A quick “alright, it’s on,” before busting into Brain of J. Faithfull and No Way follow, and just 3 nights after Moline, it’s the Yield album in full! A few screams of recognition before Faithfull and a few more before No Way, and it builds to a fantastic Given to Fly, before which Ed talks about how there’s royalty in the house tonight, and dedicates GTF to Aaron Rodgers, changing the lyric to “…ran for hundreds of yards…” Jeff is given props for writing Pilate, “words and everything.” Ed says “time to flip the side” before Do the Evolution. Prior to Push Me, Pull Me, Ed says “this was not a…radio single, this was back when we felt like we had the trust of the audience,” and has some fun with it, adding “who the FUCK came up with love…” He tells along, funny story about wanting to try beer as an 8 year old with a friend, they had Hamm’s and Old Milwaukee; he remembers that the slogan was “It tastes as great as its name,” then laughs about how the name isn’t that great of a name and how it’s like “Old Dusty.” After All Those Yesterdays finishes Yield, he teases “now we’re going to play all of an album called Lost Dogs, this is how it starts…” before Stone launches into the familiar Even Flow riff. Mike absolutely rips apart the solo over nearly 3 minutes, maybe the best of the whole tour.

Ed reads a note from a woman named Diane, who had to travel to Korea to take care of her father, to Chuck, saying she’s thinking about you, and dedicates Sirens to him. A cheesehead makes its way on stage, getting a big crowd reaction, Ed jokes it must be a urinal, and says they had a request and that they have to play it “because of…this [points to cheesehead]” and that he can’t put it on because he’s from Chicago, getting a huge cheer from the crowd, and Rats makes it only appearance on the US leg. Ed talks about Aaron Rodgers again, expressing his frustration as a Bears fan:

“You know what would really be great? If Aaron Rodgers… if we can trade him so he can be on the Chicago Bears that would be really great. I did get the chance to say hello to him before the show, and I brought up that theory that maybe we can just do a straight trade of Jay Cutler for Aaron Rodgers. I can honestly say I’ve never seen a grown man laugh so hard. So [I suggested] maybe Jay Cutler and three mini Ditkas?”

They play Setting Forth at his request (Rodgers said after the show that he requested Rise). After Just Breathe, Ed asks the crowd to help him wish Tom Petty a happy birthday, surprising him by going behind a curtain then revealing the entire crowd, then leading the crowd singing Happy Birthday before playing I Won’t Back Down solo electric with the crowd singing every word. Boom throws in some riffs from Paint It Black to the epic Crazy Mary solo. Black is dedicated to Bucks legend Bobby Dandridge, Ed adds some improv lines at the end, “…wish I could call you one last time…just to say…goodbye…” He puts on a “Vedder 10” Packers jersey before Fuckin’ Up, and Stone dons the cheesehead. Green Bay backup quarterback Matt Flynn is lifted up on his linemen’s shoulders during the song. Fittingly, Hummus, the hidden track at the end of Yield, is played as an outro over the PA after the show.

September 3, 2011 – Alpine Valley, East Troy, WI, USA (PJ20)

Main Set: Release, Arms Aloft, Do The Evolution, Got Some, In My Tree, Faithfull, Who You Are, Push Me, Pull Me, Setting Forth, Not For You, In The Moonlight, Deep, Help Help, Breath, Education, Once, State Of Love And Trust, Better Man, Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted

encore 1: Rearviewmirror, Stardog Champion, Say Hello 2 Heaven, Reach Down, Hunger Strike, Love Reign O'er Me, Porch

encore 2: Kick Out The Jams

Show Notes:

After a day full of setbacks due to weather, the band takes the stage later than originally scheduled to begin their 20th anniversary weekend with an emotionally charged version of Release. The main set includes a handful of songs they’ve…

Show Notes: 

After a day full of setbacks due to weather, the band takes the stage later than originally scheduled to begin their 20th anniversary weekend with an emotionally charged version of Release. The main set includes a handful of songs they’ve almost never played (and some they never played at all) with a little nod to the late 90’s records going back and forth on two No Code and Yield songs a piece. Ed addresses the crowd for the first time in between this run:

“Looks like everybody that had to make it somehow made it. Making it 20 years was probably easier than some of you making it here tonight. Welcome to PJ20! Welcome to Queens of the Stone Age 14! The Strokes 12! Liam Finn 14! Mudhoney 23! And there’s a guy who started with a group called X, welcome to John Doe 34!”

Ed proceeds to invite Liam Finn, Joseph Arthur, Glen Hansard and Mudhoney’s Dan Peters on stage to sing background vocals on Who You Are. Into The Wild song Setting Forth is performed live on a Pearl Jam stage for the first time. Julian Casablancas is welcomed to the stage to help out on Not For You. He imitates the call and response moment from Jeremy and has a cool back and forth with Ed on the last verse. Instead of a Modern Girl tag, Casablancas improvs a bit at the end, singing “I’m jamming with my favorite band.” Lost Dogs track In The Moonlight debuts live, and was accompanied by Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age on guitar and backing vocals. A very electric solo and a fun vibe for the first live iteration. Continuing with the rarities, Help Help is played for the first time since the Riot Act tour. It builds some tension into the set and has a good drive for having been left off 233 shows in a row. Breath follows and has tremendous crowd participation before leading into another super rare song in Education that Liam Finn provides backing vocals on. Dhani Harrison joins for State Of Love And Trust, a version where Ed holds out the “liiiiiiisten” line for long enough where it finishes the entire measure in the chorus. The crowd is treated to a radio song for nearly the first time all night and responds well to Better Man. During the bed of Wasted Reprise, Ed speaks of the challenges that they faced when making music at an early age:

“It’s hard to imagine, mostly when you’re a kid and you want to play music and you think it’s the most powerful force in the universe. There’s a time where adults are practical, they say ‘that aint gonna happen you won’t do that, you need an in. Get yourself a construction job.’ I’m proud that the kids we were back then, we didn’t listen. Because we told them some day it could be like this. This is against the odds, even if it was these 10 people, these 5 or 6 would still be playing music. Want to thank the kid back then for sticking to his guns and passion.”

The encore begins with Rearviewmirror, but attention is quickly directed to the following four performances as Ed invites Chris Cornell to the stage. Cornell gets a huge ovation and tells the crowd they’re gonna play a song by Mother Love Bone which segues to Stardog Champion. It’s a great tribute to Andy Wood that had never been played on a Pearl Jam stage before. Another Andy tribute follows up with an emotional Say Hello 2 Heaven. Two more Temple of The Dog songs follow, first with Reach Down. The backing choir that was out for Who You Are is back out to help on Reach Down, and Mike wails away at a solo he hadn’t played in almost a decade. Then Ed comes back out onto the stage for Hunger Strike, a little slice of a moment reminiscent of Lollapalooza in 1992 where Ed and Chris get to sing back and forth together. Love Reign O’er Me is the buffer between the Temple performances and the encore closer, Porch, as Ed describes the inspiration for writing it:

“This is one written about the fragility of life and how quickly it can go away. We gotta appreciate what we got and live while we can and appreciate our friends while we can. This was just written because I hadn’t heard from somebody, it was a missed phone call that got deep real quick.”

With only time for one more song in the second encore, Mudhoney’s Steve Turner and Mark Arm are invited on stage, and the crowd is asked… is it time? Time to Kick Out The Jams mother fuckers is how they end this night, a fun performance that looks like the members of the two bands are having a blast. A great way to leave it off for the second night of the weekend to pick up on.