Pearl Jam Podcast Episodes

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Episode 305: Buenos Aires, ARG – 11/13/2011

¡Ole Ole Ole Ole! This week we’re digging into one of the best places to see a Pearl Jam concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina! We all know those South American shows are special whether it be in Brazil, Chile or Peru, but there is something about the Argentinian crowd that makes your hair stand on end. The passion for the band mixed with their natural knack for singing along with the melodies of songs, even singing songs of their own when the band takes a minute to breathe, makes this one of the must see Pearl Jam crowds in the world. Javier was lucky enough to be in attendance for this one in 2011, so we’ll get the scope of what it was like to be a part of that audience.

There’s a cliche used on the show sometimes where we say “you’re only as good as your last bootleg” which means that when fans get their hands on boots from the most recent tour year and hear how it went down, the next time the band comes around to their town, they want to be a part of that. This show in 2011 is the show that everyone went home and listened to, waited for two years in 2013 and absolutely turned the dial on to make that (in my personal opinion) the best Pearl Jam crowd of all time. This crowd sings along with just about everything from Release to Even Flow to Jeremy, Black, Better Man, and hell, even Last Kiss. But as you’ll see with a song like Do The Evolution which is widely known for it’s South American renditions, it wasn’t quite the moment that we know of it to be now. We’ll get into the possible reasons why, and how that continued to grow throughout their future runs down there.

We’ll have fun raving about this crowd, but we’ll also discuss whether or not the band should have been more involved with their celebrations, again as they would do in future years. Also! An old segment is back by popular demand, so don’t miss it!

Episode 304: Atlantic City, NJ – 10/1/2005

We’re picking up where we left off last week as this episode focuses on night two of the two show run from Pearl Jam’s shows in Atlantic City in 2005. High octane performances, an intimate crowd and a Bruce Springsteen cover happen in night one, but what could possibly top that? A song debut from an unreleased album, Stone Gossard grabbing the mic and an appearance from a spaceman? Those three things could help the cause.

The band kicked off this show with a dynamite version of Present Tense and from there it just kept getting better and better. Immortality impacts the crowd with an intense ending, Not For You has a fun new section improved, they let Stone sing even though the crowd wanted to drop the Leash and we get the live debut of Avocado track Gone seven months before the album came out. We will spend a lengthy amount of time on the debut due to it’s uniqueness in the catalog. The song was written that weekend in Ed’s hotel room and featured no other band member’s accompanyment. So how was it able to be as impactful as it was considering the elements? You’ll find out in the show!

Also, we see a rock legend join up with the band for Rockin’ In The Free World here, and since we have finished up the North American run of our tour, we’ll spend some time discussing some of the OTOTOs played at Ohana Festival. While we give Whale Song some love here, the episode was recorded before the band broke out Gremmie Out Of Control on night two. So perhaps you’ll hear a voice talk about it real quick at a very opportune time!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 31 – Ohana Festival Night 2

It has sadly come to this, the final North American show in 2024. While we still have Australia and New Zealand waiting in the wings, our five month journey has ended here for the time being. And as we last spoke to you after Friday show about a OTOTO performance, the conversation is yet again revolved around another OTOTO relevant with our mother ocean. In the middle of the set, Ed shares that the band will be playing all the water songs tonight (not you, Oceans) and they appeased the crowd with the other major rarity that the fanbase has been begging for for years – Gremmie Out Of Control!

Yes, we went silly surfing tonight and got to see old friend Brendan O’Brien back on the Pearl Jam stage for the first time in quite a while. We also got a Big Wave appearance for the first time since playing surfing hotspot Ottawa, Ontario, Last Kiss for the Swifties and no black circles or animals for those with obnoxious signs. We’ll also get into a little bit of a discussion of song Waiting For Stevie (not played tonight) as it pertains to one of the aforementioned songs.

It’s a bittersweet episode as we say our final goodbyes for the tour, but we are joined by a star studded cast including Hallucinogenic Recipe co-host Brian Horwitz, Brian Anderson, Jason Weiss and what’s a reaction episode without the big McRib? He’ll be back and share a small update on Felicity and how the campaign will live on for yet another tour year.

Thanks everyone for your support this tour! Stick around on our Patreon, more to come that you guys will enjoy very very soon!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 30 – Ohana Festival Night 1

Every time we as hardcore fans go to a Pearl Jam show, we have almost given ourselves this expectation that the band is going to play the rarest of the rare of their catalog. And we have a right to think that we based off of the past history and how good we’ve been treated by this band over the years. It’s not every show that we get something that happens of this magnitude, but that rarest of the rare happened last night…

Whale. Song.

Two words I don’t think many of us have uttered when thinking about setlists this band has put together. I mean, there are ingredients missing. You need Jack Irons there to sing. It’s also perhaps one of the least-paid-attention-to Lost Dogs off that b-side record. That all changed tonight. “Whale Song” has finally joined the lexicon of Pearl Jam live songs, so eat your heart out “Comes Then Goes” and “Gremmie!”

There is a LOT to talk about here, so we’ll hear from reaction show veterans Mike Cribier and Lori Jernberg, as well as a fan in a bar named Paul. “Whale Song” will dominate the conversation, naturally, but we’ll also discuss the vibe of the festival, the other acts, Ed doing “Can’t Keep” and joining Crowded House, as well as the rest of the Pearl Jam setlist which is pretty impressive for a fest set! Enjoy this one!

Episode 303: Atlantic City, NJ – 9/30/2005

This episode begins a two-part series where we dig into the shows at the Borgata in Atlantic City from 2005. These shows were unique for the band because of the small venue size holding a little over 2,500 people, but also due to the general admission area which was something that they had not done very often since the Roskilde tragedy in 2000.

After a year of touring in Canada and testing out new songs and setlists on the road, this show has it’s fair share of surprises and rarities for the time. Recently we saw Porch get played as the second song in Wrigley Field, and we’ll get to talk about that when it comes to this show. Songs like Sad, Low Light and Man Of The Hour are in their early infancy, so we’ll chat about how those songs were continuing to evolve at the time into the big performances that we’re familiar with today. We’ll dive into excellent versions of Save You, Crazy Mary and Rearviewmirror as well.

Javier joins in on this episode and will talk about some of the different things you’re hearing at these shows including Cameron playing with an open snare and Mike’s guitar featured behind in the mix. And we’ll talk about our favorite performances of Dark Matter songs from this tour!

Episode 302: Calgary, AB – 9/21/2011

When proposing an episode for this week’s show, the goal was to put focus on a tour that we haven’t discussed a whole lot on this podcast – the 2011 Canadian tour. The question here was which show would be the one to cover. So we crowd sourced it and got some great answers, but the best answer was a suggestion to do the episode in tribute of former Calgary Flames star, Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, who were tragically killed recently. This made the Calgary 2011 show a no brainer to talk about.

There is a big storyline that looms over this show. This happened to be the same day that R.E.M. called it a career. Hearing the band react to the news and play a very impassioned touching tribute to them with the song It Happened Today has been the consensus call back moment from this show. Pearl Jam could have made a decision to play one of their more well known radio singles like Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts or Man On The Moon, but we’ll talk about how they selected the right song for the right moment.

There are also songs in this setlist that connect to something that the band has done recently such as Brain Of J, Rats, Crazy Mary and even something relevant in concerns to Johnny Guitar!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 29 – Fenway Park Night 2

The touring portion of the North American leg has now been completed as Pearl Jam finished up their second night at Fenway Park. Although they still have Ohana left for next week, this show was certainly treated like a goodbye show. We got the most amount of songs in a set all tour with 29!

A lengthy main set with some great surprises and stories highlighted by a tribute to a former Fenway Park employee named Dick who had passed away since the last time Ed had made mention of him at the 2018 show. The surprise of Untitled and the complete shock that it was Present Tense and not MFC that followed seemed to be the consensus big highlight of the night.

We’re joined by the same old cast of characters you’ve been hearing from all tour – Aaron Redmond, Jason Weiss, Tom Gregory, Ned Lally, former Live On 4 Legs co-host Matt Helbig and many more. But lest we forget our VERY special guest who we didn’t get to hear from on Sunday thanks to a recording mishap… Ned Tugent joins us!!!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 28 – Fenway Park Night 1

After six years, Pearl Jam has returned to Boston to put on another excellent show inside of Fenway Park. It was a night for dedications and stories as well as a celebration of being in one of baseball’s great cathedrals. It’s a little bittersweet for myself because this is where my road unfortunately ends for this year, but to have it end on such a high note is what I’ll take away from it. From spending the Glen Hansard set in the seats to finding my way down to GA for the set, it was a perfect way to go out celebrating with three of my oldest Pearl Jam friends.

This episode was originally recorded with about 12-15 of us speaking in a circle for about 40 minutes, but unfortunately we lost connection after about 8 minutes and the recording didn’t save beyond that. So you may have missed some amazing Ted Nugent impressions (we’ll make sure you get them on Tuesday), but you won’t miss yet ANOTHER Trumper trying to interrupt our conversation. How does this keep happening? To make up for the loss of audio, I went down to my hotel bar and interviewed some people who attended the show. Lots of great things to chat about, including milking blood from a cow, an excellent story about Chris Cornell before In My Tree, a story about Tim Wakefield, and the amazing one-two punch of Footsteps and Release to kick off our night!

Patreon Exclusive: Lollapalooza Mansfield, MA – 8/7 & 8/8/1992

Let’s not just cover one show in this episode, let’s play two! With the band about to entertain the masses at Fenway Park this weekend, we wanted to get you guys a two for one special since we weren’t able to cover a Boston show for the main platform. This happens to be their stint for Lollapalooza. Two very similar sets with different touches thrown in. We’ll talk about all of those Ten songs and little appearances from some other songs you may recognize, including Jane’s Addiction, Aerosmith and a Pearl Jam song that hadn’t been born yet.

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 27 – Baltimore

After four years of waiting, Baltimore finally got their show. And to show their appreciation, the band put on a performance that the local Maryland crowd will be talking about for years. Firstly, a plea has finally been heard. One of the songs that Stone stated that he’d like to play on this tour happened to be Can’t Keep. After 10 years, the band finally decided to bring this back into the fold in order to make Stone, and the rest of the crowd, happy. To go a little deeper into this, although it had been a shade over 10 years since it’s been played, it had been 14 years since it was a show opener! Not just that, but this setlist has some fairly cool moments such as a rare appearance of Tremor Christ played for Dr. Amber, and the completely out of left field performance of Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold”. There is a story to that: to get the full details, listen to the weekly episode on Baltimore 2013!

We get to talk to some of the usual suspects, such as Aaron Redmond and Mike Cribier, and many more who joined the crew in Baltimore!

Episode 301: Baltimore, MD – 10/27/2013

The 2024 tour keeps rolling forward for the next week with our next stop in Baltimore, Maryland. Four years ago, the plan was to return to Baltimore before Covid happened, and then when it came time to reschedule the tour, the arena was under construction. So now they return for the first time in eleven years, which happens to be the only time they’ve played Baltimore as of this writing. This episode will feature the 2013 show, a show which is centrally focused on the loss of a music industry titan, Lou Reed.

The band set the mood from the early going here as the local crowd would get a show that features songs they were hoping to hear along with a little bit of the unexpected. The idea of the setlist and lyrical content can certainly be traced to how they were handling the recently announced death of the Velvet Underground front man. Songs like Hard To Imagine and Given To Fly can be considered choices that reflect this, plus an inclusion of Take A Walk On The Wild Side as a Daughter tag, and more direct dedications like Man Of The Hour and a cover of Waiting For The Man. We’ll also get into a little bit of a mystery as to what happened to Jeff at the end of this show, and a yellow shirt guy that had the time of his life.

Keep in mind that this episode was recorded prior to the Philadelphia shows, so any conversation that you’re begging to hear on Brain Of J will have to either wait for next week or is available to our on our Patreon reaction episode. We will however talk about MSG night 2 and how incredible that night was, plus a rating on how well Randy sang It’s The End Of The World As We Know It on karaoke!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 26 – Philadelphia Night 2

The first night in Philadelphia on Saturday had everybody talking. It was a red hot crowd that was treated to some of the best songs the catalog has to offer. So to put an expectation on this show exceeding what night 1 brought is probably unfair to do, but it was still a fine show regardless.

We’ll talk about a few key moments here that made this show stand out such as the impromptu Rats decision. After Ed brought up the Spectrum having no working bathrooms and rats crawling around the floors, a group of fans were seen holding up a sign for Rats on the side stage. With democracy put to good use, decision was made and left Sonic Reducer on the cutting room floor. There was also a very cool moment with Alone where they were talking about the one and only JC Dobbs show from 1991. They showed a poster and a piece of the wall that the band had signed at Dobbs that a local music store owner had kept after the club closed down.

Those topics, and we’ll talk a little about what didn’t get played as Insignificance was crossed off the setlist in favor of Once. Total bummer! I’m joined by Patrick Boegel, Jason Weiss, and Mike Cribier from out in front of the arena to wave farewell to Philadelphia.

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 25 – Philadelphia Night 1

There is absolutely nothing to say about this show. Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing to see here….

OK, maybe I lied a little. I didn’t think that we’d be able to see a better show than MSG on Wednesday, but here we are. Philadelphia. Wow. So anybody who’s been listening to this pod for a while understands my background with this band, and the song that people probably attribute the most to me is Brain Of J. It had been not only my white whale, but the most significant song that molded me into a Pearl Jam fan. And tonight, a mere few hours before my 38th birthday, it happened!

I’ll go back and share the full story of what this song means to me, and how I got by with a little help from my friends. But it wasn’t just that! The whole setlist was fantastic! A big time Yield show with 5 songs from the record, Long Road opener, Singles songs galore with Chloe/Crown, Breath and a MONSTER version of State Of Love And Trust. A massive Philly crowd brought their a-game and made this show an instant classic, perhaps the best of 2024 thus far.

Patreon Exclusive: Philadelphia, PA – 4/10/1992

With all of our coverage of cities on the upcoming tour, we found ourselves in a bit of a logjam this past week. Since Philly shows were happening prior to the normal episode release date, it made more sense to go with the Baltimore 2013 show for the main platform. It also helps that there are a full array of early Philly shows we could’ve gone back to when there’s been a total of… one Baltimore show, so that why we’ve decided to give this episode the Patreon exclusive treatment!

This show took place when the band was just starting to surge. Unplugged had already been recorded, and by the time that they returned home after their run in Europe, Americans had caught on to them and they starting to become high in demand. The night following this show would be their first stint playing SNL, so the band was feeling good about where they stood. Though Ed makes a comment about wanting to leave Seattle to get away from being labeled a “grunge band”, the spirits were incredibly high and the energy was palpable. All of the classic Ten songs were performed in their original sound, and we even get a quick appearance from Release in this set. Of course we’ll see Ed’s hijinks become a part of this as he does what was so commonplace in this era during Porch – his best Evel Knievel impersonation.

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 24 – Madison Square Garden Night 2

Once again, Madison Square Garden did NOT disappoint! While night 1 had great moments and a set with some nice surprises, night 2 felt like one of the most cohesive shows that we’ve had on tour so far. The band was locked in and the crowd was alive. A tour leading 27 songs and an encore with a whopping 10 songs featured! Special guests and shout outs, Stevie Van Zant on a Pearl Jam stage, Howard Stern getting a glorified version of a song I don’t like (his interpretation of Ed’s “glorified version of I hate this song” from SD 1995), powerful political statements. Everything was here that makes Pearl Jam one of the greatest live acts in the world right now.

Highlight moments? The prediction of using Garden as the opener came true here and it was off the rails! Hail, Hail was an excellent moment. Dark Matter may have hit that turning point that we’ve been waiting for on this tour. Won’t Tell was a welcome addition. Andrew Watt made his presence felt on Stevie and RVM. I Am A Patriot for the first time in six years! Gimme Some Truth, Sonic Reducer, and maybe the best moment of the night – Leash!

I finally get to hold the microphone in this one to chat with so many of our friends, new and old. Enjoy the listen!

Episode 300: Madison Square Garden – 9/11/2022

Welcome to Live On 4 Legs’ officially unofficial 300th podcast episode! The timing worked out perfectly on this because in order to hit a milestone, you have to do something special. It just so happens that the band is in Madison Square Garden this week, and that’s a pretty special venue to go back to. Since we covered every Garden show from 1998-2016 back in 2019, the only one left to do was from two years ago on the Gigaton tour.

The show took place on the 21st anniversary of 9/11, which you couldn’t have asked for a more important stage and city to play on. The weight of the tragedy was on everyone’s minds and many of the song choices were picked to reflect the emotion that this date naturally brings. Songs like Release, Come Back and Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns were just a few that captured the moment of what that night was. We’ll get into some emotional Ed’s speeches where he hares stories from first responders and calls for unity in America.

Also, Randy happened to be at this show and had a very lofty goal he was looking to accomplish to bring back a former Garden moment from their history. He’ll gush over his favorite performances such as Present Tense, Porch, Sonic Reducer and how Rockin’ In The Free World almost made him need a hearing aid.

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 23 – Madison Square Garden Night 1

Ahh, the mecca of entertainment! For the 12th time in their history, Pearl Jam played to a sold out New York City crowd at the world’s most famous arena. Special things have happened inside of that building from the stage shaking to major special guest moments and rarities galore. Tonight’s show had a fun setlist with a solid variety mixing in both brand new stuff with mid-2000s material and of course, the classics. Better Man at #2 mirrored the Porch moment we had in Wrigley, songs like Satan’s Bed and Out Of My Mind came out of no where, Love Boat Captain, Black and Inside Job were big moments and we FINALLY got to see Indifference this year!

We’ll discuss a few topics along with those mentioned above such as how the crowd varied depending on which section you sat in, an impassioned dedication to an autistic teenager named Adam before getting into Given To Fly, and why the numbers that the band used to prove that night 2 is their 50th show is completely incorrect, but who cares we may get an amazing show out of it! We’ll speak to friends on site – Patrick, Mike, Jason and Richard who will share their favorite moments and experiences.

Can’t wait to be in the building tomorrow!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 22 – Wrigley Field Night 2

You wanted a big time stadium show? The band answered the call. We were coming off a very good show at the friendly confines on Thursday, but we knew that very good had the ability to be topped. Within the first two songs of the night, it was. Garden opened this show tonight, only the second time they’d ever made that attempt. So a big surprise to kick it off. But then to follow up by going into PORCH?!?! This setlist was written by a mad man!

We’ll get into all the highlights of the show including a live debut teaming up with Glen Hansard for Falling Slowly, Better Man’s Save It For Later tag with a nudge to The Bear, the Yellow Wing combo and stories galore. We’re joined by some of my favorite people – Javier, Aaron, Dakota, Mike, Bradley, Jason, Amber, Dani and more! See you at the Garden!

Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Reaction: Ep. 21 – Wrigley Field Night 1

Pearl Jam has returned to the hallowed grounds of Wrigley Field for the first time in six years! The stakes are always raised whenever Ed steps foot in his hometown stadium, and this show was no exception. Opening with Release is always a no brainer in Chicago, but mixing it up within the first five songs and then taking a unique approach to the Dark Matter section by replacing React/Respond with Waiting For Stevie made a nice surprise. A few Lost Dogs to talk about, Down and U, and a special guest that Ed plucked from the front row to help him sing Won’t Tell.

A big ballpark show will bring out the cavalcade of stars and some familiar voices such as Mr. Gear Guru Javier himself, Aaron Redmond, Bradley Piasecki, Dakota Duvall, Lori Jernberg and more will share their stories of their favorite parts of the show!

Gear Garage: Ep. 7 – Deconstructing Dark Matter (Pt. 2)

So if it felt like you were waiting for a long time for this episode to arrive, it’s because you were. In order to bring you the best product for every episode, Javier works tirelessly to find what exactly it is that makes a song sound a certain way. As he’ll mention in the episode, the thing that was tripping him up the entire time was the intro to Upper Hand. He had sent me messages and audio clips and expressed his dissatisfaction for weeks, until it finally clicked.

Every episode presents the Guru’s best effort to break down the music in a way you may not have recognized before, but for this one especially, he’s gone above and beyond the call of duty. This is the meat and potatoes (pun?) of the record. He’ll break down Won’t Tell, Upper Hand, Waiting For Stevie and Running. The comments would be greatly appreciated on this one! 

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