Pearl Jam Podcast Episodes

On June 30th, 2000, Pearl Jam headlined the Roskilde Festival in Denmark while touring Europe for their Binaural album. About an hour after they took the stage, there was a sudden surge towards the front. Multiple fans lost their footing on the muddy terrain, and some were trampled. The outcome is one of the worst tragedies in live music history as the lives of nine fans were lost. This incident permanently changed the lives of each member of Pearl Jam, and everything from that point forward about their live show changed. From heightened security, to a renewed sense of empathy and compassion, their goal was to ensure that nothing like Roskilde would ever happen at one of their shows again. They’ve made good on that promise.

On the 25th anniversary, we look back and examine the stories and healing process that followed in the aftermath. Part two takes a look at the band’s return to Copenhagen for the first time since the tragedy, how general admission at shows would slowly be reinstated over time and powerful performances of Black and Love Boat Captain played at pivotal moments where they paid tribute to the families who lost loved ones. You’ll get to hear from our esteemed panel who will share their personal stories of how they reacted to the incident, and will discuss why sticking together was always the best and only option for the band.

Make sure you check out the part one episode of this series if you wish to hear this story told chronologically.

On June 30th, 2000, Pearl Jam headlined the Roskilde Festival in Denmark while touring Europe for their Binaural album. About an hour after they took the stage, there was a sudden surge towards the front. Multiple fans lost their footing on the muddy terrain, and some were trampled. The outcome is one of the worst tragedies in live music history as the lives of nine fans were lost. This incident permanently changed the lives of each member of Pearl Jam, and everything from that point forward about their live show changed. From heightened security, to a renewed sense of empathy and compassion, their goal was to ensure that nothing like Roskilde would ever happen at one of their shows again. They’ve made good on that promise.

On the 25th anniversary, we look back and examine the stories and healing process that followed in the aftermath. We’ll share powerful performances of songs from the 2000 tour and how Eddie’s song writing at that time was impacted by the incident. Joining us on this episode is author of the PJ20 book, Jonathan Cohen, to bring perspective to the story, and we invite Pearl Jam community members on to share their personal stories, including witnessing the band at their Virginia Beach show, and one of the nine live performances of Arc.

Please stay tuned for Part 2 which should be released shortly after the release of this episode.

The 1995 tour was one of the most tumultuous for Pearl Jam in their history. Their Ticketmaster boycott was in full effect, so while shows were more affordable for their audience, tickets were tougher to acquire and venues were at a premium. Eddie at this time is dealing with struggles of being in the spotlight, and instead of opting to travel with the band, he spins records in a van driving from location to location on tour. There are historic shows that happen on this run like Red Rocks and Soldier Field, but everything comes to a head when they reach San Francisco. The night before the show, Ed comes down with a case of food poisoning and needs to take a trip to the ER. After getting IV fluids, he is still completely sick when it comes show time. However, he goes out there, makes it through seven songs and then walks off the stage no longer capable of playing. This episode looks back 30 years later after the infamous incident at Golden Gate Park.

As luck would have it, Neil Young happened to be there that day originally slated to make a guest appearance prior to the Mirror Ball record’s release three days later. While it was certainly a huge benefit to have him on hand in a desperate time of need, the crowd paid to see Eddie. They were restless throughout the entire set having to sit through unreleased songs off a brand new record in an unfathomable heat for San Francisco. For as incredible as the band’s efforts were in this moment, winning over the crowd was a fruitless task.

This is a jam packed episode with a lot to talk about. We’ll cover the era and how the fallout from this show just narrowly avoided a break up, we’ll talk about the crowd’s reactions, Eddie’s struggles and some of the oddities in song selection that included not one, but TWO versions of Rockin’ In The Free World! We’ll also invite our good friend, Mar Vigil, on to discuss what it was like to be there on that day.

Ten years ago, Pearl Jam headlined a festival called the Global Citizen’s Festival in Central Park where the mission was to raise funding in order to end world poverty. They were joined by the likes of Beyonce, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Sting and others who wanted to get this message across. It was their only US show in 2015 and was broadcast on network TV, something that Pearl Jam hasn’t had a lot of opportunities to do in their history.

The 12-song set certainly has it’s highlights. For one time one time only, Beyonce got to share the stage with Eddie for a performance of Redemption Song. It’s not something that’s gone over well across the community over the years, but we’ll give it it’s due and discuss the connection the two of them were able to make on stage together. The other big moment from this show is Ed getting to tell the origin story of Unthought Known, having wrote it in a hotel that overlooked Central Park. We’ll also talk about Big Bird, pirate rabbis, dating origin stories and why Bill Nye should probably stay away from rock ‘n’ roll stages.

We invite our Patron, Richard Green, on to talk about his personal experience at this show, and if you stay tuned until the end you’ll hear a eulogy for a loved one who left us too soon.

The final destination on Pearl Jam’s spring 2025 tour will be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a city that’s no stranger to big time shows. Although they haven’t been back there in 12 years, there was a time where the Steel City saw it’s fair share of shows. From 1998-2006, there were five shows played, every one of them memorable in their own way. This episode covers their 2006 show from the Mellon Arena that kicked off the second leg of the North American tour that year with the band and the crowd so hot that the nearly melted the igloo.

Sometimes you’ll notice that certain Pearl Jam cities are known for having a song that’s connected with them. For example, people usually connect Wash with Pittsburgh due to the umbrella moment in 2000. But at this show, another song developed a connection as they covered the Rolling Stones Waiting On A Friend for the first of a small handful of times. It was done to pay tribute to the Stones after opening for them at PNC Park the year prior, and it’s a moment that the Yinzer crowd is proud of. Other great moments that we’ll talk about include a monstrous Release to kick things off, an incredible version of Black with an It’s OK tag, Stone’s smokin’ solo on RITFW and a plethora of Avocado songs that were kicked in high gear during this era. We’ll also discuss how songs like Inside Job and Smile have continued to grow and become fan favorites throughout the years.

We run down the entire setlist, but you’ll want to stay tuned to stories from Javi’s Nashville trip where he met not one, but two members of the band. You won’t want to miss it!

Next up on the Pearl Jam 2025 tour is a stop in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is a destination that hasn’t been played since this show we’re covering in 2003, but that was never originally planned to be the case. On the 2016 tour, a show in Raleigh was cancelled due to the band’s opposition to the HB2 law that discriminated against transgender people. It was something that caused a bit of commotion within this fanbase, and we’ll get into all of what happened nine years ago, but after the bill was overturned the band felt they needed to make it up to this Raleigh crowd. And if this 2003 show is any indication, they might be in for a good one.

2003 is a favorite tour year for many due to the band truly elevating their game to the next level. Setlists started to become very fan friendly and collector heavy, Mike McCready became the showman that we know of him today, and no two shows were even close to the same. If you like Riot Act heavy shows, this is a good one for you. The deeper cuts such as Help Help, Cropduster and You Are are brought out here and all sound fresh for the same. Save You, I Am Mine and Love Boat Captain are also major highlights from this show, and you can tell which ones are gonna stick around throughout the duration of this North American run. There’s also a great run at this show featuring four straight Vitalogy era songs, and we’ll get into why these songs together may feel like a mini rock opera.

Check out the episode for the full rundown of the setlist, a little talk of what’s been going on out on tour and a few stories from the Florida shows and the 2003 Evolution yips! If you want to stay updated on our full analysis of each show on tour, make sure you’re subscribed to our Patreon for our instant reaction episodes!

With the 2025 tour up and running, we’re heading to our next destination – the home of the Braves in Atlanta, Georgia that hasn’t seen a Pearl Jam show in nearly 13 years. This episode will cover the last time that they played in the Phillips (now State Farm) Arena back in 2000 that they will be returning to this week. We’ll talk a little bit about the history of Atlanta shows that of course will mostly include one of the greatest Pearl Jam shows of all time in 1994.

This show was given the distinction of being an Ape/Man show, which means it was one of a few handpicked shows that the band recommended that fans give a chance to when the official bootlegs were all released in stores. A lot of our conversations will be us trying to determine if they made the right decision selecting this show. There are definitely performances that stand out. For Crazy Mary, it was the first time that they ever passed a bottle of wine around during the jam. It’s also the first appearance of the Romanza intro for Better Man that got played for the majority of 2000. We’ll also dig deep on Binaural era tracks Nothing As It Seems, Breakerfall and Rival that we almost never get to talk about.

Find out if we think that this one was worthy of the Ape/Man tag. Also to note, this episode was recorded prior to the start of the tour, so if you’re looking for in depth analysis, head on over to our Patreon to check out the instant reaction episodes for both Hollywood, Florida shows!