Pearl Jam Podcast Episodes

Eddie Vedder once called Chicago’s Wrigley Field the “crown jewel of planet Earth” during their first performance there in 2013. 13 years and seven shows later, Wrigley has been a staple of the touring circuit, and a pilgrimage for many fans to experience the band in the ballpark of Ed’s favorite baseball team. At one point, it felt like a once in a lifetime experience, but as the years went on and the demand grew, the friendly confines and Pearl Jam would be connected in a plethora of ways including the Let’s Play Two documentary chronicling the band’s shows and Cubs long awaited World Series victory in 2016.

This episode was recorded on the Live On 4 Legs summer baseball trip where Wrigley Field was of course one of the main destinations. This was also recorded in a hotel room with horrible service, so please mind all of the technical difficulties entrenched in the episode. The five of us spend time breaking down the setlist as well as the history of Wrigley Field shows, which will lead to a difficult, yet interesting conversation – has the aura of the ballpark shows been lost? This was the first instance where Wrigley shows were smack dab in the middle of a tour, which meant they didn’t have the same spectacle type atmosphere as they had in the past. Add to the fact that the setlists may not be considered to have that same special identity that ones in the past have had, but it does feature memorable moments such as an early set Porch, Better Man with a Save It For Later tag reminiscent of Ed’s solo version, Dark Matter with the Scared Of Fear intro and a dedication to Wrigleyville legend, Beth Murphy.

This episode was also recorded 3 days before the untimely death of Glen Hansard. What you’ll hear in this episode is a pure honor of the man while he was still with us on this planet, as his moments with Falling Slowly and Smile feel more surreal with recent hindsight.

Pearl Jam kicked off their 2023 tour in St. Paul, Minnesota, a place that they hadn’t played in nine years. Many people will remember the 2014 show for having unfortunate timing being sandwiched in between legendary full album shows that took place in Moline and Milwaukee, but Minnesota has had a great history with this band and these first two shows are proof that there’s no lack of big moments taking place in the Twin Cities. After a few very welcome surprises on night one, night two was set up to have big shoes to fill, and we’ll break it all down here in this episode.

This show is filled with great moments, and as Ed would state, the theme of the night would revolve around friends. They had plenty of friends in the crowd as the Minnesotans brought their A-game singing loudly on songs like Pendulum, Daughter, Corduroy and a very heartfelt tribute for I Won’t Back Down. This show is also a rare “touch ’em all” show where all eleven studio albums out at that time were represented on the setlist, including some that rarely get busted out like Nothing As It Seems, Severed Hand and what will likely be the final appearance of Take The Long Way. But when in Minnesota, there’s no better way to play up to the local crowd than to pay tribute to their most prized hometown artist – Prince.

Along with the full rundown of the show, we will spend time eulogizing the late Glen Hansard and discuss his impact on the Pearl Jam community as well as the entire music community as a whole.

After their entire Gigaton tour was postponed in 2020, 2022 was finally time where the band felt like it was safe to travel with precautions as we slowly found our way out of the Covid global pandemic. In taking this chance proved risks with a major downside – key players in the band and crew could be exposed to the illness. Unfortunately, that’s what happened on the west coast as Matt Cameron had to miss three shows, and once Jeff Ament went down, the band had to pull the plug on two shows in Sacramento and Las Vegas. Then on the European tour, nearby wildfires in France effected Ed’s ability to sing which meant three of those shows were also canceled. But the final leg in September thankfully went to plan, and this show in Denver was the final night of a tumultuous, yet rewarding year.

In this episode, we’ll discuss some of the on the fly changes that the band dealt with at the time regarding setlist structure, staying within a bubble and utilizing more breaks for Ed to take time to rest. This show has a lot of great key elements that you love from tour closers, big singalongs, strong explosive performances from the best songs in your catalog, and a little bit of reflection on what this year has meant to the band. This one is especially more celebrated because of the trials and tribulations that took them through the bumpy ride of the year. But a chapter was closed in the best way possible – giving the fans a show to never forget.

Also, we’ll chat about social distancing concerts in 2020, a killer Interstellar Overdrive intro and an impressive 20-song main set in the rocky mountain altitude.

2020 was supposed to be a massive year for Pearl Jam. With the release of their first record in seven years, they were set to do a massive world tour to promote the album, however, a global pandemic threw a wrench in their plans and everything was pushed back. While Covid-19 was still prominent in 2021, Pearl Jam decided to go forth with four outdoor festival shows to ease back into the concert experience. Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival added an additional weekend dubbed Ohana Encore where Pearl Jam headlined both nights.

It was a return to normalcy at a time where everyone was looking for concerts to ease some of the struggle of feeling isolated during the pandemic. And it was the first time where Pearl Jam was able to showcase the songs from Gigaton that helped the fans get through the Covid years. With the beautiful beach atmosphere and the music traveling through the air, for two nights in Dana Point, California, fans could forget about the stress of quarantines and pandemics and just enjoy the pure sensation of live music. New songs, old songs, borrowed songs and heck even some forgotten songs were played as the many in attendance basked in something that was dearly missed.

We’ll have a lot to talk about in this show including how Gigaton was viewed a year and a half after the record, discussions of doing a podcast during Covid and what moments earn the “holy shit” moniker, and is Sweet Lew one of them?

The Chronology Series this week takes us to 2018, a year with big shows and even bigger storylines. On Pearl Jam’s European run in London, Ed played the show with his vocal chords being not even close to his usual standards. He was placed on vocal rest for a few days causing the following show in London to be canceled. While he would come back strong on the rest of the tour, this would be the first of multiple times in the last handful of years where Ed has his share of vocal trouble, leading to song and setlist structure changes that would impact future shows.

The Amsterdam show that we’re covering in this episode took place two shows before London, and there are many moments in this show where it was clear that Eddie was not at his best. His range will peak at times, the vocal power would run out of gas and it was not the performance that he is clearly known to bring to the table. There is also the factor that this set had only 27 songs with one encore and lasted about two hours and fifteen minutes. At the time in 2018, that was unfathomable for an arena show to have this outcome, but it would later become the norm in the post-Covid era.

We’ll look at those storylines objectively and try to find moments that make this show feel memorable. Songs like Untitled/MFC, 1/2 Full, Inside Job and Rearviewmirror were all hits, so we’ll give them their due, and perhaps do the opposite for Can’t Deny Me. All of that, and find out what snack Javi irrationally has a hatred for.

2016 was a huge touring year for Pearl Jam. Every show of theirs felt like a massive event with a surprise that could shock the crowd at any moment. From the three full album shows to the ballpark spectacles, there is a lot that fans still love to go back on a decade later. But within the big shows are usually shows with less of a reputation due to either location or being overshadowed by everything around it. Ottawa 2016 is the next show on the Chronology Series, and it fits right in with the unsung shows from 2016 that don’t get the flowers that they deserve.

This Ottawa show does not start off on the best foot. The beginning came off as a little sluggish, and it took some time in order for this one to hit it’s stride. But when it does, it features some incredible moments that would be hard for any show to top. Highlights from this show include Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Faithfull and Speed Of Sound, but the two moments from the first encore that make an everlasting impact on this show are their cover of Love Reign O’er Me and Better Man. We’ll go in depth on both songs and how locked in this band was, and we’ll talk about whether a full Save It For Later tag is something that you can sense coming.

Also, we’ll reacquaint ourselves with a character from a Live On 4 Legs episode from YEARS ago, and discuss why the hell Big Wave is being played in a city that doesn’t have any surfing?

Este es nuestro primer episodio realizado íntegramente en español y está dedicado al concierto que Pearl Jam ofreció en Santiago de Chile en 2015. Acompaña a Javier y a sus amigos Camilo y Sandra —miembros de la comunidad chilena de fans de Pearl Jam— mientras comparten historias sobre lo que este concierto y la música de la banda significan para ellos, además de relatar cómo su presencia en línea ayudó a conseguir que se incluyera una dedicatoria especial para este espectáculo durante la interpretación del tema Light Years.

The Chronology Series takes a stop at 2014 for this episode. It’s a year full of big time Pearl Jam shows including some full album experiments, 3 hour marathons and showstopping performances. This episode covers their Milton Keynes show that ended the European run that July. This show was a quintessential performance of the era with a masterful setlist construction that didn’t need to be chock full of surprises to blow people away.

This show has an “it” quality that you hope for when traveling to see this band. The main set is charged up with songs that typically get played early in the night, giving it a feel of anything goes and barely stopping for air. We’ll get to talking about some of the changes made from Lightning Bolt songs that we discussed in our 2013 episodes that had evolved after a year of playing them. This includes a more substantial outro on Sirens and a better placement for Let The Records Play alongside Spin The Black Circle. We’ll also talk about an appearance from Pete Townshend’s brother Simon for the song I Am The Answer, the connection of the early Mother Love Bone and Bad Radio songs played at this show, and an rage inducing rant during Daughter where Ed pleads to stop using tax payer money to drop bombs on children.

This memorable show has been on our radar for a while, so the question heading in is how close will this get into the LO4L Hall of Fame? Will conversations about Pete Puma and children of The Beatles help push it to the top? Tune in to find out!

A new year, a new album and a new tour, 2013 was a big one for Pearl Jam. Riding high off of brand new album Lightning Bolt, the band took to North America for 25 shows in the fall of that year debuting brand new songs, bringing back long lost ones and revitalizing fan favorites. As they made their way across the country, they trekked to places where they hadn’t been to in a handful of years. One of those places happened to be Oklahoma City.

Now the Seattle natives and massive basketball fans went into the Thunderdome with a bit of a chip on their shoulder having lost their beloved Supersonics to them five years earlier. A big portion of this show features Ed and Jeff airing their grievances over the fall out of the move and sale, and even tossed in a not so subtle performance of the Backspacer track that shares the name with the former Seattle franchise. We’ll go a little bit further into the story of how this sale and move all came to be, as well as how the Sonics made a cultural impact on the game of basketball that tied into both NBA Jam and the Singles film.

Come for the Sonics talk and stay for the rest of the performances as we’ll break down a marathon 31-song setlist featuring plenty of tracks off the new album at the time, as well as a few unexpected moments thrown in!

Pearl Jam’s 2012 was more of a transitional year than anything. Backspacer had been released four years prior, and while they weren’t ready to release new material, they still went through on a short touring stint of Europe and a U.S. festival run. One of their European stops happened to be at the Rock Werchter Festival, a festival that they’ve appeared at a total of six times throughout the years. We’ll dig into this show for this episode and discuss the stigma surrounding Pearl Jam at festivals and the type of fans they are aimed to structure their setlist for.

This shows clocks in at just over an hour and a half featuring only 20 of their mostly popular tracks, but don’t let the setlist fool you as the die hard European crowd brings the heat and stays loud and engaged the entire night. Songs like Corduroy, Small Town, Even Flow and Better Man – if these performances were introduced to you, you’d never know that it was from a festival. We’ll compare and contrast the European and U.S. festival crowds and how the setlist construction may not fulfill the diehards, and why in some cases that may not be a bad thing.

Tune into this episode as we’ll treat you to an under the radar performance and continue telling the story of Pearl Jam through the Chronology Series!

2011 was the celebration of Pearl Jam’s 20th anniversary as a band. With nine studio albums and hundreds of memorable shows and moments tied to their name, it seemed like they had done everything that any band would dream to accomplish. But anyone who knows this band is aware that they are never satisfied with the status quo and are always pushing their limits to get better and better. PJ20 was a big moment for them, but the celebration would continue into tours in Canada and Latin America, with the latter featuring some of the best crowds they’ve ever had the privilege to witness.

Brazil is always a major destination spot in South America, and the sights of Rio de Janeiro is something they’ve never missed. Playing in a stadium of nearly 50,000, you were able to see the passion come through these hardcore fans that almost never get the opportunity to see them. While fans in America are always waiting for the band to pull out the deepest of deep cuts, it’s a simpler game plan for structuring setlists down there – just play all the hits. From Black to Jeremy, Even Flow, Alive and Do The Evolution, the band gets everything out of the crowd playing the songs they’ve grown to love for years.

This episode is a watch along episode, so for those tuning in on YouTube, you will get to watch the entire show along side us and hear our commentary on every song, plus some fun extended banter. For those listening to the audio rendition of the pod, you’ll hear the entire show without the same flavor as getting the visuals, so we highly recommend that you subscribe to our YouTube channel for the best experience!

We have made it to the 2010’s of Pearl Jam’s long historic touring career, and this is the decade where they solidify their place in history as one of the greatest live bands on the planet. Nearly every show from this tour run came through with an electric intensity and positive spirits as songs of new, old and the rare variety were heavily utilized to make their shows feel unique. This show from Cleveland has all of that thrown in and exemplifies what it was like to witness this band 16 years ago.

The best that can be said about this Cleveland show is that it was just flat out fun. The way that the band blazed through their set with a perfect structure of songs with a smooth transition from one to the next made this show an easy listen. They were still putting forth a lot of the Backspacer material, but this show has a really good mix of fan favorite cuts such as
Wash, Hail, Hail, In Hiding, Immortality, Sleight Of Hand, Leash and Smile. We’ll talk about how good the songs sound, plus digging into how happy the band seemed to be performing at the time.

Check out this episode to hear the best of this Cleveland show, and allow Javi to show you where all of the emergency exits are.

This episode keeps the Chronology Series train moving while also digging into current events surrounding the world of Pearl Jam. 2009 was a fresh year for the band. It was a renewed start as they brought back long time producer Brendan O’Brien into the studio to produce their 9th album, Backspacer. It was a more positive outlook for a band that spent the last three records exhausting frustration over war and other tragic moments, and that outlook was presented as such on stage. While we cover a hometown San Diego show for this episode, you can’t talk 2009 without mentioning the impact that the final shows from The Spectrum had on this fanbase.

This episode is a culmination of weeks of Javi dreading his least favorite era of Pearl Jam live. However, we put a challenge to the test to see if he could make it through the entire show without being irritated by the sonic staleness of the guitars from this tour, and you’ll have to tune in to see how well he acquitted himself. It helps that this is a hometown show with some great stories that more than make up for the sounds not being up to par. We get to see music instructors of Ed and Matt join stage for Little Wing, and an outstanding cover of So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star where Ed shares a fun story about his time trying to play music in San Diego.

Oh, and I suppose it needs to be mentioned here that we have a show announcement! We’ll react to the lineup announcement at Ohana and the questions that still remain after knowing that Pearl Jam will headline the third night.

***This episode is simulcast from a video episode that was posted to our YouTube channel. Please subscribe there to watch to get the best out of the episode!***

Pearl Jam’s 2008 tour was a short, but memorable run in between album releases that took them along the entirety of the U.S. East Coast. After shows at Bonnaroo, Madison Square Garden and Mansfield among many more, they finished the run by playing a benefit show at the famed Beacon Theater in New York City. The band helped raise $3 million for the Robin Hood Foundation to fight poverty within the city limits. 2,500 lucky fans were able to witness what happened on this night, help raise funds and awareness while getting a great show out of it.

2008 has a few major storylines for the band that mostly center around songs returning from long absences. This was the first time in 13 years that they brought W.M.A. to the table as a full performance, the first time in the Matt Cameron era that Who You Are was played, and it was the debut year for Lost Dog opening track, All Night. All three of these songs help define the time period, and if you happened to witness the band in New York that year, these songs were accompanied live by three local backing singers. We’ll go into depth on how these songs benefitted from a different feel for the band at the time, and how the singers blended in soul with rock ‘n’ roll to create memorable performances. Especially of Harvest Moon.

We’ll also talk about Randy’s first year getting a chance to see a show and how that changed the trajectory of… his life? And on Javi’s side, he’ll go into depth on what displeases him about the sound in this era and why he thinks it holds the band back from being able to expand their pallet.

After a massive tour in 2006, Pearl Jam’s 2007 was a lot less chaotic than the 79-show tour that spanned three continents. They went back to Europe for 12 shows, half of them being festivals in places they’ve barely visited, and then two memorable shows in Chicago – Vic Theatre and Lollapalooza. This episode covers the Munich show from this run, one of their few arena headlining gigs from the tour. It was their first to back since 1992, a memorable night where they performed the Ten album in full.

After heavily supporting the Avocado record the year prior, this show specifically doesn’t feature the same plethora of songs from the album. When supporting the record, they’d begin most of their shows with some kind of combination of World Wide Suicide, Life Wasted, Severed Hand and Marker In The Sand with around a total of eight songs from the record played, but in Munich they significantly reduced that album’s representation opting for only three songs. However, Severed Hand is a major highlight from this show, and Unemployable will take us to a conversation where we connect it to a random 70’s song that has nothing to do with Pearl Jam. Other highlights include the return of Sometimes after a long absence, a killer version of Sad, Matt Cameron’s patented Even Flow solo for the era and how some of the gear Mike was using impacted songs like Given To Fly and Present Tense.

We’ll also share the story of Ed’s #5 guitar, how it relates back to Pete Townshend, and how it further relates to both Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher in a wild tale that all gear and music nerds will enjoy.