Episode 251: Lawrence, KS – 5/2/1992

With a busy weekend covering the final three Pearl Jam shows of the 2023 tour, we’ve decided to make this week’s episode a little bit on the shorter side so we could focus our attention on the Texas shows rather than spend nights heavily editing. So to do that, we had to go back to an era that had significantly smaller sets. Which is why we chose a show from the University of Kansas campus that took place as Pearl Jam was firmly on the rise back in May of 1992. With this little gathering marketed as “Day On The Hill” by the University, they paid the band $3,000 to play this show. It was booked back in January of 1992 when Alive was their only song in circulation, but as the next five months rolled around, no one in Lawrence, Kansas expected this show to be this huge. 18,000 students took over the little outdoor park venue as the band continued their meteoric ascension.

Now it’s pretty clear that what was documented from this day is actually an incomplete show. We’ll get into the details of all that in the episode, but what we do get to see is your classic 1992 affair – the band bouncing around the stage at high energy, crowd surfers galore, songs played at full intensity and of course, stage climbing antics from one Eddie Vedder. The scene is very similar to one set a few months later at home in Seattle for the legendary Drop In The Park show. When Porch breaks into it’s solo, Ed assesses the situation and climbs all the way up to the top of the stage to go swinging. It’s always a sight to behold, and we’ll break down every step of the journey.

We’ll also go through a summary of the tour up to the point of recording, and for those of you who like to study up beforehand, we release our entire rest of the year episode schedule for 2023! But most importantly, our Gear Guru is back! Javier will check in on versions of Why Go and Porch from this day.