2024

After six years, Pearl Jam has returned to Boston to put on another excellent show inside of Fenway Park. It was a night for dedications and stories as well as a celebration of being in one of baseball’s great cathedrals. It’s a little bittersweet for myself because this is where my road unfortunately ends for this year, but to have it end on such a high note is what I’ll take away from it. From spending the Glen Hansard set in the seats to finding my way down to GA for the set, it was a perfect way to go out celebrating with three of my oldest Pearl Jam friends.

This episode was originally recorded with about 12-15 of us speaking in a circle for about 40 minutes, but unfortunately we lost connection after about 8 minutes and the recording didn’t save beyond that. So you may have missed some amazing Ted Nugent impressions (we’ll make sure you get them on Tuesday), but you won’t miss yet ANOTHER Trumper trying to interrupt our conversation. How does this keep happening? To make up for the loss of audio, I went down to my hotel bar and interviewed some people who attended the show. Lots of great things to chat about including milking blood from a cow, an excellent story about Chris Cornell before In My Tree, a story about Tim Wakefield and the amazing one-two punch of Footsteps and Release to kick off our night!

After four years of waiting, Baltimore finally got their show. And to show their appreciation, the band put on a performance that the local Maryland crowd will be talking about for years. Firstly, a plea has finally been heard. One of the songs that Stone stated that he’d like to play on this tour happened to be Can’t Keep. After 10 years, the band finally decided to bring this back into the fold in order to make Stone, and the rest of the crowd, happy. To go a little deeper into this, although it had been a shade over 10 years since it’s been played, it had been 14 years since it was a show opener! Not just that, but this setlist has some fairly cool moments such as a rare appearance of Tremor Christ played for Dr. Amber, and the completely out of left field performance of Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold”. There is a story to that: to get the full details, listen to the weekly episode on Baltimore 2013!

We get to talk to some of the usual suspects, such as Aaron Redmond and Mike Cribier, and many more who joined the crew in Baltimore!

The first night in Philadelphia on Saturday had everybody talking. It was a red hot crowd that was treated to some of the best songs the catalog has to offer. So to put an expectation on this show exceeding what night 1 brought is probably unfair to do, but it was still a fine show regardless.

We’ll talk about a few key moments here that made this show stand out such as the impromptu Rats decision. After Ed brought up the Spectrum having no working bathrooms and rats crawling around the floors, a group of fans were seen holding up a sign for Rats on the side stage. With democracy put to good use, decision was made and left Sonic Reducer on the cutting room floor. There was also a very cool moment with Alone where they were talking about the one and only JC Dobbs show from 1991. They showed a poster and a piece of the wall that the band had signed at Dobbs that a local music store owner had kept after the club closed down.

Those topics, and we’ll talk a little about what didn’t get played as Insignificance was crossed off the setlist in favor of Once. Total bummer! I’m joined by Patrick Boegel, Jason Weiss, and Mike Cribier from out in front of the arena to wave farewell to Philadelphia.

There is absolutely nothing to say about this show. Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing to see here….

OK, maybe I lied a little. I didn’t think that we’d be able to see a better show than MSG on Wednesday, but here we are. Philadelphia. Wow. So anybody who’s been listening to this pod for a while understands my background with this band, and the song that people probably attribute the most to me is Brain Of J. It had been not only my white whale, but the most significant song that molded me into a Pearl Jam fan. And tonight, a mere few hours before my 38th birthday, it happened!

I’ll go back and share the full story of what this song means to me, and how I got by with a little help from my friends. But it wasn’t just that! The whole setlist was fantastic! A big time Yield show with 5 songs from the record, Long Road opener, Singles songs galore with Chloe/Crown, Breath and a MONSTER version of State Of Love And Trust. A massive Philly crowd brought their a-game and made this show an instant classic, perhaps the best of 2024 thus far.

Once again, Madison Square Garden did NOT disappoint! While night 1 had great moments and a set with some nice surprises, night 2 felt like one of the most cohesive shows that we’ve had on tour so far. The band was locked in and the crowd was alive. A tour leading 27 songs and an encore with a whopping 10 songs featured! Special guests and shout outs, Stevie Van Zant on a Pearl Jam stage, Howard Stern getting a glorified version of a song I don’t like (his interpretation of Ed’s “glorified version of I hate this song” from SD 1995), powerful political statements. Everything was here that makes Pearl Jam one of the greatest live acts in the world right now.

Highlight moments? The prediction of using Garden as the opener came true here and it was off the rails! Hail, Hail was an excellent moment. Dark Matter may have hit that turning point that we’ve been waiting for on this tour. Won’t Tell was a welcome addition. Andrew Watt made his presence felt on Stevie and RVM. I Am A Patriot for the first time in six years! Gimme Some Truth, Sonic Reducer, and maybe the best moment of the night – Leash!

I finally get to hold the microphone in this one to chat with so many of our friends, new and old. Enjoy the listen!

Ahh, the mecca of entertainment! For the 12th time in their history, Pearl Jam played to a sold out New York City crowd at the world’s most famous arena. Special things have happened inside of that building from the stage shaking to major special guest moments and rarities galore. Tonight’s show had a fun setlist with a solid variety mixing in both brand new stuff with mid-2000s material and of course, the classics. Better Man at #2 mirrored the Porch moment we had in Wrigley, songs like Satan’s Bed and Out Of My Mind came out of no where, Love Boat Captain, Black and Inside Job were big moments and we FINALLY got to see Indifference this year!

We’ll discuss a few topics along with those mentioned above such as how the crowd varied depending on which section you sat in, an impassioned dedication to an autistic teenager named Adam before getting into Given To Fly, and why the numbers that the band used to prove that night 2 is their 50th show is completely incorrect, but who cares we may get an amazing show out of it! We’ll speak to friends on site – Patrick, Mike, Jason and Richard who will share their favorite moments and experiences.

Can’t wait to be in the building tomorrow!

You wanted a big time stadium show? The band answered the call. We were coming off a very good show at the friendly confines on Thursday, but we knew that very good had the ability to be topped. Within the first two songs of the night, it was. Garden opened this show tonight, only the second time they’d ever made that attempt. So a big surprise to kick it off. But then to follow up by going into PORCH?!?! This setlist was written by a mad man!

We’ll get into all the highlights of the show including a live debut teaming up with Glen Hansard for Falling Slowly, Better Man’s Save It For Later tag with a nudge to The Bear, the Yellow Wing combo and stories galore. We’re joined by some of my favorite people – Javier, Aaron, Dakota, Mike, Bradley, Jason, Amber, Dani and more! See you at the Garden!

Pearl Jam has returned to the hallowed grounds of Wrigley Field for the first time in six years! The stakes are always raised whenever Ed steps foot in his hometown stadium, and this show was no exception. Opening with Release is always a no brainer in Chicago, but mixing it up within the first five songs and then taking a unique approach to the Dark Matter section by replacing React/Respond with Waiting For Stevie made a nice surprise. A few Lost Dogs to talk about, Down and U, and a special guest that Ed plucked from the front row to help him sing Won’t Tell.

A big ballpark show will bring out the cavalcade of stars and some familiar voices such as Mr. Gear Guru Javier himself, Aaron Redmond, Bradley Piasecki, Dakota Duvall, Lori Jernberg and more will share their stories of their favorite parts of the show!

We’re officially back up! After a European tour to forget, tonight began a fresh start in the home state of Jeff Ament, Montana! As many of the previous Missoula shows we’ve seen, this was used as a platform for Montanans to go out and vote for incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester, but the platform also belonged to the music, the crowd and the atmosphere. Jeff got very emotional speaking to his people and talking about his family, and we’ll dig into that aspect of the show in the episode.

A big part of this show came in the middle of the main set where Ed dedicated Hard To Imagine to two people who made the show coming from the hospital. One of the dedications happens to be something I was involved in making happen, so it meant a lot to see it take place. We’ll talk about that, Won’t Tell, Lukas Nelson and Glen Hansard and much more!

Joining us via recording in this episode is Amy Wynn and Mar Vigil! They had so much to say about being there and experiencing the show that we were able to get 37 minutes worth of conversation that happens at the end of the episode!

We’re officially back up! After a European tour to forget, tonight began a fresh start in the home state of Jeff Ament, Montana! As many of the previous Missoula shows we’ve seen, this was used as a platform for Montanans to go out and vote for incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester, but the platform also belonged to the music, the crowd and the atmosphere. Jeff got very emotional speaking to his people and talking about his family, and we’ll dig into that aspect of the show in the episode.

A big part of this show came in the middle of the main set where Ed dedicated Hard To Imagine to two people who made the show coming from the hospital. One of the dedications happens to be something I was involved in making happen, so it meant a lot to see it take place. We’ll talk about that, Won’t Tell, Lukas Nelson and Glen Hansard and much more!

Joining us via recording in this episode is Amy Wynn and Mar Vigil! They had so much to say about being there and experiencing the show that we were able to get 37 minutes worth of conversation that happens at the end of the episode!

It’s been a very bumpy ride, but we’ve finally made it to the end of this European tour. We closed it out in Lisbon, Portugal’s NOS Alive Festival, the same festival in which we covered an episode for this past week. And guess what? They didn’t do the same set as Madrid! In fact, we got a tour debut in this one! I can’t believe it took them 16 shows to play Animal, but we can now breathe a sigh of relief! Almost got Indifference to make it’s touring debut as well, but just missed out.

We have some things to talk about here, including a new spot in the set for Dark Matter that I have been begging for months, and yes… we got Imagine here in Portugal again and there’s no lack of conversation for that stemming off of this past week’s episode. Once again, a big big thank you to everyone who contributed their reactions to this show – Aline Barbosa, Brian Anderson, Nuno Vale and Angel Gallo!

One note to bring up that wasn’t shared in the episode, the President of Portugal was in attendance at this show and stood within the crowd instead of the VIP section. A report from site said that he was informed of the attempted assassination towards the end of the show.

After two big Barcelona shows, the band stuck around in Spain and took on their first of two European festival shows at the Mad Cool Festival. The setlist on paper probably won’t impress the fan that’s digested their entire catalog, but there is something to be said for the the energy that a festival crowd of around 50k+ can rally around. The setlist will be a hot topic of conversation here due to its resemblance to the set that took place at Bottlerock two months ago, but we’ll find the moments to pick out that people will remember, such as Mike and Jeff switching instruments on Rockin’ In The Free World.

We will also address the recent news surrounding Josh Klinghoffer, who continues to play with the band amidst the ongoing lawsuit. But most importantly we get to hear from some great fans who got to witness everything go down. You’ll hear from Alina Barbosa, Brian Anderson, Rosemary Kearny and Martin Bax talk about the atmosphere and their favorite moments!

Riding off the energy and momentum from their return on Saturday, Pearl Jam took the stage Monday keeping those positive vibes going. It’s a great follow up setlist with plenty of great moments to digest. This includes Oceans opening the show, and we’ll get into why that’s such an important moment for Barcelona. How about more No Code songs? Both Off He Goes and Smile played here. Want to go real deep? 1/2 Full gives us some Riot Act representation. We’ll also talk about how fired up the crowd was during Even Flow that caused Ed to pull out a sporadic improv. And how about inviting a fan up on stage to play Yellow Ledbetter? He needs to join the Javier and Josh Arroyo supergroup!

Once again, we’ll hear from many of our friends out on the road who witnessed this set. Big thanks to Eric Stevenson Gonzales, Brad Arundale, Luke Dalley, Josh and Yonat Goldberg, Sehr Rahim Pirzada and Jeff Zieba! See you on Thursday for the Mad Cool Festival in Madrid!

After 11 days of illness and uncertainty since performing in Manchester, Pearl Jam powered back to prove their resilience for a great show in Barcelona. It was a show that had a great mix of the lovable hits, the new Dark Matter songs, the deep cut favorites and the band’s energy radiating throughout a passionate crowd in Spain.

It felt like Ed came back as healthy as he could and basked in the support of this crowd knowing what he had gone through. Under the Wasted Reprise intro, Ed gets emotional about his time dealing with illness that we’ll touch up on in great detail here. We’ll also hear from our good friends kind enough to send us their thoughts after attending the show. We’ll hear from Eric Stevenson Gonzales, Lori Jernberg and friends, Brad Arundale, Lisa O’Connor and Carrie Klingman and Sonia Weber. See you back for night 2 on Monday!

Welp, it wouldn’t be a European tour without some bumps in the road. We all know the recent history. In 2018, Ed has to go on vocal rest after night one of what was originally slated to be a two night stay. They postpone night two and had to make it up at the end of the tour. Two years ago in Paris, Ed states that the smoke from the wildfires is affecting his vocal chords. This led to the band having to cancel three shows in Europe, and for setlists to be restructured for him to save his voice.

It looks like we’re on that road again as Ed showed up to tonight’s show in Manchester far from being in top shape. We had reported that he was getting winded during songs in Dublin, but it seemed to have escalated last night. Regardless, the band came out to play the fan favorites on this night – Of The Girl, Present Tense, Immortality, I Got Shit, Inside Job, State Of Love And Trust and Fuckin’ Up were all included on the set. We invite back John Cooney who interviews friends out on site after the show. We’ll also hear from Alex Hoggard, Brad Arundale, Rob Darcy and Aurelien Moureaux talk about what they witnessed from their points of view.

Leg 2 is officially underway! For the first time in 14 years, Pearl Jam has returned to Dublin, Ireland where they’ve been sorely missed for over a decade. Looking at the setlist won’t tell the entire story of this show as we’ll get to hear about some of the emotional moments brought to the table here, as well as energy and excitement. We’ll hear from John Cooney out of site interviewing a bus load of people from the Pearl Jam Ireland group, and we’ll also hear fans Lisa O’Connor and Steve Skikas weigh in as well for a show that we here on the outside had no livestream to pay attention to, so it’s great to have all of these voices relay the story!

The west coast leg of the Dark Matter tour has been completed, and we went out with a bang! The hometown crowd experienced something special tonight with all eyes on the band thanks to a streaming performance on Sirius. And they came out HOT! Black as an opener for the first time since CBGB’s in 1991! Immortality early on. Come Back, Pilate and In My Tree holding down the fort. HURT?!?!? Yeah. Kitchen sink kind of shit.

Coming into this show we were presented with some news that will change the landscape of this country, if not this world. Knowing the band and what they stand for, they were not going to leave home without addressing it, and boy did they ever. Ed makes an impassioned speech about unity and ending division without mentioning anyone by name, and the message received is that we are all humans who have the same basic needs, and we need to recognize that and get back to standing up for one another instead of standing up for politicians. Love Boat Captain was the message sent this night, because all you need is love.

The entire crew is back to express their thoughts and share their happiness after a wonderful week in Seattle.

Live directly from the Climate Pledge Arena in the very city that birthed a little band called Mookie Blaylock, the Live On 4 Legs community got together to talk about what was an amazing first night of a hometown stay! So many surprises happened on this night and everything impressed the masses. For starters, seemingly hands down the most emotional moment of the night came within a tribute to Bill Walton that followed with a heartbreaking performance of Man Of The Hour. If that was it, that would be a pretty solid show. Buttttt…

What else is there to say? Thin Air, I Am Mine tour debut, an absolutely mind blowing version of Waiting For Stevie, Satan’s Bed, Rearviewmirror, River Cross, Deep, and then of course the grand finale featuring a version of All Along The Watchtower with Deep Sea Diver and a massive surprise mixing in Little Wing with Ledbetter. This was absolutely to die for.

We’ll speak with our friends including 9-year old Coda Capps who had a TWICE in a lifetime experience this night, our buddy McRib gives us an exciting update on his Felicity’s Surprise sign, we get possibly the greatest combo in this podcast’s history where Javier talks gear with Josh Arroyo, and thoughts and reactions from our friends from all around the world. If there’s anything this night proved, it’s that it would be nearly impossible to top!

Thursday? Can’t wait!