In this month we’re going to be touching up on some of Pearl Jam’s past festival dates, starting with the first touring festival that helped make the band at Lollapalooza in 1992. Two shows at the Shoreline Amphitheater kicked off this tour, and we’re gonna cover the second night because it’s the only one that has a bootleg attached. We’ll share a clip from our Horizon Profile episode with Amy Wynn, who was at the first night of the two-day kick-off. We’ll also get to talk about an entertaining interview that exists on the internet featuring Stone and Jeff on MTV’s 120 Minutes. They discuss how they met, how they felt about touring at the time, and a word that you can say on TV that absolutely caught the attention of Stone. That’s probably the big moment to tune in for!
Episodes Covering Pearl Jam Concerts in 1992
**Warning** This episode touches up on the topic of depression and suicide. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, don’t be afraid to call for help. For immediate assistance, dial 1800-273-8255, or dial 988 to reach the suicide prevention hotline. Please, take care of yourselves.
It’s been five years since we’ve lost Chris Cornell, a death that has shook up this community and a life that is dearly missed to this day. To celebrate his memory, we’ll be talking about one of the most memorable moments where he and Pearl Jam linked up at a show, the Lollapalooza tour closer in 1992. It came at a time where Temple of the Dog was discovered a year after the release of the album due to the collaboration between Pearl Jam and Soundgarden members. Performances of Hunger Strike at that time almost never happened, so looking back on it now and what we know, the moment is that much more special.
We talk a lot about Cornell’s life, his talent and the impact he made. This episode pays tribute to everything he provided for music, art, and the fans who cherish it.
On the date of the 30th anniversary of MTV Unplugged, we released an episode breaking down every moment from that show and telling every story. Two months later and there’s still more to tell! You may remember going back to the earliest episodes this year that at the end, we asked our listeners if they knew anyone who was at this show to get in touch with us. We were waiting for that email, but unfortunately it never happened. Flash forward to the date that our episode is release, we get a comment on Twitter from someone who tells us that he was indeed there that night. One thing led to another, and here we are sharing the story of Ken Lesnik and what it was like to be in the building that night. As an employee of MTV, Ken was always invited to network events, but Unplugged took place just months after he left. A wild story about him being in the right place at the right time got him in the building that night. He’ll talk about the amazing experience that he had being very close to the front and how this night solidified his fandom. This episode is being released 30 years to the day of the first airing of this on television. There is never a bad time to talk about this legendary show, but there’s no more perfect time than right now. Enjoy Ken’s stories!
It’s one of the most important Pearl Jam shows in their history with iconic moments that are likely engrained in your memory from as far back as 1992. In this episode, we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the MTV Unplugged performance. We’ll touch up on everything that led up to this very moment happening. How they were called to do the show when they were in Europe and had less than three days to prepare before performing. It kind of came off the heels of that legendary Zurich show where they played on such a small stage that they were basically forced to switch over to acoustic, and like to PJ20 movies tells it, that moment led directly to this event happening. We’re going to tell some stories from this show that maybe you’re a bit unfamiliar with, including an incident where the band was forced to rent equipment due to their own not arriving from Europe in time. You’ll get to hear some quotes from Jeff, Mike and Stone discussing about how this and other facets of the event happened. At the time they returned, the band saw their popularity in the states rise as Ten was sneaking onto Billboard’s Top 20. The songs! Of course the songs are important. Some of the most impactful performances of all-time. From a stand out State Of Love And Trust proving that most of their catalog was going to transition well, to Black being one of the greatest Eddie vocal performances of all-time including the absolutely iconic We Belong Together tag, and then of course, Porch. We’ll go through and break down the entire moment where Eddie wrote PRO CHOICE!!! on his arm. Again, just legendary moments. And we’ll share maybe a story you haven’t heard, do you know what Vs. song was being played in a commercial break during this? We’ll have your answer in the episode! Also joining us for this one is our friends at Hallucinogenic Recipe, Patrick and Brian, who will talk about the aspects of finding this on bootleg and some of the strange titles that were given to State Of Love And Trust.
“Another wild, fabulous Holland show… in other words, it has to be seen to be believed” If you’ve frequented the Five Horizons site over the past few decades, you would know that most of their show descriptions have a detailed re-telling of the performances, elaborating on the songs and speeches to give you the sense of what happened. If you’ve read the description for this Rotterdam show before, you’d know that the quote above would be the only indication of what this show was about. At the time, they hosted video on their site, but now you can find this entire show on YouTube, so for many of you that may have read this over the past handful of years, you may have no idea what you’re in for. Let’s just say Mike McCready gives us his all. Along with all that… this was the final show of Pearl Jam’s five-night run in Holland during March of 1992. The band his always spoken highly of this run of shows and how much they loved the area and the local fans. We discussed Den Haag and Utrecht already, but this one is a good end-cap of their European run in 1992. In the last two episodes, we talked a lot about stage divers presence and how it interfered with what was happening on stage. This time, Ed takes a new approach putting a stop to it before it even began. The crowd obliges, for the most part, and the band’s energy is truly able to resonate on stage. The band is having fun playing the music they are proud of writing, and when they’d head back to the states in a week’s time, they’ll find out that everything has changed.
You may have seen the shirt, now it’s time to hear the show! This episode is about the show emanating from the Tivoli club in Utrecht. It’s continuing our 4-show mini-series highlighting the best of their March run from 1992. To help us out once again to discuss the bootleg aspect of the show is Patrick and Brian from Hallucinogenic Recipe (@elusiverecipe on Twitter). This show has a lot of very similar talking points as the Den Haag show did – it’s a very similar, near identical setlist structure, the band sounds great and there are countless amounts of stage divers and crowd surfers getting involved with the show again. It happens more often in here than in Den Haag, and the approach Ed takes is a little more relaxed this time. Even after Jeff has an issue with his pedals getting messed with. The crowd comes into play towards the end with an absolutely bizarre scene happening on stage. We’ll also discuss what we know of the origin of the famous Tivoli shirt, the bike girl who Eddie befriended at this show and would be reunited with 3 years ago, Ed’s off day tattoo and how Mike was able to get away with saying “suck my ass” and “jerkoff” in a Dutch interview.
This episode kicks off our run of 1992 shows celebrating the 30th anniversary of four classics. We go to The Netherlands and focus on one of the best and most notable shows from the first European run in February and March out of Den Haag. This was one of the first of the great soundboard recordings that circulated, and for that, we are bringing in our brother podcast Hallucinogenic Recipe to talk about the trading and collecting aspect that made this a popular show within the community. This show has everything you want from 1992, good Ed speeches, a dangerous Porch, one of the best I’ve Got A Feeling jams ever and the seldom played original improv built around Fugazi’s Suggestion in Saying No. We’ll talk about this rendition and why it doesn’t go down as one of their original songs in the same way an improv like Outta My Mind does. Though getting it here and almost no where else (that we at least have a recording of) gives this show a little extra weight and makes it timeless. “That’s my little brother!” Ed shouts when Jeff cedes his bass to his brother Jason during I’ve Got A Feeling. While it may take some time for Jason to catch up with the band, we also get a wild array of tags within this 15 minute (you heard me correctly) slobberknocker. One of the best versions that again can be directly traced to this show as a defining moment recognized by fans of all ages.
We’re back with our third episode featuring extensive and exclusive coverage of Pearl Jam’s late night performances. In this one we’ll discuss the important Bob Dylan 30th anniversary show broadcast on PPV where Mike and Ed performed Masters Of War. It was on this night that the guys mingled with some of the legends of rock n roll, names that would be synonymous to the story of Pearl Jam such as Neil Young and Tom Petty, as well as George Harrison, Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, Johnny Cash and the voice of a generation himself – Bob Dylan. We’ll talk about a conversation between Eddie and Bob that potentially changed the entire landscape of Pearl Jam, as well as one of Ed’s greatest vocal performances in this tremendous Masters Of War.
Welcome to a brand new series that we’re featuring on Live On 4 Legs! In this series, we take an in-depth look into Pearl Jam’s stints on late night TV. Everything from award shows to band tributes to plenty of Letterman appearances promoting new albums, it’ll all be covered extensively. These are classic performances that sort of stand alone in Pearl Jam’s pantheon, and since our focus is usually dedicated towards full 30+ song setlists, we needed to create an opportunity to give these big moments the Live On 4 Legs treatment they deserve. This is the second episode of our brand new running series that focuses on the 1992 MTV VMAs. After an Unplugged performance for the ages elevated this band to the height of the Grunge phenomena, Pearl Jam was the hottest band in the world. They had just released a new music video for Jeremy that debuted to instant rave reviews due to its controversial subject matter and imagery, but you couldn’t turn on MTV for five minutes in September of 1992 without hearing the song. Invited to perform at the TV station’s less than prestigious award show that rewarded music for their visual art, they made a conscious effort to suggest performing a song that wasn’t their brand new hit, but with major pushback from the network, they didn’t get their way. The anger seemed to fuel Ed during this performance as we get one of the most vigorous and intense versions of Jeremy ever played.
Welcome to a brand new series featured for our Patrons! In this series, we take an in-depth look into Pearl Jam’s stints on late night TV. Everything from award shows to band tributes to plenty of Letterman appearances promoting new albums, it’ll all be covered extensively. These are classic performances that sort of stand alone in Pearl Jam’s pantheon, and since our focus is usually dedicated towards full 30+ song setlists, we needed to create an opportunity to give these big moments the Live On 4 Legs treatment they deserve.
The pilate episode of this series will focus on the band’s first of four performances on SNL. Taking place back in 1992 before anyone had actually witnessed what transpired on MTV: Unplugged, this was Pearl Jam’s first opportunity to present themselves in a live television setting. They were up for the opportunity and in typical PJ fashion they blew everyone away. A performance of their first single, “Alive”, would wet the appetite before coming out with an intense and memorable “Porch” to conclude their stay. We’ll talk about the performances, some of the band’s mannerisms on camera and of course, we’ll tackle Ed’s controversial, statement making t-shirt.
Since this is a podcast focusing on a TV series, I get to say BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! After you finish with this episode presented exclusively through the Patreon platform, episode two will be available for you to check out on our regular podcast platforms! Check out our episode on the 1992 VMAs featuring the intense and memorable Jeremy performance. This will be the only such occasion where we split the series between platforms as the rest will only be found through Patreon!
Happy 30th anniversary to Ten! Since we can never have enough content on the seminal record that kickstarted it all, we’ve decided to follow up on the Philadelphia Ten show by going back and covering the original full album show from 1992 in Munich, Germany. It was the end of a pretty important early tour for the band. They were finishing up their first ever run of Europe which featured a lengthy set of shows in the UK, Italy, The Netherlands and then finally ended with 5 dates in Germany. The crowds were intimate and responsive to the new record, and since the band was basically playing it every night anyway, they ended the tour by playing it start to finish. Which means with fewer songs in their arsenal and not wanting this tour to end, what could they possibly have played to extend this night? We’ll also talk about the record and how some of the song placements were weird even for 1992.
This episode we head back to summer 1992 for a Lollapalooza afternoon set at Alpine Valley. Two of our Patrons join us to break it all down, Patrick Boegel and Dani King. Dani was there and gives us the inside story, and, for the second episode in a row, we have an EPIC post-show story that you’ll want to stick around for! We’ll talk about some classic Ten songs that were hitting their peak, an early tease of a fan-favorite Lost Dog, why the studio recording of Baba O’Riley is still in the vault, and one of the craziest Porch climbs Ed’s ever done!
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.
In this episode we dive back into our Seattle Series celebrating the 30th anniversary of the band by reliving the best hometown stories. This one may be the cream of the crop. Everybody knows it, you’ve all seen the pictures, maybe you’ve even imitated the antics at some point in your youth. This episode dives right in to the infamous Drop In The Park show from 1992. We’ll talk about how this show had some hiccups getting underway in May of 92 where just days before the event was set to happen, the mayor of Seattle canceled it due to safety and traffic concerns. The band pushed back, especially because it was an event to encourage voter registration, and they were able to reschedule it to September only a week after finishing up the Lollapalooza tour. And of course there is the show… and Ed and what he did. It goes down in history as one of the craziest stunts he’s ever pulled. It was fun to go back and basically do a play by play of this as it was all happening. It’s one of the band’s most iconic moments and images and we discuss where this stands on the all-time most important shows list.
This episode we dig back into Ten era Pearl Jam where the band was touring Europe right at the height of their popularity. Our Around The World series continues covering a Stockholm, Sweden show from 1992. This show is important for a lot of reasons. After this show, an incident where the band was robbed backstage combined with the next day at Roskilde where Ed got into a fight with a security guard led for them to cancel 7 remaining dates on this Euro tour. A few of those festival dates they were set to take the stage alongside Nirvana. As for the Stockholm show, they were in a good mood that day and debuted two cover songs in the pre-set – Driven To Tears and Throw Your Arms Around Me. The set is full of Ten songs, a Fugazi Easter egg hunt, and a unique closing sequence of Release and Footsteps.
This episode covers the very first vault show from the Moore Theatre in 1992. The band trekked across North America in support of Ten throughout the Fall and early Winter of 1991. After a two-week break in the beginning of January 1992, the boys returned to Seattle for a homecoming show at the legendary Moore Theatre. The band sounds incredible from start to finish. Ed’s voice is in perfect shape after 14 days off and the entire band seems to be relaxed and loving the atmosphere of playing in front of an energetic hometown crowd of about 1,350. The footage used in the “Even Flow” music video was professionally filmed at this show, while a number of famous early photos by Lance Mercer were captured here as well. A rough audience recording of the show was all that existed among bootleg collections for nearly 20 years, until the band decided to open up the mysterious “Vault” in 2011. A remastered version of the original recording was circulated at the PJ20 festival, much to the delight of diehard fans and those aware of the magic of this show. Single CDs in cardboard sleeves simply titled “VAULT #1” were distributed at the destination weekend. This show also marked the first time the band covered The Who’s “Baba O’Riley,” although the song is omitted from the vault recording. John Farrar and Chris Buckley team up to host their first show together, exploring this early performance that offers a glimpse into the band’s early era and formative years just before they exploded to superstardom.
One of the most pivotal shows in Pearl Jam’s history, the 1992 Pinkpop Festival has been discussed and shared from bootleg VHS tapes to online forums for over 25 years, and this episode breaks down why this show is such an important part of the band’s legacy. While the Seattle scene was still blossoming into something big, Pearl Jam hadn’t played a show in front of a massive audience before. They were still used to playing club shows with only a couple thousand, maybe even hundred fans attending. Pinkpop estimated to have 60,000 people in the crowd making it the prime stage for the band to bring their a-game.
Their energy in a rain soaked day was unmatched. Anyone who has watched this show before knows the moments – Jeff running around like a maniac, Ed climbing the scaffold during Even Flow, and of course an iconic stage dive during Porch that has been a major part of the band’s legacy. With a little less than an hour on stage, they created moments that are still talked about to this day.
We’re taking the time machine all the way back to the band’s most pivotal and successful year in 1992 to focus on a show played in Zurich, Switzerland. Guest host Chris Buckley joins the show to talk about it’s importance in the band’s legacy as they perform something incredibly rare that hasn’t been done in the modern era of the band. This show took place 10 days after the iconic Pinkpop Festival show and as the band continued to grow more popular, the fans wanted to get to know more. This is the first time in public that Eddie makes mention of the Mamasan Trilogy – the demo that was given to him by Jack Irons that acted as his audition for what would eventually become the ever famous Mookie Blaylock. I kid. So everyone who follows the band pretty much understands the story, Alive, Once and Footsteps all go together as a mini rock opera of sorts, but it was during this stretch of shows where they played the three songs consecutively for the first time. They haven’t performed the Trilogy since 1993. Outside of talking about the rare stuff, we get to tap into a fiery and angst-filled late-20’s aged Eddie Vedder who gave us top-notch performances of some of the band’s anthems from that time. Versions of Leash, Porch and Rockin In The Free World go down as some of the best of the time period and we’ll get to make some comparisons to what we hear from the band out of these songs today.