Welp. We ended the last episode with a plea to get Sad to be played in Toronto after being scratched off the first two shows. However, I guess the band has better plans for my birthday present on Thursday, because Sad finally made the set tonight. It was an excellent performance, but yeah the first ten minutes of this episode is basically addressing that situation. But after I get all of my personal gripes out of the way, I have nothing but glowing things to say about this show and I’ll go out of my way to call it a top 5 show so far this year. The top 5 as far as the setlist goes was dynamite. Yellow Moon and Man Of The Hour were excellent, and Oceans was a good indication that the rules were kind of out the window on this night. We get to talk about the impressive set, a concern for Stone and any and all plans for a birthday celebration in Toronto! Hope to see you there!
Episodes Covering Pearl Jam Concerts in 2022
Show number 2 in Canada here, and now we have a good idea of what we might be expecting this month. This was a really good show in Ottawa on a Saturday night, we got to see the top 5 in the same fashion as Quebec and then we got a mix of the expected hits and a few nice additions. We have a lot to talk about, mainly the set still being an early tour set and we’re still kind of waiting for a breakout (Toronto!) but still great to hear songs like Garden and Throw Your Hatred Down. I’ll also make a plea for you all to help me get something played for my birthday in Toronto! …please? And also, what the hell is this band doing with Corduroy that makes very little sense? Enjoy the show!
Here we go! The third and final leg of the 2022 tour year is under way, and we got a nice kick off in Quebec City last night. As we saw at the end of Amsterdam, the band went back to that five-song sit down open, with five songs that I don’t think anyone would have expected to be in that part of the set. Daughter was opened with for only the fourth time in history, and speaking of four, we heard the fourth performance of extremely rare Lost Dog, Other Side. We’ll talk about those cool moments, Ed’s voice, some of the changes in the encore, a great Off He Goes, some dedications and something completely irrelevant to anything that happened in the set. Strap in, the first of 12 is in the books!
We’re now approaching act three of Pearl Jam’s slate of shows for the 2022 tour. There has been discussion about all that has happened – the great performances, the surprises and the unfortunate cancelations, but in this episode, we get the privilege to speak with Variety and SPIN contributor, as well as the author of PJ20, Jonathan Cohen. Cohen has had his eye on the band throughout the year giving him a unique perspective on the band’s approach. We speak to him about the ins and outs of it all, as well as get a little information on what to possibly expect in September, as well as a little bit of info on how Pearl Jam has been proceeding with the new album they’ve been working in studio on. Great insight as always, lots to sink your teeth into!
The last week has been filled with disappointment for Pearl Jam fans. One canceled show after another, it was tough to wake up in the morning or arrive to the arena and hear the news that Pearl Jam would not be playing. After Vienna, Prague and the first night of Amsterdam, they had one more shot to make this work. Luckily enough, Ed’s voice had been given the green light and the show proceeded as scheduled. Although it was promised from the beginning that this would be a very different show than anything they’d ever done, they came and delivered on their promise. An electric sit-down set to start, a few requests and rare songs and then the big guns that Ed had to adjust his voice a little bit to pull off made this night as close to an instant classic as there is on this tour. And everyone got a chance to sing! Lot’s to cover, last one until we come back in September! Enjoy! (Edit note: I may have said Mike McCready didn’t get a lot of moments and I clearly failed to give a nod to Nothing As It Seems. Rare L I suppose)
Nobody ever wanted this. Especially twice during the touring year. But here we are. We were so close to the finish line, only four more dates left before closing the chapter on this European run, and as we saw in California, the van broke down on the way to the arena. They actually let people in the building this time before an announcement was made. It’s heartbreaking, but furthermore, you now have to put into consideration that this is part of the deal moving forward. We know that they aren’t getting older. Bodies wear down after a tour like this, and it makes it all the more difficult that families couldn’t attend this time around.
This reaction is an honest discussion of what the future may look like for Pearl Jam. How can they prepare a tour moving forward that isn’t going to cause them to cancel mid-way through? What options could they consider to make it work? Who will be effected in the long haul? We’ll also talk a little about the fan reaction and how YOU should prepare for shows and traveling moving forward. It’s not a happy one, but it had to happen. Hope to see some good news for Prague.
The European tour is winding down to it’s final week and there’s only four shows left! This stop took them to the capital of France, the city of lights and one of the most romantic cities on this planet – Paris! A Lollapalooza show with an eclectic line-up led to a crowd that may have seemed like a mix bag in comparison to normal Pearl Jam shows or even other festivals. Did you know that Instagram models were there for good vibes and photo ops?!? Anyway, just like most shows on this tour, we have a decent mixture of the routine songs that are mixed in every night or every other, but then we have a couple of unexpected surprises. Satan’s Bed makes a really rare appearance here, and after Rearviewmirror’s inexplicable absence, Go would be the next one that you’d think absolutely needed to be played. We’ll check in with all of that, and maybe a little on climate change.
Ahh finally! The conversation since London had once again turned into a ‘where’s Rearviewmirror’ conversation. We shared numbers, we shared milk carton memes and you guys responded sharing the same position. Now we finally got it again. It feels like a breath of fresh air that an old friend came back to visit. The set up and anticipation for it with Porch at the number 2 spot and then waiting during the killer main set to see if the band heard our voices, when it happened, it was cathartic. I’m not sure if the band and team pays attention to us, but enough voices put it out there and it feels like we sent a message that was received. Good on you! This show isn’t all about RVM, we’re gonna dig into the five Gigaton songs that were played and how what’s happening in Ukraine impacted a lot of the themes of this show, culminating in a massive performance of River Cross. And Hard To Imagine! Hard to imagine that! This is a big one, enjoy it folks!
After the big memorable weekend in London, Budapest was the next on the bus schedule. It’s unfamiliar territory as Pearl Jam hasn’t played there since 1996. But just like we saw in the last time Pearl Jam played in a city where they haven’t returned to in a while, they get all of the songs they’ve missed in that large span of time! Wash opener! Brain of J (grrr)! TWO from Riot Act! and of course… the return of SLOW LUKIN! Lots of conversations to have here, even if the video was sparse. We’ll also return to the never ending conversation of where’s Rearviewmirror? Helping us with a little RVM guitar tutorial is Branden Palomo from the Better Band Podcast! Also, another PJ pod host joins us as Chris Warne from Ventricles Pumping shares his experience and favorite moments from this show!
Prior to this tour overseas, the shows that everyone had marked on their calendar as being the ones to look out for were both nights in Hyde Park. We got them this weekend, and boy did they deliver! This reaction episode zeroes in on both nights as we tackle all of the big moments from Better Man being a surprise opener, to some of the songs we may have thought were out of rotation such as Breath, Rats and Leash, and then a powerful dedication out of Light Years and an extremely impassioned speech on gun violence prior to Throw Your Hatred Down. What show was the better of the two? Help us decide because it’s nearly impossible to choose! Also, we’re gonna talk about merch in this one for the first time in these reaction shows!
A two for one special as this episode will include recaps of both the Stockholm and Copenhagen shows. These shows have a deep range of emotions, reacting to what’s going on in our world from continued gun violence to America losing abortion rights, as well as returning back to the country where the most challenging tragedy of their lives took place. We’ll get heavily into those topics, but also some discussion about people’s observations of the setlists up to this point. And songs, songs are included in these conversations because if they weren’t, we’d have absolutely nothing to go off of. Enjoy!
We’d all circled this one when the tour was announced…June 30th. How would the band acknowledge what happened 22 years ago at Roskilde? They took the stage late in the evening and opened with back-to-back covers for the first time in nearly 30 years. John is joined by Dave JanTausch from livefootsteps.org to break down everything that happened at Rock Werchter 2022. We’ll talk about the politics of playing Whipping and Daughter, Ed’s speech before Long Road and the moment of silence that preceded it, and continue to put up missing notices for some Gigaton songs that seem to have disappeared. Plenty of stat talk for you stat nerds out there as well. Enjoy, and onward to Stockholm!
Well that’s more like it! We’ve been doing these reaction episodes for the last week hoping that we would get some type of differentiation in setlists on this run. Memorable and surprising moments. In Frankfurt last night, all of our patience was rewarded! The opening song set the tone for the night, a massive surprise in Inside Job that hadn’t been opened with since touring for the self-titled record in 2006. We’ll talk about all of the build up that the moment had and how it opened up the gate for other songs that had yet to be played this year such as Last Exit, Fatal and In My Tree. We’ll take a deep dive on some of the rarities in this one and discuss their impact on the set. We’ll also chat about a relevant line in Corduroy, Mike McCready’s spotlight, Josh Klinghoffer soloing and the backend of Gigaton getting representation. Especially River Cross which finally escaped the cut (thank you organ wranglers for your service). It’s the first massive show of this tour, you won’t want to miss this discussion!
We’re starting to get used to this show thing happening every other day again, yeah? The fourth show of the European leg transpired in Imola, Italy, home of the Formula 1 racing event Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The show was off to the races from the start. A lot of topics to be discussed from the appreciation of no covers happening in this set, Even Flow’s consistent placement outside of the “Even Flow spot”, the first appearances of songs from Avocado and Riot Act in 2022 and Mike McCready’s psychopathic performance of Black. We’ll also spend time discussing the current state of America and the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Ed, never shy about his opinion on pro-choice, brought the topic into the set and made it one of the themes for the night. The two things that stood out from him expressing frustration were his aggression during the ‘sitting bullshit’ verse, and the W.M.A. tag off of Daughter. Challenging, but important topics needed to be brought up as our country spins into turmoil.
No John for this one, so Randy is joined by Hallucinogenic Recipe co-host Patrick Boegel! Enjoy the ramblings!
We’re back to react! The tour moves ahead to day number 3 as they plant their non-carbon footprint on Zurich, Switzerland. Follow up on a Berlin show that had it’s moments, but certainly some causes for concern, the band came back with 20 songs here and a little bit more of a blend of deeper fan favorites in their catalog. Animal, Present Tense, In Hiding and Smile all represented a nice change, and the deeper Vs. cuts in the Daughter tag were a nice surprise. But there are still discussions to be has. There’s still a lack of Gigaton, there’s still an entire chunk of 2000s records that haven’t been represented, and while some fans may be getting antsy, we try to figure out a reason why this may be the case. We’ll also spend a little time discussing the fan situation that happened during Animal, the opener streak being broken, a handful of songs getting cut for the set, and the tremendously large amount of Ten songs mixed in. Enjoy this, because we do!
We’re now two shows down on this European leg! Yesterday we saw the band take the stage on the longest day of the year in one of the most beautiful venues in existence – Wahlbuhne in Berlin. There is a good amount to talk about here – the opener streak extending to 15, crowd surfers, medleys, aging voices, four Gigaton songs played but is there enough variety? Seeing as though 2-hour 23 song sets are going to be what to expect, we try and make some sense of what later sets could end up looking like. Also, a big win for fan campaigns as Roland, a fan stricken with ALS, got a standing ovation ahead of Porch. It’s all right here! Leave your questions, comments, rebuttals down in the comment section below!
Aaaaand we’re back! It was only a month, but there were so many questions that were left unanswered after they left California. We’ll never know what would’ve happened in Sacramento and Vegas, so our attention drifts over to Europe to focus on the second leg of the 2022 touring circuit. They head back to one of their old stomping grounds, the festival made home to one of the most popular Pearl Jam shows of all time – Pinkpop. It had been 30 years since Ed jumped off the camera rig, and right off the bat there is an homage to that night, opening up with the Even Flow/Why Go combo. We’ll get to talk more about Gigaton, a crazy 14-show streak, a song that hadn’t been played in 737 shows and the return of Matt and Jeff. We’re back, enjoy it folks!
You never want to see it happen, but in the world we live in now the scenarios make it increasingly more likely to happen. Was it inevitable in Oakland when Matt Cameron was not seen donning the black Yamaha drum kit? The possibility sure could have been discussed, but what were supposed to be the final two dates on this 9-show run never came to fruition. It’s sad and disappointing whenever the band is forced to cancel everything, but even after 2020 where the worst should be anticipated, it stings. However, there are bright spots in the cloud of darkness with drops of lemonade falling from the sky. We’ll talk about the cancellation and what could possibly happen when they approach Europe in less than a month, and we’ll also talk about Randy’s weekend and turning a negative into a positive (positive!). Enjoy the last Tour Reax episode of the west coast leg!
John and guest co-host Joey Goodsir break down all the Krusen-tastic action from last night’s show in Fresno. Purple Rain! The Deep backstory! Also, when do we think Matt Cameron will be back behind the kit? Enjoy this and look out next week for a super-sized Sacramento/Vegas reaction with all of Randy’s firsthand stories!
The band was in a tough spot in Oakland after finding out that their Lamborghini, machine gun drummer Matt Cameron tested positive for Covid-19. They had some friends help them out such as Josh Klinghoffer and Richard Stuverud, but the big moment of the night came when Ed asked a simple question: “is there anybody out there who can play drums?” We get to speak with fan fill-in drummer Josh Arroyo about his entire experience living out a dream that would send any Pearl Jam fan to heaven. Josh’s story to get to that moment is nothing sort of amazing. From his father taking him to the Oakland Arena for the first time to see Rush on the Moving Pictures tour, the story comes full circle when he steps into the building with his 12-year old daughter to see her first Pearl Jam show. But that wasn’t the only special thing to happen that night. From his fandom way back to the Cow Palace in San Francisco all the way up to where he’s at today, less than a week from playing and he’s one of the most admired and celebrated fans around. Get to hear the amazing story and more in this special episode!