Among so many great moments already mentioned I noticed two small Easter eggs during the performance: 1- the projected photo of the piece of backstage wall saved by the fan who now runs a music school with Pearl Jam graffiti on it also contained a portion of the phrase “Primus Sucks” near the bottom. Awesome 2- Mike threw a very brief tease of Soungardens Superunkown in during the set, second time I’ve heard him do that. Is it too much to ask for a full on cover of it at some point? Perhaps before or after Unthought Known?? Just a thought
Does anyone know which song it was during that Ed leaned backwards into the crowd. I was one of them that held him up. Trying to find a pick or video I can screenshot.
Not sure the appropriate thread to put this in but whatever…was walking a couple blocks from my house in Philly and look who I run into it!! The nicest guy
Nice! And....Jeff rocking a GD shirt!!
Love that Jeff is a head!
"What can you expect when you're on top? You know? It's like Napoleon. When he was the king, you know, people were just constantly trying to conquer him, you know, in the Roman Empire. So, it's history repeating itself all over again."
I met Mike in Philly the day of Night Two. After eating lunch my wife and I went for a stroll in the park and ran into McCready. Had to do a double to take to make sure I wasn't seeing things. He was the nicest guy ever. I simply wanted to say "have a nice show" but he called us closer, took pictures and gave us picks (which I immediately used when we got back to the hotel room- yes I travelled with my guitar lol). He definitely recognized us during the show (we were 8th row to the side) and gave us a nod too which was cool.
I met Mike in Philly the day of Night Two. After eating lunch my wife and I went for a stroll in the park and ran into McCready. Had to do a double to take to make sure I wasn't seeing things. He was the nicest guy ever. I simply wanted to say "have a nice show" but he called us closer, took pictures and gave us picks (which I immediately used when we got back to the hotel room- yes I travelled with my guitar lol). He definitely recognized us during the show (we were 8th row to the side) and gave us a nod too which was cool.
I haven’t seen the written setlist, but I’m pretty sure Setting Sun was lost to Rats. I really like Setting Sun and like in the new closing spots, hate to have missed it. However, Rats was a very cool moment and an obvious highlight
They crossed off Sonic Reducer. I did miss Setting Sun. Sad that Rockin' came back in its place.
No one is clamoring for ritfw at this point, or another Porch set closer for that matter
Lots of weird takes on here. Wasn't at Philly n1, but it is almost impossible to have expected Monday night that I was at to equal that. The setlist was fine and there were some nice nuggets. You go to too many shows if you found that show to be bad.
I haven’t seen the written setlist, but I’m pretty sure Setting Sun was lost to Rats. I really like Setting Sun and like in the new closing spots, hate to have missed it. However, Rats was a very cool moment and an obvious highlight
They crossed off Sonic Reducer. I did miss Setting Sun. Sad that Rockin' came back in its place.
No one is clamoring for ritfw at this point, or another Porch set closer for that matter
RITFW is consistently one of the better moments of the show and especially for crowd reactions. Boggles my mind people want them to completely stop playing it which they will not do. Go to any show and people are jumping up and down at the end of it with the band as part of a jovial closure. I’m as much of a PJ die hard as anybody and generally don’t like the covers as much but have no issue with RITFW or Baba. Always a great song with the crowd
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
Does anyone know which song it was during that Ed leaned backwards into the crowd. I was one of them that held him up. Trying to find a pick or video I can screenshot.
I got your message and tried to respond but you are set to private. I have a photo. If you give me your text I will send it to you.
Does anyone know which song it was during that Ed leaned backwards into the crowd. I was one of them that held him up. Trying to find a pick or video I can screenshot.
I got your message and tried to respond but you are set to private. I have a photo. If you give me your text I will send it to you.
Thank you. I sent you a message with my info.
1998: Pitt
2000: Pitt
2003: Pitt, State College, Columbus,DC, Hershey
2004: Reading, Toledo, DC
2005: Pitt
2006: Cleve, Camden 1+2, DC, Pitt, Cinci
2008: Camden 1+2, DC
2009: Philly 3
2010: Columbus
2012: Philly
2013: Pitt, NYC 1+2
I haven’t seen the written setlist, but I’m pretty sure Setting Sun was lost to Rats. I really like Setting Sun and like in the new closing spots, hate to have missed it. However, Rats was a very cool moment and an obvious highlight
They crossed off Sonic Reducer. I did miss Setting Sun. Sad that Rockin' came back in its place.
No one is clamoring for ritfw at this point, or another Porch set closer for that matter
I haven’t seen the written setlist, but I’m pretty sure Setting Sun was lost to Rats. I really like Setting Sun and like in the new closing spots, hate to have missed it. However, Rats was a very cool moment and an obvious highlight
They crossed off Sonic Reducer. I did miss Setting Sun. Sad that Rockin' came back in its place.
No one is clamoring for ritfw at this point, or another Porch set closer for that matter
I was fortunate enough to make it to three shows this 2024 tour – my first three show run since possibly as far back as 2008. I downloaded the Pearl Jam Stat Tracker at the start of the tour, and tragically I cannot reproduce my entire history. Those 2009-2013 shows run together, and I did not save every stub or get a poster at every show. So, while the app tells me these are shows twenty-four to twenty-six, it feels like it should be closer to thirty.
I saw <b>MSG Night 1, Philly Night 2, and Baltimore</b>. All three were fan club tickets. Crappy upper deck Stone side seats for MSG and Philly. Great Stone side floor seats for Baltimore. But honestly the seats do not matter. At this point in my life, I am simply happy to be in the building and be there for the music. To take communion with the band.
My original plan was to review each show separately, but honestly, they all kind of blurred together in the best way possible. The band was on fire every night. The crowds were electric. You could not only feel the energy – the reciprocity was tangible. Pearl Jam was simultaneously five guys (or six or seven if you want to count Boom and Josh) and the 15,000 people in the arena. They have been at this for thirty years, but they still come out every night and play with the emotional intensity of a band grateful for the opportunity. The chemistry is otherworldly. The responsiveness supernatural. This was probably the best block of shows I have been to since my 03 run of Uniondale and MSG nights 1 and 2. It was the sound of a band that refuses to leave its prime – and wherever there may have been a loss in power it was easily offset by craft and connectivity – with the band knowing how to generate communal intimacy, and a fan base who understands that they are not just there to listen. They are there to participate. As long as they provide fuel the music will keep burning.
I occasionally read fan reviews on Facebook and elsewhere, and it seems like the self-entitled fan reviews get the most attention. The ones written by someone who goes to their shows with a spreadsheet and judges their success by the boxes they can tick off. Fandom as curation. But I can say, definitively, that the crowds in the building emphatically disagreed with your disappointment. I have my favorite albums. I have my favorite live songs. I have my own wish list. But what was made abundantly clear is that, in the moment, the song I want to hear the most is whatever they are playing. I do not necessarily feel that way watching set lists unfold at home or listening to a bootleg of a show I wasn’t at. But when I am there, I don’t want to think. I want to feel. And after thirty years at this, the band knows the science of the heart, and how to calibrate a setlist to create a deep and visceral emotional response of everyone in attendance. And trying to draw distinctions between the shows feels arbitrary, or academic in the most pedantic way possible.
But the variety was there – the delicate balance between the songs that destroy a crowd and the unexpected moment that keeps you on your toes was fully present. The alchemy between what you want and what you need in full effect. Out of the seventy-six songs I got to hear over three nights, fifty-one were unique. 67% of the total setlist. That is an astounding ratio. Only six songs were played across three nights. Only sixteen repeated at all. And every repeated song elicited a huge response from the crowd, and was the only time thousands of people in the room will get to hear it this tour. So for anyone complaining about cookie cutter setlists:
A: Cookies are still delicious.
B: Your math does not add up.
What can I say about the shows themselves? It is easier to capture moments. But the band roared out of the gate every night. It took a few moments to settle into slow burn openers like Of the Girl, Pendulum, and Can’t Keep (a first for me) – these are moody, atmospheric moments that slowly envelop you on their records, or as part of a gradually building openers. But the band was almost too excited to wait for the songs to settle. They were eager to get to work.
But I also do not know that these crowds would have waited. Every song received an explosive reaction, and there were moments that rang of prophecy. MSG exploded singing along to “I cannot stop the thought of running in the dark” during Immortality. The roof blew off of Philly at “I just want to scream ‘hello’” and after a ten-year drought of not hearing Elderly Woman my eyes absolutely welled up. Not just for the emotion of that particular moment, but in awe of the shared vocabulary we have built with each other over decades of fandom – the lyrics a language unto themselves, the arena a campfire for the soul.
Mike was a man possessed all three nights. MSG saw him play half of the Even Flow solo behind his back. I am pretty sure he played it with teeth at Philly. He destroyed a guitar during Black at MSG and spent the end of the song trying to resurrect it – a séance as much as a solo. And during Baltimore Eddie repeated the “I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life…” outro, and no one in the crowd minded getting it twice. He sounded great throughout the run, and was always chatty, playful, poignant, and real. The politics were present, but the continue to be focused more around building inclusive community - inviting people in rather than pushing them out. At this point Pearl Jam's values are of surprise to no one, and I think Eddie recognizes that while he may be able to inspire (or at least remind) someone to participate in our democratic process, this is not an appropriate venue for the long, hard work of changing minds - and that leaving feeling good about your fellow human beings is itself a political act in an era where politics is too often defined by cruelty.
Songs like Love Boat Captain that do not excite me in theory felt elemental in the moment, and the band made something like Inside Job feel like the most important song in the world. In Baltimore they stopped on a dime during Alive to make sure someone in general admission was okay, and picked right back up again with a kind of zero to infinity explosion of energy that, if harnassed, could solve a lot of the world’s problems. Otherwise, the older songs are the older songs. There are some, like Dance of the Clairvoyants (a top ten song in their entire catalog for me) that the band is still trying to figure out how to reproduce – the rare song that is gradually morphing into an entirely different animal live since they cannot reproduce the layered vocals of the outro. There are others, like Jeremy that sound impossibly vibrant for a song that old, a joyful, shared exorcism of our collective demons. At MSG,Eddie shared a story of a young kid surviving bullying and personal tragedy and transformed Given to Fly into an anthem of defiance. Moments like Out of My Mind, Alone, Tremor Christ, and Satan’s Bed feel like being let in on a secret. A run of songs like Present Tense -> Given to Fly -> Corduroy was a reminder of how deeply embedded into my DNA this band’s music is, and how hearing them together feels like both an affirmation and validation of my life. That to be here in this moment, hearing these songs, having the reaction, means I must have done something right. And I was not the only one in Baltimore having that experience. This is real ‘lifetime achievement of your favorite band’ kind of shit – something that defies words and explanations, but no less tangible and real. Eddie has spoken repeatedly about how transformative the live experience of music can be. The feeling of solidarity, of finding your tribe, of not being alone in a world full of isolating structures. How vast and powerful you feel in those moments. That is what they set out to create at a show, and somehow they are as good at it as they ever were.
Perhaps what was most remarkable is how great the Dark Matter songs sounded. I love Backspacer and Lightning Bolt, but those songs did not necessarily translate live the way I wanted them to, or the band gave up on most of them a little too quickly (with a few exceptions like Unthought Known and Mind Your Manners). Gigaton songs sounded really good, but Gigaton never really had a proper tour – the 2022, and 2023 shows felt more interstitial – tours between records, rather than tours celebrating a record. But the Dark Matter songs were vibrant. They felt like they mattered. And they felt timeless, songs that I had been hearing my whole life, songs that felt quintessentially Pearl Jam, and they nestled seamlessly alongside the rest of the catalog. React/Respond may have been the biggest surprise for how hard hitting it was – the sly winking of the studio version replaced by something raw and far more powerful. But Wreckage is a great sing along. Dark Matter pulses exactly the way you want it to – one of the heaviest moments in each set. Upper Hand felt suitably epic. Running is genuinely fun and playful, Scared of Fear sturdy and thoughtful. Waiting for Stevie was the five-minute shot of catharsis I hoped it would be. In fact, my only two complaints about these shows are that I never got to hear Setting Sun, and that Stevie is not in every setlist. I will unapologetically own that entitlement.
I should also add that Glen Hansard is incredible, and at each show I saw a side of him I wasn't familiar with, but need to be. I would love to see him and Eddie have a true full length collaboration together. Flag Day doesn't count.
In the end, I had the total experience I was looking for. Pre-show I got to finally meet so many of the people I interact with on message boards and Discord servers, the people who sustain my fandom in between shows and records. I truly believe Pearl Jam’s music is best experienced as part of a community, and being able to put names to screen names, and infuse internet personas with actual humanity strengthens and sustains those relationships. Every night was exactly the right mixture of surprising and familiar. And every member of the band brought the commitment that made them legends in this space. It turns out that every song, in the moment, is exactly the song I want to hear. That every song speaks to some part of who I am. And hearing them live, singing along with so many other fans, seeing how much these songs still mean to the band, revitalizes those parts of myself.
I am older than I was. Three shows in ten days takes a new toll on my body. The travel is demanding. This is not cheap, and I am grateful I was able to get to what I did. The planning can be a hassle. But for those two and a half hours, this band makes me feel immortal. And the next day the world feels just a little softer, and I fit into it just a little better. The experience has a price, but the feeling is priceless.
After thirty years, Pearl Jam is still the best band in the world. Not because they have something to prove, but because they do not, and insist on proving it anyway. Thank you for three more amazing nights.
p.s. Completely selfish plug and update – for everyone who preordered our book I Am No Guide: Pearl Jam Song by Song it will be released in the UK this month, and the worldwide (including the US) release should follow. We appreciate everyone’s patience. We asked the company to delay the release so we could include Dark Matter, and publishing logistics are more complicated than expected.
As you can probably tell from my prior reviews, I have a tendency to be just a bit long winded 🤣 This time I’m going to try (key word TRY) my best to restrain my instinct to write another novel and keep it a little more succinct.
The bar was set high on night one—by both the band and the crowd. As discussed in my prior review, night one was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen—it’s somewhere within my top 5 or maybe even top 3 out of the 37 shows I’ve seen. I went into night two thinking there was no way they could possibly top night one. And in the end, they didn’t. But in my opinion, they really gave night one a run for its money. While I wouldn’t place night two in the same echelon as night one (which I would consider “special,” “epic,” or whatever verbiage you want to use), I thought it was still great.
Amazingly, through pure happenstance, I ended up in literally in the exact same spot as night one—one person off the bump on Mike’s side of the rail. I can’t speak for the rest of the arena, but the energy up there on the rail was just as good as night one. Once again, everyone up there spent the entire show jumping up and down, screaming all of the lyrics at the top of their lungs, and losing their minds. The back and forth interaction between the band and crowd was just as good as night one. The band brought it, and the crowd brought the energy to match it. It was another intense, in-your-face, surreal experience.
I couldn’t have been happier with the of the girl opener. As I mentioned in my night one review, long road and of the girl are my two favorite openers. So getting to hear them on back to back nights from such a close vantage on the rail was really special for me. This was only the second time I’ve ever heard of the girl in all my years of following the band. Binaural is my favorite PJ album (yes, I know that will likely cause many of you to question my musical tastes, and rightfully so 🤣), and it gets so little play these days that anytime I hear anything from Binaural, I lose my mind. And this was no exception. When I heard the opening notes, I started jumping around, clapping, and dancing my ass off (though I’m not sure if my wild gesticulating counts as dancing). If anyone happened to take any videos of the song in which you can see me dancing, I hope they never see the light of day. Caution—watching me dance may cause blindness ⚠️🕺🤦♀️🤣 I think of the girl is the perfect mid-tempo opener to ease us into the evening before they blow the roof off the place. It had the whole pit bopping and clapping along to the beat, and the energy down there was great. It was an awesome way to start off the show!
I always like when they do corduroy early on in the show since it really gets the crowd going. The pit was hopping and loud, just like the previous night. Everyone was head banging like their lives depended on it during Mind Your Manners (I hope no one in the pit strained a neck muscle lol), and Ed came out onto the edge of the bump during the latter half of the song and sang (actually more like screamed) the ending with the crowd. That hard-rocking energy continued with Scared of Fear and Dark Matter, both of which I think kick ass live!
In My Tree was one of the highlights of the night for me. It’s a top 10 song for me and I had only heard it twice before. I was really hoping they would pull this one out at some point on the East Coast tour, and was super stoked when they did. And this was the best version I have ever heard. I know Josh Klinghoffer is very divisive among PJ fans, but personally I love the contribution he has made to the band and the additional elements he adds to some of the songs. IMO, he has done an excellent job filling in the songs, which has made them sound clearer and fuller. I think In My Tree is one of the songs that showcases Josh’s talents and the contributions he has made to the band the best. I really like the drum fills that Josh adds to the song, and think they complement Matt’s tribal beats really well. To me, the song sounds fuller and better than it ever has before. Seeing the entire crowd as one put their hands high up in the air and wave while belting out, “Wave to all my friends” was a particularly cool and poignant moment. I think that line succinctly and perfectly captures what “the Jamily” is all about—good friends from all over the world getting together to bond over their mutual affection for this incredible group of musicians. It’s a wonderful thing 😀
Even though I’ve heard it many times, I always enjoy it when they tag “Save it for Later” during Better Man. This was a particularly good version with the crowd really into it. Everyone in the pit was jumping and singing along at the top of their lungs, and it was a really cool moment. I also really enjoyed the Norwegian Wood tag at the end of Wishlist, as I’m a huge Beatles fan and that is one of my favorite Beatles songs. Dance of the Clairvoyants was a lot of fun. I know this one is somewhat divisive among PJ fans and is a bit different and more experimental than some of their other stuff, but I’ve always enjoyed it. I’m glad that that one hasn’t completely disappeared from the setlists after the end of the Gigaton tour, and that I got to hear it once this tour. The whole pit was moving and everyone was dancing around (well I was again gesticulating wildly, but we’ll call it dancing lol). It was a blast!
That was followed by one of the best, most intense versions of Once I’ve ever heard. This is another one I’ve heard many times before, but again what separated it from prior versions was the incredible crowd energy. Ed came out onto the bump again at the end and belted out, “Once upon a time I could lose myself” in unison with the raucous crowd. We were all losing our minds together, and it was glorious!
Upper Hand was great. I think that and Setting Sun are the two best live songs off the new album. I loved both of them from the moment I first heard them on the album (and think they are two of the best songs they’ve written in years), but where they really shine is live. I love watching Ed and Mike’s dueling guitars during the extended intro. It has this ethereal, otherworldly feel. It reminds me a lot of the extended intro to Pink Floyd’s Shine on You Crazy Diamond (which is one of my favorite songs of all time). The build up during the second half of the song was amazing, and Mike killed the solo! 🎸🔥
Alone was far and away the highlight of the show for me. It is one of my favorites off of Lost Dogs, and I was stunned when they pulled it out. When Ed was giving his little speech before the song about a song they played a long time ago in a small club in Philly but hadn’t played much since, I had a feeling that the song he was referring to was Alone, so I whispered it to my buddy who was on the rail next to me. It was great watching his face light up when they went into it, and a lot of fist bumps and high fives were exchanged on the rail 😀 This was probably the hardest I rocked out all night, and it felt like the entire rail was head banging as one. It was an awesome moment! I thought it sounded great, and this is definitely one they should pull out more often.
The one-two punch of Jeremy—Porch was a great way to close out the high-energy set. The pit was hopping again during Jeremy, and the chant at the end—with Ed out on the edge of the bump reaching out into the crowd—may have been the loudest moment of the night. The pit kept bopping during a rousing Porch, with Mike absolutely crushing the solo.
I always love when Ed performs Just Breathe solo, and thought it was a great way to start off the encore. I feel like the song is at its best when performed by just Ed alone with his guitar. It was a hauntingly beautiful, very emotional performance. Even though I had heard Ed and Glen perform Song of Good Hope a few nights before at the Garden, I was more than happy to hear it again. It’s a beautiful song, and anytime Ed and Glen perform a duet, I’m a happy guy! Waiting for Stevie was great, with Mike completely shredding the solo. Ed came out onto the bump and poured wine during Crazy Mary, while Mike and Boom traded off solos. It was my buddy’s birthday, and Ed poured him a big cup of wine. He was literally glowing! As I looked to my left and my right up and down the rail, I saw nothing but beaming smiles 😀 That’s what it’s all about!
They got the pit rocking again with an absolutely blistering version of Animal, where it felt like the entire pit was jumping up and down the whole time. And then the place literally went up when they fulfilled the request of the fans holding up signs to play Rats. It thought it was awesome that the band did that! Rats is one of my favorite songs off of Vs. and I hadn’t heard it in a long time, so I was thrilled when they decided to play it. I thought the band crushed it! And the crowd showed its appreciation by singing loud and proud and blowing the roof off the place. It was an awesome moment! And then energetic versions of Alive and RITFW, followed by an emotional farewell by way of the always beautiful Yellow Ledbetter, capped off another great night in Philly.
Well I really did TRY to keep this review a bit shorter. Did I succeed? Not really. But at least I tried 🤣 While I personally preferred the setlist on night one overall, I still thought this was another great setlist with a good mix of hits and deeper cuts played to another high-energy crowd, and was yet another awesome Philly show.
While I was originally planning on also attending the show in Baltimore, unfortunately “life happens” and I had to pull out at the last minute. But I couldn’t think of a better place to end my tour than Philly. The energy in Philly is just electric and without compare. And while I will really miss being on tour and am currently experiencing a severe case of post-tour depression (which happens to me at the end of every single tour without fail 🤣), I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to see 6 amazing shows this year (Vancouver x2, MSG x2, and Philly x2), the most I have ever seen in a year. I got to catch up with old friends, make a ton of new friends, and got to spend countless hours meeting and geeking out about PJ with so many truly incredible and wonderful people from all over the world and all different walks of life in the GA and merch lines, at the Wishlist pre-parties, and at the shows. For me, it’s just as much about the amazing community of people that PJ has cultivated as it is about the music. ❤️ It truly is an “all-encompassing trip,” and there’s nothing quite like it. And if I didn’t get a chance to meet you on this tour, I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you around the bend on the next one. Until then, keep on rocking in the free world! 🎸🤘Since I know a lot of you on here are into “pick porn” 🎸🤣, I got another pick from Mike, which I have included a photo of below:
Comments
1- the projected photo of the piece of backstage wall saved by the fan who now runs a music school with Pearl Jam graffiti on it also contained a portion of the phrase “Primus Sucks” near the bottom. Awesome
2- Mike threw a very brief tease of Soungardens Superunkown in during the set, second time I’ve heard him do that. Is it too much to ask for a full on cover of it at some point? Perhaps before or after Unthought Known?? Just a thought
astoria 06
albany 06
hartford 06
reading 06
barcelona 06
paris 06
wembley 07
dusseldorf 07
nijmegen 07
this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
astoria 06
albany 06
hartford 06
reading 06
barcelona 06
paris 06
wembley 07
dusseldorf 07
nijmegen 07
this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
2000: Pitt
2003: Pitt, State College, Columbus,DC, Hershey
2004: Reading, Toledo, DC
2005: Pitt
2006: Cleve, Camden 1+2, DC, Pitt, Cinci
2008: Camden 1+2, DC
2009: Philly 3
2010: Columbus
2012: Philly
2013: Pitt, NYC 1+2
2010: Newark 5/18 MSG 5/20-21 2011: PJ20 9/3-4 2012: Made In America 9/2
2013: Brooklyn 10/18-19 Philly 10/21-22 Hartford 10/25 2014: ACL10/12
2015: NYC 9/23 2016: Tampa 4/11 Philly 4/28-29 MSG 5/1-2 Fenway 8/5+8/7
2017: RRHoF 4/7 2018: Fenway 9/2+9/4 2021: Sea Hear Now 9/18
2022: MSG 9/11 2024: MSG 9/3-4 Philly 9/7+9/9 Fenway 9/15+9/17
2025: Pittsburgh 5/16+5/18
2000: Pitt
2003: Pitt, State College, Columbus,DC, Hershey
2004: Reading, Toledo, DC
2005: Pitt
2006: Cleve, Camden 1+2, DC, Pitt, Cinci
2008: Camden 1+2, DC
2009: Philly 3
2010: Columbus
2012: Philly
2013: Pitt, NYC 1+2
http://www.hi5sports.org/ (Sports Program for Kids with Disabilities)
http://www.livefootsteps.org/user/?usr=3652
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
2000: Pitt
2003: Pitt, State College, Columbus,DC, Hershey
2004: Reading, Toledo, DC
2005: Pitt
2006: Cleve, Camden 1+2, DC, Pitt, Cinci
2008: Camden 1+2, DC
2009: Philly 3
2010: Columbus
2012: Philly
2013: Pitt, NYC 1+2
2000: Pitt
2003: Pitt, State College, Columbus,DC, Hershey
2004: Reading, Toledo, DC
2005: Pitt
2006: Cleve, Camden 1+2, DC, Pitt, Cinci
2008: Camden 1+2, DC
2009: Philly 3
2010: Columbus
2012: Philly
2013: Pitt, NYC 1+2
review of my run of shows (including philly 2)
I was fortunate enough to make it to three shows this 2024 tour – my first three show run since possibly as far back as 2008. I downloaded the Pearl Jam Stat Tracker at the start of the tour, and tragically I cannot reproduce my entire history. Those 2009-2013 shows run together, and I did not save every stub or get a poster at every show. So, while the app tells me these are shows twenty-four to twenty-six, it feels like it should be closer to thirty.
I saw <b>MSG Night 1, Philly Night 2, and Baltimore</b>. All three were fan club tickets. Crappy upper deck Stone side seats for MSG and Philly. Great Stone side floor seats for Baltimore. But honestly the seats do not matter. At this point in my life, I am simply happy to be in the building and be there for the music. To take communion with the band.
My original plan was to review each show separately, but honestly, they all kind of blurred together in the best way possible. The band was on fire every night. The crowds were electric. You could not only feel the energy – the reciprocity was tangible. Pearl Jam was simultaneously five guys (or six or seven if you want to count Boom and Josh) and the 15,000 people in the arena. They have been at this for thirty years, but they still come out every night and play with the emotional intensity of a band grateful for the opportunity. The chemistry is otherworldly. The responsiveness supernatural. This was probably the best block of shows I have been to since my 03 run of Uniondale and MSG nights 1 and 2. It was the sound of a band that refuses to leave its prime – and wherever there may have been a loss in power it was easily offset by craft and connectivity – with the band knowing how to generate communal intimacy, and a fan base who understands that they are not just there to listen. They are there to participate. As long as they provide fuel the music will keep burning.
I occasionally read fan reviews on Facebook and elsewhere, and it seems like the self-entitled fan reviews get the most attention. The ones written by someone who goes to their shows with a spreadsheet and judges their success by the boxes they can tick off. Fandom as curation. But I can say, definitively, that the crowds in the building emphatically disagreed with your disappointment. I have my favorite albums. I have my favorite live songs. I have my own wish list. But what was made abundantly clear is that, in the moment, the song I want to hear the most is whatever they are playing. I do not necessarily feel that way watching set lists unfold at home or listening to a bootleg of a show I wasn’t at. But when I am there, I don’t want to think. I want to feel. And after thirty years at this, the band knows the science of the heart, and how to calibrate a setlist to create a deep and visceral emotional response of everyone in attendance. And trying to draw distinctions between the shows feels arbitrary, or academic in the most pedantic way possible.
But the variety was there – the delicate balance between the songs that destroy a crowd and the unexpected moment that keeps you on your toes was fully present. The alchemy between what you want and what you need in full effect. Out of the seventy-six songs I got to hear over three nights, fifty-one were unique. 67% of the total setlist. That is an astounding ratio. Only six songs were played across three nights. Only sixteen repeated at all. And every repeated song elicited a huge response from the crowd, and was the only time thousands of people in the room will get to hear it this tour. So for anyone complaining about cookie cutter setlists:
A: Cookies are still delicious.
B: Your math does not add up.
What can I say about the shows themselves? It is easier to capture moments. But the band roared out of the gate every night. It took a few moments to settle into slow burn openers like Of the Girl, Pendulum, and Can’t Keep (a first for me) – these are moody, atmospheric moments that slowly envelop you on their records, or as part of a gradually building openers. But the band was almost too excited to wait for the songs to settle. They were eager to get to work.
But I also do not know that these crowds would have waited. Every song received an explosive reaction, and there were moments that rang of prophecy. MSG exploded singing along to “I cannot stop the thought of running in the dark” during Immortality. The roof blew off of Philly at “I just want to scream ‘hello’” and after a ten-year drought of not hearing Elderly Woman my eyes absolutely welled up. Not just for the emotion of that particular moment, but in awe of the shared vocabulary we have built with each other over decades of fandom – the lyrics a language unto themselves, the arena a campfire for the soul.
Mike was a man possessed all three nights. MSG saw him play half of the Even Flow solo behind his back. I am pretty sure he played it with teeth at Philly. He destroyed a guitar during Black at MSG and spent the end of the song trying to resurrect it – a séance as much as a solo. And during Baltimore Eddie repeated the “I know someday you’ll have a beautiful life…” outro, and no one in the crowd minded getting it twice. He sounded great throughout the run, and was always chatty, playful, poignant, and real. The politics were present, but the continue to be focused more around building inclusive community - inviting people in rather than pushing them out. At this point Pearl Jam's values are of surprise to no one, and I think Eddie recognizes that while he may be able to inspire (or at least remind) someone to participate in our democratic process, this is not an appropriate venue for the long, hard work of changing minds - and that leaving feeling good about your fellow human beings is itself a political act in an era where politics is too often defined by cruelty.
Songs like Love Boat Captain that do not excite me in theory felt elemental in the moment, and the band made something like Inside Job feel like the most important song in the world. In Baltimore they stopped on a dime during Alive to make sure someone in general admission was okay, and picked right back up again with a kind of zero to infinity explosion of energy that, if harnassed, could solve a lot of the world’s problems. Otherwise, the older songs are the older songs. There are some, like Dance of the Clairvoyants (a top ten song in their entire catalog for me) that the band is still trying to figure out how to reproduce – the rare song that is gradually morphing into an entirely different animal live since they cannot reproduce the layered vocals of the outro. There are others, like Jeremy that sound impossibly vibrant for a song that old, a joyful, shared exorcism of our collective demons. At MSG,Eddie shared a story of a young kid surviving bullying and personal tragedy and transformed Given to Fly into an anthem of defiance. Moments like Out of My Mind, Alone, Tremor Christ, and Satan’s Bed feel like being let in on a secret. A run of songs like Present Tense -> Given to Fly -> Corduroy was a reminder of how deeply embedded into my DNA this band’s music is, and how hearing them together feels like both an affirmation and validation of my life. That to be here in this moment, hearing these songs, having the reaction, means I must have done something right. And I was not the only one in Baltimore having that experience. This is real ‘lifetime achievement of your favorite band’ kind of shit – something that defies words and explanations, but no less tangible and real. Eddie has spoken repeatedly about how transformative the live experience of music can be. The feeling of solidarity, of finding your tribe, of not being alone in a world full of isolating structures. How vast and powerful you feel in those moments. That is what they set out to create at a show, and somehow they are as good at it as they ever were.
Perhaps what was most remarkable is how great the Dark Matter songs sounded. I love Backspacer and Lightning Bolt, but those songs did not necessarily translate live the way I wanted them to, or the band gave up on most of them a little too quickly (with a few exceptions like Unthought Known and Mind Your Manners). Gigaton songs sounded really good, but Gigaton never really had a proper tour – the 2022, and 2023 shows felt more interstitial – tours between records, rather than tours celebrating a record. But the Dark Matter songs were vibrant. They felt like they mattered. And they felt timeless, songs that I had been hearing my whole life, songs that felt quintessentially Pearl Jam, and they nestled seamlessly alongside the rest of the catalog. React/Respond may have been the biggest surprise for how hard hitting it was – the sly winking of the studio version replaced by something raw and far more powerful. But Wreckage is a great sing along. Dark Matter pulses exactly the way you want it to – one of the heaviest moments in each set. Upper Hand felt suitably epic. Running is genuinely fun and playful, Scared of Fear sturdy and thoughtful. Waiting for Stevie was the five-minute shot of catharsis I hoped it would be. In fact, my only two complaints about these shows are that I never got to hear Setting Sun, and that Stevie is not in every setlist. I will unapologetically own that entitlement.
I should also add that Glen Hansard is incredible, and at each show I saw a side of him I wasn't familiar with, but need to be. I would love to see him and Eddie have a true full length collaboration together. Flag Day doesn't count.
In the end, I had the total experience I was looking for. Pre-show I got to finally meet so many of the people I interact with on message boards and Discord servers, the people who sustain my fandom in between shows and records. I truly believe Pearl Jam’s music is best experienced as part of a community, and being able to put names to screen names, and infuse internet personas with actual humanity strengthens and sustains those relationships. Every night was exactly the right mixture of surprising and familiar. And every member of the band brought the commitment that made them legends in this space. It turns out that every song, in the moment, is exactly the song I want to hear. That every song speaks to some part of who I am. And hearing them live, singing along with so many other fans, seeing how much these songs still mean to the band, revitalizes those parts of myself.
I am older than I was. Three shows in ten days takes a new toll on my body. The travel is demanding. This is not cheap, and I am grateful I was able to get to what I did. The planning can be a hassle. But for those two and a half hours, this band makes me feel immortal. And the next day the world feels just a little softer, and I fit into it just a little better. The experience has a price, but the feeling is priceless.
After thirty years, Pearl Jam is still the best band in the world. Not because they have something to prove, but because they do not, and insist on proving it anyway. Thank you for three more amazing nights.
p.s. Completely selfish plug and update – for everyone who preordered our book I Am No Guide: Pearl Jam Song by Song it will be released in the UK this month, and the worldwide (including the US) release should follow. We appreciate everyone’s patience. We asked the company to delay the release so we could include Dark Matter, and publishing logistics are more complicated than expected.
astoria 06
albany 06
hartford 06
reading 06
barcelona 06
paris 06
wembley 07
dusseldorf 07
nijmegen 07
this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -