Episode 328: Let's Play 162! Pearl Jam's Connection With Baseball

In 2005, for the first time in their history, Pearl Jam took the trek across the entire nation of Canada visiting many cities and provinces for the first, and for some the only time. While the band had been no stranger to Montreal, this night in the city of saints was special for reasons beyond the stage. It was the one-year anniversary that a dear friend and founding father of punk rock Johnny Ramone had passed away. The entirety of this set pays tribute to the man who Eddie Vedder considered one of his best friends and heroes. From the start of the show with Release, you are able to tell how difficult it was for Ed to get through it with many emotions bubbling to the surface. There are stretches of songs in this show ranging from songs that Johnny loved such as Corduroy and Last Kiss to songs that dealt with the themes of death and loss such as Light Years, Sad and Man Of The Hour. There are even two Ramones songs played here as we'll get to hear I Believe In Miracles and a tag of I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend that occurred at the end of Better Man. And this may surprise many of you, but there are not one, but two Cat Stevens covers played at this show. Believe it or not, there is a connection there with Johnny Ramone, and we'll share that as we discuss the set. Tagging in here to help out with this episode is one half of the Hallucinogenic Recipe podcast, Patrick Boegel, who was in attendance for this show and will share his memories involving a Fresh Canadian Rastaman. We'll also dig into Eddie's recent performances on the SNL 50 Homecoming special and how Ed, Jack White and others did a great job paying homage to the history of the show. Visit the Concertpedia - http://liveon4legs.com Contact the Show - liveon4legspodcast@gmail.com Donate to the Show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

18 Feb 1h 40min

This episode jumps into a tour year that we don't often talk about on the pod - the final year of the Backspacer tour in 2012. This year featured 13 shows over in Europe and a few additional festival shows in the US, and for this one we'll cover the show that kicked off the entire year in Manchester, UK. No, it's probably not the Manchester show that you'd think. We're not covering the show that features the one and only performance of Hitchhiker. But there are plenty of things about this show worthy of conversation, performance wise and storyline wise. In Pearl Jam's history, there's been somewhat of a stigma that surrounds two different types of shows - tour openers and night ones. This show happens to be both. The stigma about tour openers is that they can tend to come off a little bit flat, there's a concern over the equipment sounding the way it needs to sound and the fact that there is usually a somewhat significant time frame since the last performance. Night ones can sometimes have a very similar reputation as well, as many people consider night two as the show where they'll bust out rarities and surprises. We'll take a chunk of time at the beginning of the episode talking about how the band has essentially worked on erasing these stigmas within the last few tour years, with the band pulling out very solid tour opening shows as well as some night one shows that were far better than their night two counterparts. And yes, getting into the performances too! We'll spend time talking about how and why Stone overpowered McCready on the big time songs at this show such as Even Flow and Porch, and get into a short take on a great song from a hometown Manchester band that has relevance in the Pearl Jam canon. Visit the Concertpedia - http://liveon4legs.com Contact the Show - liveon4legspodcast@gmail.com Donate to the Show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

11 Feb 1h 37min

The 1995 tour included many firsts for Pearl Jam with a big one being the first time that the band ventured overseas to Southeast Asia and Oceania. This episode marks the first show where they played the legendary Tokyo venue Budokan. Any massive band that has traveled for a world tour has played this venue from names along the lines of Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, with the most famous instance being Cheap Trick who released a live album recording from a performance there. When Vitalogy came out, Pearl Jam was one of the hottest bands in the world. The hype in Japan was massive as the crowd there was red hot witnessing the band at their height. We have a lot of fun performances to get to at this show, and there's no lack of discussion about what Jack Irons presence brought to the band during this time frame. Stay tuned for great topics such as a Corduroy solo with more drive, the rare 1995 alternate intro to Even Flow, an explosive Immortality, Satan's Bed at the best its ever been, why Go and Animal may be the best combination in the history of Pearl Jam and Ledbetter and Indifference getting the rare appearance at the same show. And we'll share a great story about a surprise when finding the Cheap Trick Live At Budokan record while digging through crates at a shop in Chicago. Visit the Concertpedia - http://liveon4legs.com Contact the Show - liveon4legspodcast@gmail.com Donate to the Show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

4 Feb 1h 33min

Want to hear one of the best Pearl Jam performances of the last ten years? This week's episode features a show from Ottawa that happened on the second North American leg of the Gigaton tour. One of the big storylines coming into leg 2 was how were they going to account for some damage Ed did to his voice over in Europe. The Amsterdam show presented a different way of opening up the show featuring five songs played acoustically while seated. They brought that same structure into Canada, which led to one of the absolute best performances of Garden that you'll ever hear. Garden played on acoustic not only introduced the crowd to a chilling rendition that took the band out of their comfort zone, but it had historical significance as well. Going back to a story told in the PJ20 documentary, a show from 1992 took place in Winterthur, Switzerland where the stage was so small that the band could not fit their equipment on it. Therefore, they elected to play the show fully acoustic. A very short time later, they got the call to be a part of MTV Unplugged, and the rest is history, but that version of Garden from that night in Switzerland is our most prominent piece of footage from that show. Unfortunately we did not get to see a version played at the official Unplugged show, but we'll talk about how 30 years later the band created a moment that should go down in their books as one of the best pure performances in their entire catalog. We'll also get to talking about a lot of songs played in dropped tuning, another factor in making sure Ed's voice would be in top shape for an entire tour. And we'll tell a great story about how a young woman named Ashley got brought down to the front and had her story told by Ed. We'll share Ashley's side of the story of how it felt to be a part of the show that created a heartwarming moment for the Ottawa crowd. Visit the Concertpedia - http://liveon4legs.com Contact the Show - liveon4legspodcast@gmail.com Donate to the Show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

28 Jan 1h 36min

This week's episode takes us back to the Yield tour to cover Pearl Jam's first headlining arena gig in Minnesota. With only a few shows under their belt in the early onset of the Matt Cameron era, the band was starting to figure out their stride with the new, then temporary, drummer. The crowd was red hot for every performance and every hiccup within this set, which led to some surprised reactions from Ed, who didn't have the show in mind as a sleeper show. The big story coming out of this show stemmed from a callback to something that The Who did in their live shows. After years of playing My Generation ad nauseum, they turned the song into a very riffy, blues influenced jam. This is something that Ed, a lifelong Who fan, picked up on and started to utilize during Porch in a similar fashion back around the mid-2000's. This was the first instance where they dabbled in it. We'll talk about the history of both My Generation blues and the slow/riffy Porch intros and how it became a staple for them much later in their live career. We'll also dig into great performances of Brain Of J., Faithfull, Even Flow, Black and very early versions of Pilate and All Those Yesterdays which were rarely played that year. Joining us for this episode is our longtime friend Kirk Walton who we like to call Mr. Minnesota. He'll share his story about the show which included a trip to Mervyn's of California, and we'll also get to chat about the misery that Minnesota sports fans endure. Visit the Concertpedia - http://liveon4legs.com Contact the Show - liveon4legspodcast@gmail.com Donate to the Show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

20 Jan 1h 35min

Kentucky is not a state that Pearl Jam has frequented often, so when the 2016 tour schedule released with Lexington as one of the announced dates, folks from the Bluegrass State were overjoyed that the band would be returning for the first time in 13 years. That's the focal point for this this episode. This is a show that is somehow approaching it's 9th year anniversary in April, and just like many of those Spring 2016 shows, it's full of deep cuts and talking points that are rarely broached on this podcast. This show is a good show with an A+ crowd, but certainly not without some hiccups. While the song Lightning Bolt was utilized in the opener role for the first time ever, the band struggled a bit out the gate with the first six songs. However, that storyline doesn't last throughout the entire show. The rabid crowd picked this band up and gave them the energy they needed to blaze through excellent performances of Corduroy, Army Reserve, 1/2 Full, Rearviewmirror, Thumbing My Way, Comfortably Numb and the ultra rare addition of Education. A big thank you goes out to Simon and Dawn Mortimer for the Patreon episode request! Visit the Concertpedia - http://liveon4legs.com Contact the Show - liveon4legspodcast@gmail.com Donate to the Show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

14 Jan 1h 41min

There are plenty of milestone anniversaries in Pearl Jam history that we have to celebrate in 2025 - the 25th anniversary of the Binaural tour and the 20th anniversary of the 2005 Canadian leg come to mind, but one of the big anniversaries that we'll be digging into this year is the 30th anniversary of the legendary 1995 Vitalogy tour. This was a year of classic shows and moments from places like Red Rocks and Soldier Field, and in this episode we'll cover the show that kicks off a big year of touring - a Vote For Choice show in Washington DC. There are so many storylines that we have to cover in this one because of all the events that were happening in Pearl Jam's world at the time. There's the scarcity of tickets for this show where you had to send in a postcard to the Ten Club just to enter a lottery, Self Pollution Radio was broadcast a few days prior to this show happening that gave the audience a sneak peak as to how those Vitalogy songs that were all played on the Vs. tour were gonna sound polished up. This is considered to be the first show where Jack Irons is an official band member, and perhaps the biggest storyline is Neil Young's involvement and this stretch of shows ultimately leading to the recording of the Mirrorball record. This show will end with Neil joining the stage to play their first ever version of Act Of Love days after Neil played it with Crazy Horse at the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame induction. We'll talk about how important that record was for the band and how Neil's influence has stuck with the group ever since. In today's episode we're joined by Brian Horwitz from the Hallucinogenic Recipe podcast, and we'll get to talking about the circulation of this bootleg and some of the other popular 1995 bootlegs, and we'll discuss what boots were must owns once everything digitized in the 2000s. Visit the Concertpedia - http://liveon4legs.com Contact the Show - liveon4legspodcast@gmail.com Donate to the Show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

7 Jan 1h 31min

Happy New Year to the Pearl Jam Podcast Community! 2025 is set to be another great year for the band on tour in April and May, and hopefully more will get announced at some point soon. To kick off the year, we are gonna finish our look back on 2024 by covering the highly talked about tour closer in Sydney. With a plethora of storylines leading up to the show, such as the 30th anniversary of Vitalogy's release, expectations were high for the final night on the 2024 Dark Matter tour, and as per usual, the band delivered something memorable. It was the type of show that you'd call a kitchen sink show incorporating songs that had barely been brought to the table last year such as Brain Of J, In Hiding, Tremor Christ, Save You, Dissident and Alone. But the big story from that night overpowers all of the clutch deep cuts because for the first time in ten years, the band decided to pull out Hunger Strike. It had been seven and a half years since Chris Cornell's death, a subject that Eddie Vedder has rarely addressed publicly. But there is more behind this performance than just playing a famed song from their past. We'll get into details of how Ed had seemed to open up a little more about his relationship with Chris, and how this moment in Sydney was seen from a therapeutic standpoint, having the crowd pitch in and help out in the roles meant for Cornell. A powerful moment, and one that will be remembered for decades onward. We'll also hear from our Aussie crew who helped out on our reaction episodes for the run down there, we'll hear a story about a boy who challenged Eddie to rock, paper, scissors, and we'll also share some news and changes about the podcast in effect for 2025. Visit the Concertpedia - http://liveon4legs.com Contact the Show - liveon4legspodcast@gmail.com Donate to the Show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

1 Jan 2h 7min