Episode 274: Fenway Park – 8/5/2016

For this episode, we’re going back to Pearl Jam’s first ever appearance at Fenway Park back in 2016. It’s appropriate timing because they’ll be playing two shows there to close out the tour in September. While it has all of the baseball references and former Red Sox player appearances, the overarching focal point of this episode will focus on the personal experience that Randy had during this show. Have you ever had a concert blunder that you wish you could take back? Did you ever miss a chunk of the set due to arriving late or other negligence? That’s what we’re going to talk about here as this show was the one and only time that Randy was not in his seat for the opening song. He’ll take you through the whole story and hopefully absolve his demons by the end of the show.

***Please note that our audio for this episode is not up to snuff due to connectivity issues during the recording. It’s listenable, but expect some glitches throughout***

Playing in one of MLB’s legendary cathedrals, Ed would mention on multiple occasions at this show that playing Fenway was a dream come true. It was a night dedicated to celebrating the big moment, and there were plenty of special guests and special performances to back that up. We get our fair share of rarities at this show, including one of the ultra rare deep cuts in their catalog, Strangest Tribe. Back to back with Into The Wild song Society may consist of the rarest opening to an encore of all-time. We also get two massive covers that hadn’t been seen at Pearl Jam shows going back a decade. Bob Dylan protest song, Masters Of War was a massive highlight that hadn’t been played in 200 shows prior to this, and I’ve Got A Feeling brought you back to the early 90s and was played for the first time since 2004. Add in that former Red Sox pitcher, Bronson Arroyo, joined in to play Black and former first baseman Kevin Youkilis brought out a uke, it was jam packed with unforgettable moments.

Our Gear Guru segments on this episode will have Javier talking about a delay effect coming from Mike on Masters Of War, and a little bit of Ed talk on guitar during Porch.