Episode 305: Buenos Aires, ARG – 11/13/2011

¡Ole Ole Ole Ole! This week we’re digging into one of the best places to see a Pearl Jam concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina! We all know those South American shows are special whether it be in Brazil, Chile or Peru, but there is something about the Argentinian crowd that makes your hair stand on end. The passion for the band mixed with their natural knack for singing along with the melodies of songs, even singing songs of their own when the band takes a minute to breathe, makes this one of the must see Pearl Jam crowds in the world. Javier was lucky enough to be in attendance for this one in 2011, so we’ll get the scope of what it was like to be a part of that audience.

There’s a cliche used on the show sometimes where we say “you’re only as good as your last bootleg” which means that when fans get their hands on boots from the most recent tour year and hear how it went down, the next time the band comes around to their town, they want to be a part of that. This show in 2011 is the show that everyone went home and listened to, waited for two years in 2013 and absolutely turned the dial on to make that (in my personal opinion) the best Pearl Jam crowd of all time. This crowd sings along with just about everything from Release to Even Flow to Jeremy, Black, Better Man, and hell, even Last Kiss. But as you’ll see with a song like Do The Evolution which is widely known for it’s South American renditions, it wasn’t quite the moment that we know of it to be now. We’ll get into the possible reasons why, and how that continued to grow throughout their future runs down there.

We’ll have fun raving about this crowd, but we’ll also discuss whether or not the band should have been more involved with their celebrations, again as they would do in future years. Also! An old segment is back by popular demand, so don’t miss it!


Episode 302: Calgary, AB – 9/21/2011

When proposing an episode for this week’s show, the goal was to put focus on a tour that we haven’t discussed a whole lot on this podcast – the 2011 Canadian tour. The question here was which show would be the one to cover. So we crowd sourced it and got some great answers, but the best answer was a suggestion to do the episode in tribute of former Calgary Flames star, Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, who were tragically killed recently. This made the Calgary 2011 show a no brainer to talk about.

There is a big storyline that looms over this show. This happened to be the same day that R.E.M. called it a career. Hearing the band react to the news and play a very impassioned touching tribute to them with the song It Happened Today has been the consensus call back moment from this show. Pearl Jam could have made a decision to play one of their more well known radio singles like Losing My Religion, Everybody Hurts or Man On The Moon, but we’ll talk about how they selected the right song for the right moment.

There are also songs in this setlist that connect to something that the band has done recently such as Brain Of J, Rats, Crazy Mary and even something relevant in concerns to Johnny Guitar!


Pearl Jam Late Night Series: Ep. 17 – Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 2011

We have a bit of a jam packed episode for this Late Night show from Fallon in 2011. This is coming off the heels of a widely successful PJ20 festival and soon to be celebration of a 20-year anniversary movie, book and soundtrack. It was a good time to be a fan and the band was finally telling the story that we had all heard bits and pieces of in the past two decades prior.

So they go on Fallon to promote everything and decided as a gift to the fans, a new song was going to debut on television. But that song just so happened to be…. Ole. This is not necessarily a new topic around these parts, so we’ll clearly get into the conversation that needs to be had, plus how special it was that the band wanted to bring out something new here.

But that’s not all! They filmed three songs during that taping including All Night that would air the following night with The Roots accompanying them on backing vocals, and the first ever performance of Mother during the Pink Floyd tribute week.

But come on now… that’s not all. Because you see, there was a little problem in the Gulf Coast around that time where the BP oil spill caused major damage to the ocean. And that happened to create these little balls of tar that would bobble around in the water. So as a public service announcement, Eddie collaborated with Fallon to present a very special message to those who had planned to go swimming in the ocean. Find out more at 11.


Episode 234: Santiago, CHL – 11/16/2011

Let’s head down to South America for this episode where the crowds show up in massive numbers and bring their powerful voices along with them. We have a special one here for you as we’re joined by our 5th leg, the Gear Guru Javier Hervas, for the entire episode. As you may have heard in recent episodes, Javier is our expert musician who joins in for a few segments per show to discuss some of the things you hear in songs and how the band creates the sound you’re witnessing. He’ll break down all of those pieces for an entire set here, including why 2011 is an important year for developing the tone that is still used in current shows.

As this was a show he attended in his homeland of Chile, the Guru will pull double duty talking about both the sound experience as well as his personal perspective and memories from the show. We’ll talk about Unthought Known being an usual opener getting the nod to kick things off, a wild crowd who would not adhere to Ed’s ‘three steps back’ request and full breakdown on some of the best highlights of the night, including amazing versions of Black and Rearviewmirror.

Javier will answer your questions for him this week about gear that they’ve used on tours and what makes certain songs work, and we’ll also go into heavy discussion on the song Olé. It’s our first time covering the song since episode 13, which means a full breakdown on why this could be Pearl Jam’s worst song was a necessary discussion!

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Episode 193: Saskatoon, SK, CA – 9/19/2011

Moosejaw, Broadview, Moosamin too! We’re running back to Saskatoon! After covering the 2005 show in Saskatchewan over a year and a half ago, just like The Guess Who, we’re running back. This time thanks to a request from long time Patron, Danielle Tatlow, who lives up near those parts in a town of 350. We’ll tell her story on this episode to prep you for the last show they’ve played up in these parts up north. While this song has a great mix of album representation and rare songs such as God’s Dice, In My Tree, Untitled/MFC, In The Moonlight and more, it’s primarily remembered for one big moment. In 2005, the band did a rough take on Running Back To Saskatoon by The Guess Who, and while the results pleased the locals, it did not go over smoothly. Take two, and yet again the rendition is filled with flubs and forgotten lyrics. Ed doesn’t like how the performance went, so he invites a fan on stage to help them sing it and finally, the song gets played properly.

We’ll also talk about the 2011 tour and how it sometimes gets lost in the mix within the other tour years, especially 2005 which is a very similar, albeit longer Canadian leg.

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Episode 146: PJ20 Night 2 – 9/4/2011

This first night of PJ20 weekend was stricken with bad weather that put a bit of a damper on the show, but they followed up with a Sunday night performance that was one for the ages. While the first night had some song inclusions from the deep cuts in their catalog, it was missing a familiar flow that give Pearl Jam setlists balance. Night 2 has more of those setlist staples intertwined while giving you more of the uncommon tracks that you can cross off your checklist. But just like the night prior, the band invited a handful of guests from the opening acts to join them, including Chris Cornell, who reprised his role in the Temple Of The Dog reunion. We’ll talk about how this show is a true celebration of Pearl Jam and their anniversary, calling back to important moments that shaped the band such as Roskilde 2000, the San Francisco 1995 incident and the Bob Dylan tribute show where they met Neil Young for the first time. This was all about embracing their history with the inclusion of their friends who helped them get to where they were.

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PJ20 Fan Forum

This episode features a forum of Pearl Jam fans talking about their unique experiences from the PJ20 weekend back in September of 2011! Join us to hear everyone’s individual stories on the rain, merch, the Temple reunion, why there’s no bootleg and more!

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Episode 145: PJ20 Night 1 – 9/3/2011

We’re sitting here in year 30 of Pearl Jam about to look back at when they celebrated their 20th anniversary, which happened to be 10 years ago. Whatever equation you want to make of it, the massive weekend event at Alpine Valley was one of the biggest events to that point in Pearl Jam’s history. It was set to be a celebration of the band’s longevity featuring the most loyal group of fans. Friends such as Glen Hansard, Mudhoney, Queens Of The Stone Age and The Strokes all flew up to rural Wisconsin just to be there for this moment. A weekend that would forever be etched in… nope. The rain came pouring down and any prestige that was to come from that night was heavily tainted. However, the show went on as promised and was extended due to the nature of the evening. Pearl Jam went through the gauntlet of their entire catalog through songs that had never been played, In The Moonlight and Setting Forth, to songs that had almost never been played, Education and Help, Help, while trying to scatter the fan favorites such as Breath and Not For You (feat. Julian Casablancas) throughout. But the night will forever be known for the surprise appearance of Chris Cornell for a Temple Of The Dog reunion. As a crowd member on this night, Randy will have a lot to say, probably a lot more than you’d expect him to. But he had been dying to do a podcast on this for just about a decade, cut him some slack. It’s like one of the old school episodes of LO4L, so strap on in and prepare yourself for a long one!

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Episode 108: San Jose, Costa Rica – 11/20/2011

In this episode we’ll focus on the one and only time the band took a trip down to Central America as Ed and Boom were able to catch some waves down in Costa Rica. If your expectations for this show are as high as any show in Argentina, Brazil or Chile, do yourself a favor and lower them immediately. You cannot go into this show thinking that the crowd is going to be red hot for everything. They had their moments where they came through and sounded pretty good on the boot, but this should not be lumped into the same category as shows from those other nations. With that being said, this show coming towards the end of the 2011 run which was still promoting an album that many people deemed unspectacular doesn’t raise a lot of eyeballs. Some nice moments such as a Vs. opener combo of Go into Animal, a great Daughter/Why Go transition that was completely dictated by the crowd and a nice little surprise Oceans in the encore are enough to raise eyebrows, but some strange setlist decisions and way too much from Ten doesn’t set this show enough apart from others. We’ll dissect what worked and what didn’t and we’ll also mention a mini riot that occurred near the beginning of the show.

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Episode 12: Mexico City, MEX – 11/24/2011

Featured in the episode is the only Pearl Jam show ever performed on Thanksgiving Day that took place in Mexico City. There’s a lot of debate and discussion about set list construction and what worked and also what did not sit well with Matt and Randy from this night. They also take a look at two modern day uncommon tracks in Of The Earth and Ole and the different reactions that fans have to each of those songs.

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