Episode 37: Madison Square Garden – 6/24/2008

In our fifth installment of our year-long MSG series, we find the band returning to the mecca of entertainment for the first time in five years. Without an album to tour for or anything to promote, they had a blank canvas to fill where they could experiment a little bit.

One of their experiments was inviting three backup singers on stage to perform three songs that were rare to hear at the time – All Night, Who You Are and W.M.A. It wasn’t one of the most enthralling parts of the show, but it is something that the band hasn’t dabbled with much in their history so we spend a little time discussing it.

Many of our listeners wrote in and spoke of the show as being one of the weaker in their MSG run. We’ll let you make that determination after listening to the episode, but we do find points in this show where we point out that the set completely missed the mark. What made it fall flat? The answer consists of such simple Pearl Jam set list math that it’s obviousness may make you realize how you can’t overlook a working formula.