Episode 171: MTV Unplugged – 3/16/1992

It’s one of the most important Pearl Jam shows in their history with iconic moments that are likely engrained in your memory from as far back as 1992. In this episode, we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the MTV Unplugged performance. We’ll touch up on everything that led up to this very moment happening. How they were called to do the show when they were in Europe and had less than three days to prepare before performing. It kind of came off the heels of that legendary Zurich show where they played on such a small stage that they were basically forced to switch over to acoustic, and like to PJ20 movies tells it, that moment led directly to this event happening.

We’re going to tell some stories from this show that maybe you’re a bit unfamiliar with, including an incident where the band was forced to rent equipment due to their own not arriving from Europe in time. You’ll get to hear some quotes from Jeff, Mike and Stone discussing about how this and other facets of the event happened. At the time they returned, the band saw their popularity in the states rise as Ten was sneaking onto Billboard’s Top 20.

The songs! Of course the songs are important. Some of the most impactful performances of all-time. From a stand out State Of Love And Trust proving that most of their catalog was going to transition well, to Black being one of the greatest Eddie vocal performances of all-time including the absolutely iconic We Belong Together tag, and then of course, Porch. We’ll go through and break down the entire moment where Eddie wrote PRO CHOICE!!! on his arm. Again, just legendary moments. And we’ll share maybe a story you haven’t heard, do you know what Vs. song was being played in a commercial break during this? We’ll have your answer in the episode!

Also joining us for this one is our friends at Hallucinogenic Recipe, Patrick and Brian, who will talk about the aspects of finding this on bootleg and some of the strange titles that were given to State Of Love And Trust.