Pearl Jam Podcast Episodes

It’s our first show for 2023, and right off the bat we’re gonna take a shot at something we haven’t done before. After the Atlanta show in 1994, Ed took to the airwaves to DJ a show out of a van. It was such a success that he wanted to do it again, but this time feature live performances from the band as well as some other special guests in between spinning records from his personal favorite bands. This is famously known as Self Pollution Radio.

The broadcast took place shortly after the release of Vitalogy at a home that Ed owned in Seattle. He invited all of his friends over, meaning that at least one person from the big four (five if you include Mudhoney) Seattle grunge bands were all in attendance. While Pearl Jam performed some of the best songs off their new record, we also got to hear performances from The Fastbacks, Mudhoney, Soundgarden and the world premiere of Mad Season.

Many of you may remember flipping cassette tapes while listening to this show back in high school or college, so we attempt to bring you back to that moment where you had to stay up late during a 4+ hour broadcast to make sure you recorded the entire thing. We’ll talk about the Vote For Choice benefit that happened a few days after this, the Home/Alive compilation record, guests such as Mike Watt and Krist Novosellic and the ramifications of Ed giving out his phone number over a live broadcast.

We’ve made it to the last episode of the year and we’re tackling the one that everyone is still raving about after 3 months – St. Louis! With Randy and John both in attendance, we’re going to relive some pretty good memories of not just the show itself, but being around friends and getting the rare opportunity to see the community come as one in person. John will relay the tale of how pessimistic he was about Ed’s voice after playing the third night in a row, while Randy shares his journey that almost took him backstage.

This show was for all types of fans; old school fans who love the Ten era days were treating to an encore of songs that were written before 1992, serious collectors got to witness a few more uncommon songs to hear these days such as Of The Girl and Sad, and then the fan who just loves the buzzsaw of a rock n roll show got exactly that. On a Sunday night set, they took the stage in great spirits and made connections with the crowd throughout the duration of the show. The crowd more than did their part for this and we’ll talk about how on top of their game they were all night, especially with a newer song like Retrograde.

We have a very special story to share in this episode as well. You may remember that Ed dedicated Sad to a woman named Debbie. Debbie is a friend of ours, and she was kind enough to share her story that led to her request. It’s a must listen.

After Pearl Jam had to cancel the final two shows of the west coast run in May, there was a bit of a concern as to the state of the band when the European tour started in June. There were a few shows at the beginning of the tour that felt like pretty average, safe setlists. So on the fifth night of the leg, the band opened up the vault a bit and led way to fans experiencing some deeper cuts in Frankfurt. Thanks everybody for voting this in as the episode representing the Europe tour as we finish off the year recapping some of the best from 2022!

A beautiful 100+ year old building with amazing acoustics is where the band set camp for their first show in the city in 30 years. As mentioned, the big crowd moments were spread all throughout this night, and one of the biggest opened the show in Inside Job. That made way for more fan service performances such as Last Exit (being played for the first time in 2022), Fatal and In My Tree. The crowd did their part to give love back to the band as they treated this show like a big celebration. We’ll talk more about Gigaton songs, the Ukraine war and some of the songs that had an important run this year.

Question of the Week: When Pearl Jam goes with a set filled with songs more uncommon to hear than others, what songs make you gravitate to that set?

With a full year of touring finally under their belt, the last three episodes of 2022 will feature a few of the best from each leg. We start off with an interesting one that took place on the west coast leg emanating from Fresno, CA. The band was in a tough spot with Matt Cameron still being sidelined due to Covid, but sometimes unfortunate situations can breed special moments. With Josh Klinghoffer and Richard Stuverud still back behind the kit to help out, they also recruited their original drummer, Dave Krusen, to take the stage for ten (double meaning there) songs for the first time at a Pearl Jam show since 1991. This performance was like comfort food for the old time fan who loved Dave’s groove off of Ten from the time they were a teenager. They played nearly every song from the record and gave Dave his moment to shine, something that he always deserved as a founder of the band.

Drummer drama isn’t the only hurdle they had to jump in Fresno. Ed was dealing with a bout of food poisoning that he claimed to be one of the worst he’s had aside from the infamous Polo Grounds show from 1995 where Neil Young replaced him in the set. Most of the songs prove to be a challenge for Ed vocally leading to some clunky performances in the beginning. But there is a certain movie character we compare him to once Krusen steps in and Ed suddenly seems much better. Can you guess who?

Question of the week we ask here is what songs do you think that Krusen could have been a good fit on if he had stuck around for later records.

In this episode, we put a Stranglehold on Detroit Rock City as it’s time to Kick Out The Jams on this Elephant of a show with tons of Raw Power that emanated from Detroit in 2014. A 32-song set with an excellent crowd that took place in the middle of their Heartland Tour during the Lightning Bolt era, this show was dominated by Motor City Easter eggs, local sports legends and some things you’ve never witnessed before. Big thanks to long-time Horizon Leg Patron, Fred Blood, for requesting this as he’ll get to tell his story in the episode.

Though it was the show that preceded the wildly popular Moline No Code performance, people still talk about this one eight years later. There’s no shadow hanging over it, and it’s because it was an excellent mix of fan favorites, rarities and tons of memorable speeches. It was the sixth all-time performance of Black Red Yellow, the first instance where Release and Oceans opened up a show back-to-back and includes a highly emotional version of Light Years dedicated to Ikey Owens from Jack White’s band who had recently passed away.

Listen in if you want to find out what happens when you challenge Chris Chelios to a fight, and discover the reason as to why Get Right hasn’t been played in nearly 20 years. But stay until the end if you want to know which 2022 shows we’ll be covering during the month of December!

It’s been quite a long time since we’ve covered something from down in South America, but thankfully we rectify our mistake in this episode. We’re going down to São Paulo, Brazil to cover a show from Pearl Jam’s first tour in the continent that took place back in 2005. This was a Patreon requested episode from Mike Radtke, and we’ll tell his story about how he came across this when collecting official boots and why it’s stuck with him ever since.

As it goes for shows in Brazil, the crowd is the big highlight. Now the crowd wasn’t fully developed into the traditional Brazilian crowds where everybody sings along to the melody of a verse or chorus, but they certainly did their part to stand out. Crazy Mary is a full fledge sing-along, Black has a powerful moment that leaves Ed mesmerized, and during Daughter the crowd takes it open themselves to start an It’s OK tag. All of this from the very active crowd, along with an incident dealt with by security during Alive.

In our question of the week, we asked our Facebook and Twitter followers how often they go back to South American bootlegs, we run through every answer before taking a dive into the set!

In this episode we’re talking about one of the wildest sets in Pearl Jam’s catalog coming out of Newcastle, Australia in 2006. This is a one and done city at the point of this release, they’d never played Newcastle before then and haven’t played there since. There are two key factors as to why they played there in the first place. For one, world champion surfer Mark Richards made a push for them to play, as well as a fan made petition featuring 2,277 signatures of the locals. Since this was such a unique situation, the band gave Richards the important duty to put pen to paper on this set, and boy oh boy he didn’t disappoint.

If you like to listen and go to shows where Pearl Jam does something completely out of the ordinary, you may be sold on this show from the first note. For only the second time in history, Alive was played as the opener of the show. This is the true definition of the phrase ‘anything can happen at a Pearl Jam show’ and is why this show over time has been elevated to legendary status. We’ll take about the memorable moments from this version and how the song gave this show a very strong momentum that stayed consistently high the entire night.

And how about the other rarities? For only the second time in their history, the band broke out Undone for a performance, one of five all-time. Leatherman, Down, Masters Of War, Crown Of Thorns and Alone are more surprises that pop in to make this show stand out, as well as Even Flow closing the first encore and Corduroy beginning the second encore. Lest we forget, there is an incredible 9-song run with no stops to begin this night. This show takes you on a ride, so take a listen and come celebrate it with us!

There are many big cities that Pearl Jam has touched down in that have historically held some of their best shows of all-time. Chicago is near the top of that very important list. Being the birthplace of Eddie Vedder, every time they play there there is an emotional, homecoming aspect to the show that brings out the absolute best of the crowd. In 2003, with Ed’s grandmother on hand to watch, they put together one of those big all-timer shows with a bootleg that still circulates on SiriusXM’s Pearl Jam Radio.

Nearly every song from this show was a nearly flawless performance ranging everywhere from your crowd favorites, to brand new Riot Act songs, emotional moments and songs that soar. We’ll talk about powerful performances from songs such as Release, Present Tense and Light Years, and we’ll get to praise this Chicago crowd for their hard work on Better Man and Daughter featuring a notable tag. We’ll also go over some listener answers talking about their favorite Chicago arena shows.

This episode is a Patreon request from Joey Goodsir who joins us to share his story of being a Gen Z Pearl Jam fan who found this bootleg on Apple Music where it molded his fandom to what it is today. He’ll chat about some of his favorite performances and focus on the big moments that he’ll speak fondly of.

The night after playing a notable show in Berlin that was broadcast on FM stations all over the world, the band played a show in Hamburg and made allusions to it being better than the night before. The crowd of 7,000, who had been dying to see them ever since they last played in 1992, brought their a-game to the Sportshalle. Nearly every song had a major crowd response, clapping sections in spots where we usually don’t hear them, especially for new songs that only had very few plays under their belt. It allowed the band to elevate their game and gave them a nice little spark of motivation that made the songs soar and excel.

This episode is very important to all of our German listeners out there, but it’s also important to us as a podcast. We were able to make a few different setlist discoveries that some of the other fansites may have missed. Listen to check out what we found! We’ll also hear from some of our European fans on Twitter about how Pearl Jam’s popularity in 1996 mirrored what was happening to them in the United States.

Performances to look out for in this show: Last Exit, Who You Are, Corduroy, Whipping, Sometimes, Rearviewmirror, Not For You, Daughter and State Of Love And Trust.