Pearl Jam Podcast Episodes

This episode is a part two of a two-part series focusing on the Moore Theatre shows in 1995 where the band performed under the pseudonym Piss Bottle Men. If you like to listen to things linearly, the first part of this series is available through our Patreon which you can sign up to for as low as $1 per month here: http://patreon.com/liveon4legs This episode is another addition in our Hometown Series dedicated to telling the stories of their best Seattle shows in their 30-year anniversary. These two shows were special fan club shows meant as a warm up before heading off to a big tour in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. With Vitalogy selling over 4 million copies in the prior months late in 1994 and early 1995, these shows were the first time that the hometown fans got familiar with new drummer Jack Irons and seen some of these newer Vitalogy songs fleshed out in the way they were played on the record. This was also in the middle of the Mirror Ball recording sessions, so a certain Uncle was in town available to make a visit to his favorite nephews. However, earlier in the night the band decided to present a preview of the new collaborative record as they played Act Of Love mid-set. When Neil makes his appearance to join them, we get a little bit of a reprise to close the night. This may remind you of another instance where this happened – the Polo Fields show where Neil filled in for Ed who had food poisoning. The band would play two versions of RITFW that night.

March of 1992 was somewhat of a breakthrough for Pearl Jam. After returning from a successful tour overseas featuring memorable shows in Germany and The Netherlands, they found themselves in a major spotlight getting the call to perform on MTV’s Unplugged. Although it wouldn’t premiere for 2 months, the band’s rise was imminent and their popularity in America had grew exponentially from the time they left. This show at The Cabaret Metro in Chicago, as documented in the Let’s Play Two documentary, was important for so many reasons. Not only was it a hometown show for both Ed and The Smashing Pumpkins, who acted as the opening act, it was a platform where they had to prove that they belonged up on that stage headlining club shows and even bigger shows to come. The guys from U2 were there that night to scout them to be an opening act for what would be the Italian run of the Zooropa tour. Everything seemed to be falling into place at the time. This performance is classic 1992. You have some improvs, including Rockin’ In The Free World played on the spot due to a drum issue, great performances of Ten songs and an encore where they shared the stage with the Pumpkins saluting them in their hometown.

We’re back into our run of early 90’s episodes as we tackle a great show and memorable bootleg in this episode. St. Petersburg happened on the well documented 1994 tour that the band was on the top of their game for. This is a Patreon requested episode and joining us for this one is Horizon Leg Patron Gabe Spece! Coming off a night in Miami where 24,000 fans attempted to cram into a venue that could only fit 8,000, the local Florida newspapers made attempts to sabotage the band by stating that they incited the “riots” that led to some incidents happening during the show. Unlike what we saw in our Ann Arbor episode that happened just nine days prior, the band didn’t want to let yet another issue (to go along with bomb threats, ticket distribution challenges, backstage break-ins) to hamper their show for a new live crowd that seemingly couldn’t care less what happened to them the night before. The result of that was a very relaxed show with tons of positive energy. Almost a rarity for that tour year. This show has gone down in lore as being one of the better fan recorded bootlegs of that year which helps take in all of the fantastic moments that happened here. Highlights from this one that we’re gonna dig into are opening the set with Rearviewmirror, a fantastic Daughter with both Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2 tag and W.M.A. which essentially led to a full version played. Great improvs off Black and Alive and a rare 3rd encore closer of Throw Your Arms Around Me. But possibly the most important thing to come out of this episode is a bit of a debate that ramps up during Porch. This Porch has always been known for having a Dirty Frank tag, but we dig a little deeper and question if that’s the case here or not. Check it out, you’ll know what we mean!

Hawaii has always had an important place within the history of Pearl Jam. From Ed’s love of surfing to discovering and connecting with B3 organist Boom Gaspar, a lot of important moments have developed from the islands. In this episode, we’ll talk about a 2006 show that acted as the end of an era for one of their most important touring years. To join us on this one is former Live On 4 Legs host Matt Helbig to talk about a few of his go-to songs. This episode is gonna be all about the love for Boom who got a warm hometown welcome on this night. We’ll talk about his introduction to the band and how he didn’t even know who Ed was before meeting him, but fast forward into the future and Boom has been a sixth-man staple of the live act. We’ll get to hear some of the classic Boom songs in this show such as Love Boat Captain, Wasted Reprise and Crazy Mary. We’ll also chat about how good of a mood the band was in on this night being able to finish out a monstrous touring year on such a positive note. We get performances closely representing some Hawaiian and beach themes such as Oceans, Big Wave, Ed ukulele song You’re True and a cover of Hawaii 78.

This episode is the third installment of our Hometown Series where we celebrate Pearl Jam’s 30-year history by paying homage to the place where it all started, Seattle, Washington. In this show we cover the first of a three night stint that ended the 1993 Vs. tour at the Seattle Center Arena. The hype around Pearl Jam was massive and as they continued to push new material and tour extensively, the demand proceeded to grow. This was just over a month after finding out that Vs. had sold over $1 million copies in its first week. That’s something that would be a crowning achievement for most bands, but this was a growing concern within their circle that things were moving way too fast. The band was expecting a more gradual rise to fame, but instead Eddie is finding himself on the cover of Time Magazine. While there is a sense of comfort from being in their home city, most people recognize this set of shows from the night 2 affair that was recently released as a part of the Vault series. While they cracked jokes about their rise to fame, 1993 shows are some of the most raw sounding and unruly in their catalog. As they rip through standout tracks like Go, Why Go and Porch, they also have to deal with a crowd that has a disregard for safety at times of this show. We’ll talk about it all along with how playing songs such as Alive, Black, Blood and Porch before getting into their encore was something that almost never happened from that point afterward.

It’s time to hop back aboard the Yield tour as this episode brings us to a popular recording from 1998. Recently, Ed claimed that Australia may be the first continent to get the Gigaton tour, so that’s where we end up in this episode. The third night in Melbourne is one that has gone down in the books as an all-time classic, yet is perhaps still undervalued. Broadcast at the time on JJJ radio in Australia as well as being one of the very early internet livestreams, this show was really one of the last of its kind. The performances are what makes this show special and we highlight just about every single one of them. From hearing the raw power of Ed’s growl on Brain of J, to the soaring sounds of Mike’s guitar during In My Tree, Jack Irons doing damage on the kit in an otherworldly version of Immortality, This show has so many moments you want to go back to again and again. We’ll talk about all of the above as well as a very early version of Porch blues with the slower intro that has been popularized in the modern era. We’ll also talk about the CD called Give Way that was supposed to be released alongside Single Video Theory. What happened to it? Why was it never issued? Do copies of it still exist? We answer all of that!

2008 is an under the radar tour year for Pearl Jam as the Avocado era was nearing it’s end. They went out on a 13-show east coast run where songs that they either hadn’t played in years or never played at all starting popping up in setlists. Fan favorite tracks like W.M.A. and Who You Are mixed in with Lost Dogs such as Sad, Education and All Night all found playing time during this tour. This show in Columbia, SC that we cover in this episode is a microcosm of that year. A big thank you goes out to our Patron Michael Keating for requesting this show! The craziest thing about this setlist is how incredibly balanced it was. No Code has the same amount of representation as Ten and Vs., Riot Act has more songs played than Yield and Vitalogy and there are Lost Dogs galore. The band took this opportunity of not having to promote an album as a platform to celebrate their entire discog and the fans reaped the benefits. This is definitely a stat heavy show and we’ll get into some of the gritty statistical details that may make this show feel amongst the rarest of the bunch

We’re taking this episode back to the revered 1994 tour smack dab in the middle of the Vs. and Vitalogy records. It can be argued that 1994 was Pearl Jam’s most important year – it was a year where they stood their ground in the fight against Ticketmaster, a year where they spoke up about important social justice issues such as pro-choice rights, a year where they were about to fire their drummer, and it was the year where they grieved the loss of Kurt Cobain. The Ann Arbor show fell right in the middle of that tumultuous time as the 10th out of 21 shows on tour and as we’ll discuss throughout this episode, you could tell that the drama was weighing on them a bit. Through the duration of this show we’ll talk about how Ed’s mood seemed to reflect one who was struggling to make it through the night. Visceral performances of songs like Daughter and Porch that utilized improvisations that weren’t necessarily out of character for him at the time, but they set a tone for the show expressing how fed up they were with the ticket fiasco. Ed even made mention to it later in the set and apologized for how impossible it was to get tickets that night. Blood was another performance where his frustration seemed to burst whilst on stage. We also get a few very interesting moments that make this show unique. One of those moments featured Jeremy in the opener spot, something that hasn’t happened at a Pearl Jam show since. Three Vitalogy songs were played 9 months before the album would be released – Last Exit, Not For You and Nothingman, with the latter making it’s live debut and the only performance of the song for over two years. There’s also a very raw version of Yellow Ledbetter that was played for only the 5th time.