Pearl Jam Podcast Episodes

We’re back around the world this week and we’ll continue the series this entire month finishing up two more stops and Europe and FINALLY getting to some highly regarded South American shows. This week though we kill two birds with one stone (Gossard) as we’ll also treat this episode as a Patreon request from our friend Luke who attended this show! The best thing that you can say about a Pearl Jam show is that when you hear the city and year, you know immediately what it attaches to. For this one, it’s Oceans for Israel. Israel was a fan from Mexico who was set to attend this show, but in June of that year suffered a heart attack and would later pass away due to complications from surgery. His friends and fans alike started a social media campaign to get the band to play Oceans, his white whale, at the show. And as the band always does, they take it a step further with a section that could’ve been seen as dedicated to Israel featuring Oceans, Light Years and Daughter with an Esta Bien tag. Other great things from this show – we’ll get to hear a great crowd participate on their most popular of songs such as Black and Do The Evolution and we FINALLY get to cover Riot Act deep cut Ghost for the first time ever on this show.

In this episode we’re covering Benaroya Hall – the 2,500 seat capacity Seattle venue usually known for being an orchestra concert hall was taken over by an insane Pearl Jam crowd there to witness the band perform some of their rarest cuts in rare form. The band usually known for their on-stage energy were confined to a seated position as they busted out, for the most part, an acoustic set of songs that fans hadn’t heard live before. They were treated to live debuts of two original songs – Fatal and Man of the Hour and a rare Johnny Cash cover of 25 Minutes To Go. But alongside the debuting tracks were songs so deep in the band’s back catalog that these fans might’ve needed to be on a different continent in order to have heard them before. Versions of Low Light and Around The Bend were sparse at the time and adding songs such as Parting Ways, All Or None, Dead Man and Masters of War gave the crowd plenty to cross off the checklist. We’ll do it old school style and go song-by-song in full as we talk about the once in a lifetime event and what made it so legendary. We’ll also recap the story shared by Kenny Mayne in our profile episode about how a ticket to this show fell into his lap during a Sonics game.

And now for something kind of different. Usually this podcast does a deep dive into Pearl Jam’s live catalog, but in this episode we change it up just a little bit. We take a deep dive into the short-lived Mirror Ball tour that spanned 11 shows in the summer of 1995 to promote the album. With the other 4 band members joining a rock n roll legend, how does the dynamic change not having Ed up on stage with them? It’s tough to make comparisons because they are of completely different styles and backgrounds, but the way Neil utilizes the band is not much different than how he would utilize Crazy Horse when touring with them. Neil is the general on stage and we’ll talk about how the band was thrust into elongated, 15+ minute jam sessions on powerful songs such as Scenery, Cortez The Killer and Like A Hurricane. This was out of Pearl Jam’s wheelhouse, but being such a talented core they were able to stretch their limits and follow Neil’s lead which would certainly help them grow as musicians during their prime. We’ll also talk Mirror Ball songs, Neil performing solo and we’ll chat with our Patreon forum about how the band was in the midst of bouncing back from the infamous Polo Fields show.

Who out there loves a show featuring a ton of back catalog? Well, if you’re someone who does then you’re gonna really like this show. Newark from 2010 on the Backspacer Tour was sandwiched in between shows in two major cities, so the band was able to play around with the setlist to bring in some of the more obscurer tracks in their history. It all starts with the opener to set the mood for the night and Of The Girl into Brain of J accomplishes that right away. This show takes from all eras of the band’s deep legacy, but one of the most profound from this show are the Ten era songs that almost never get played. Alone and Brother are a part of that grouping and this night being the last they have played Brother to date, and even Footsteps makes an appearance to fit in with the 91 era rarities that didn’t make the album. They also go back to Yield and Binaural quite a few times in favor for some of their all-time hits like Better Man, Black and Porch. We also get to make fun of people from New Jersey a wee bit and how when the band played Jersey Girl, the crowd chanted for hometown boy Bruce Springsteen instead of the original writer of the song Tom Waits. It’ll probably be a cold day in hell before Tom Waits gets any arena chanting his name, but as the incredible song writer that he is he certainly deserves that credit.

A jam packed show as we go back around the world for the first time in a few episodes. We’re close to rounding out our European trip and what’s Europe without doing a show in London? We go back to 1993, two months before Vs. was distributed, to talk about a show in the famous Brixton Academy club. Prior to our show coverage, we had the privilege to chat with Tom Pugh, the founder of a charitable organization called Given To Live that helps people affected by illness, addiction, domestic violence or any other personal struggle to get a concert experience that they otherwise couldn’t afford to have. Tom tells some wonderful and heartbreaking stories about the people he’s helped and will share a story about how Eddie learned of his organization. Follow them on Twitter and IG @GivenToLiveUK – Because You Matter. As for the episode, we get into a truckload of topics that can only be touched upon in the era. One big talking point was how some of the more methodically paced songs such as Release, Black and Garden sounded with Dave A as we questioned some of his stylistic choices and how it might not have been part of the band’s vision going forward. We’ll also talk about Ed’s comfort with the crowd and ability to take the stage having each member of the audience eat out of the palm of his hands. Big moments from this show were significant to the era. The encore is a perfect collection of songs that defined who the band was during this time – Leash, Fuckin Up and Sonic Reducer. They are raw, unfiltered performances that allowed the band to completely let loose and blow the crowd away. Also, we get very early versions of Vs. songs to talk about including Blood, Animal, Rearviewmirror, Go, Daughter and Indifference.

We’re taking a request from not just one, but two of our Patrons! We welcome Sean Rashkis and Brian Anderson to the show to talk about a rare occasion in Pearl Jam’s live catalog – a night 3 show, this one from the batch of San Francisco shows in 2006. Surprisingly, these set of shows were the first time the band played the bay area city since the infamous Polo Fields show from 1995 where Ed was struck with a bout of food poisoning and led to Neil Young jumping in as a replacement. To say this stint went better than the last would be a massive understatement. They gave the bay area fans three nights filled with 90 songs in total and 50 different tracks spanning their entire catalog. Night 3 was no exception as the main set dug into some brand new Avocado tracks along with some deep cuts that you may not hear as much nowadays. Songs like Untitled, MFC, Sad, Light Years, In Hiding, Down and the very appropriate Red Mosquito all filled up the main set. We’ll talk about the set and the songs, but we’ll also discuss the entire 3 -day experience with our guests who recall GA lines being super long and the GA itself being smaller than most venues, leading to some challenges down in the pit. We’ll also talk about a few moments from the previous nights including Ed completely forgetting the lyrics to Sometimes and performing Last Kiss from the crowd.

We’ve come a long way this series – we’ve talked to great people, talked about great shows and basked in the amazing moments this band has celebrated at one of the United States most treasured landmarks in Wrigley Field. And now it’s time for this series to come to a close, but we’re gonna go out with a bang! Just like we started, Night 2 of 2018’s big storyline was the rain. This time it was different. There was no beautiful day gone wrong, the band never took the stage at the time they were supposed to as they did in 2013. There was waiting… and waiting… and rain and more rain. Until the band finally took the stage around 9:30. They came out of the gates swinging knowing that this crowd was gonna be ready to erupt blasting an impassioned version of Given To Fly and followed up with a tight set of speedy rockers to get the crowd excited. As we’ll mention in the episode, it was an immaculate setlist for the situation that they were in. the brought out the big guns and the songs everyone was ready to sing while mixing in some special favorites such as In My Tree and U. But the thing that this show will go down in history as being most famous for was the OTOTO of Evil Little Goat. Never before and pretty likely that its never happening again, the crowd was treated to one of the deepest cuts in their back catalog.

There’s only two shows left to cover in our Wrigley Field Series as we’ve crossed off 2013 and 2016 and we’re now onward to the most recent year the band has been on tour. This episode will cover the 2018 Night 1 show where the band had a lot to follow up on. They had to follow up on a massive Seattle performance only a week prior that everyone was still raving about, and they had to follow a 2016 performance at Wrigley that was one for the ages. The stakes were high, but did they meet expectations? We’ll invite a panel of our Patreon members onto this episode to discuss a few topics including the performances of Missing and I Won’t Back Down and the infamous incident where a fan ran onto the field and stole home during RITFW. The first two moments being two of the absolute most memorable from this night and included Ed playing on Tom Petty’s guitar with the fireflies lighting up in the darkness. Missing was an incredibly emotional, albeit subtle, tribute to Chris Cornell without any official dedication. Other moments from this show that we’ll talk about are how the band performed some of the early set tracks such as Breakerfall, Getaway and Leavin’ Here in alternate tuning. It was a strange vibe that didn’t sit very well with us, but there are plenty of other moments in this set to get excited about including Wash as the opener, Present Tense, a combo of Footsteps/SOLAT/Breath and one of the oldest songs in the catalog Alone.

Could this be the best of the five shows played at Wrigley Field? It’s a question worth asking. With all that’s gone down in Wrigleyville between rain delays to dedications, special and uninvited guests, this can easily be argued as the best of the bunch. Joining the show is our old friend Matt Helbig to help put this massive night into perspective. Both John and Matt were in attendance for this show and right off the bat, you’ll notice that they were absolutely stunned by some of the songs they came firing out with. Oceans to open, Footsteps as a #2, Better Man #4 and an old tribute to Jane’s Addiction to lead into Corduroy. This set would have Andre Dawson asking what year is this? Because the first 13 songs could’ve easily been selected from a 1998 setlist and no one would notice. The band went back to their roots for this show and the crowd was rewarded with old favorites like Sonic Reducer and Blood that you wouldn’t expect to get busted out on the big stage. As much as this was a night for old cuts, it was also a night for deep cuts as well. The band went into their back catalog to bust out some cherished fan favorites including Black, Red, Yellow that brought Dennis Rodman up on stage. The unreleased crowd-pleaser Of The Earth also made its way onto the set and managed to be one of the top moments of the night. Add those two in with Stone Gossard taking the mic for a little Don’t Gimme No Lip and you have a crowd of collectors left satisfied. Overall, this 36-song monster of a setlist that’s only had 4 years of life is already considered an all-timer by many hardcore fans. And consider that the Cubs went on a magical run that broke the curse of the Billy Goat that fall, it’s safe to say that Pearl Jam spread some magic and left it out on that field to be shared by all.