Episode 143: Boston, MA - 5/17/2010

Well, we finally did it! We traveled the entire globe and covered Pearl Jam shows from almost every country in one full calendar year! It was a massive challenge, but also a joyful experience to get the pleasure to listen to how crowds all over the world respond to Pearl Jam's presence. To celebrate the final live performance we'll cover in 2020, we picked a good one going back only a few years to when the band played the full Binaural album in Toronto. The band at this point is coming off two full album shows in 2014 as well as two earlier in 2016 with Vs. in Greenville and Ten in Philadelphia. Since Toronto was the last spot on the tour and a city that the band has such rich history in, they busted out the album with possibly the rarest songs they've ever played live. While this is such a huge treat to all the Pearl Jam lifers, Binaural isn't an album that resonates that well with the casual crowd. So 13 songs in a row that they almost never play live will leave you a mixed reaction no matter how you slice it. But the situation was of course unique and a service to the many late era fans who probably checked off a lot of serious collector boxes this night. God's Dice, Evacuation, Rival, Sleight of Hand and Parting Ways are songs that were barely consistent in their set when the album came out in 2000 so to get them here, and as a podcast we don't get to cover these songs too often, it's a treat break these songs out of the back catalog. Along with the entire album we'll discuss the rest of the set, the hits and misses and what made this show so hard to construct a set for. Patreon: http://patreon.com/liveon4legs Discord: https://discord.gg/jbpughvC

16 Dec 20201h 50min

This is the penultimate episode in our Around The World series as we dip into this great Mexico City tour closer from 2003. There are many ingredients in the recipe for a perfect show, but the integral pieces from this set are so unique and unlike any other of its kind. First off, it's a tour closer. Second, it's a lucrative night 3 show, those don't come around too often. Does it have rare songs? You bet! Guest appearances? Hell Yeah! Well, it can't possibly happen to have all of that AND be on the birthday of a band member, right? Oh you are in for a treat my friend! The band says goodbye to the far traveled and controversial Riot Act tour by throwing a massive party to celebrate. It happens to be the founding member, Stone Gossard's date of birth, so what's a better gift than to bring out a mariachi band to sing Las Mananitas, La Bamba and Guantalamera? You can tell from the energy on the stage how good a mood everyone is in for this show as they play up to a red hot crowd and hangout with friends and tour opener Sleater-Kinney. Big highlights from this night include an opener of Wash, Hunger Strike feat. Corin Tucker, Black, Rearviewmirror with an improv, Mankind for Stone and a phone call to none other than Johnny Ramone before a performance of I Believe In Miracles. It's a show more than worthy of a high spot on Pearl Jam's all-time lists! Patreon: http://patreon.com/liveon4legs Discord: https://discord.gg/jbpughvC

9 Dec 20201h 47min

We're coming down to the wire in our year long Around The World Series. As last week we wrapped up South America, today's episode we'll focus on the one and only time the band took a trip down to Central America as Ed and Boom were able to catch some waves down in Costa Rica. If your expectations for this show are as high as any show in Argentina, Brazil or Chile, do yourself a favor and lower them immediately. You cannot go into this show thinking that the crowd is going to be red hot for everything. They had their moments where they came through and sounded pretty good on the boot, but this should not be lumped into the same category as shows from those other nations. With that being said, this show coming towards the end of the 2011 run which was still promoting an album that many people deemed unspectacular doesn't raise a lot of eyeballs. Some nice moments such as a Vs. opener combo of Go into Animal, a great Daughter/Why Go transition that was completely dictated by the crowd and a nice little surprise Oceans in the encore are enough to raise eyebrows, but some strange setlist decisions and way too much from Ten doesn't set this show enough apart from others. We'll dissect what worked and what didn't and we'll also mention a mini riot that occurred near the beginning of the show. Patreon: http://patreon.com/liveon4legs Discord: https://discord.gg/jbpughvC

2 Dec 20201h 26min

Happy Thanksgiving to our American listeners! This week we're gonna discuss one of South America's finest performances down in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2013. This continues our Around The World Series that only has 3 more episodes that remain after this! We'll hit up Costa Rica, Mexico and Canada to close out 2020. The Argentinian crowds... hoo boy! They are something special. This show being a part of a festival set was nothing on the rare side, but in every single song they played you could hear and feel the crowd's reactions. From the opening of songs like Even Flow, Given To Fly and Hail Hail the crowd sings the patented guitar parts and at some points does it louder than the band. It happens all night, even on the songs you least suspect. Even something more quiet like Just Breathe has a massive crowd response. You won't want to miss this episode if you love the way the band interacts with the crowd. As we'll share, you'll hear in two separate instances where Ed will have to completely stop a song in order to collect his thoughts. On a highlight such as Daughter, you'll get to hear Ed tap into his inner bi-linguist as he sings the entire It's OK tag in Spanish in what's a massive highlight. Join our Patreon - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs Join our Discord - https://discord.gg/PCpyhxDR

25 Nov 20201h 40min

This week we're celebrating the city of Atlanta, Georgia that deserves praise recently for their tremendous voter turnout helping the state go blue for the first time in 28 years! And Atlanta knows about long periods of waiting because in this episode we'll discuss the last non-festival show in the city that happened 17 years ago! That's FIVE albums since Atlanta has gotten a proper show! This one is an important one, and we invite long time patron Glenn Bobe to tell his story from that night. After a contentious performance in Nashville the night prior, the political rage was building up during this time period. Anything having to do with patriotism, support of President Bush or the Iraq War set the band off. This show has a moment from the very early onset where an oversized American flag was blocking the view of fans seated on the lawn. This set Ed off during an aggressive performance of Grievance and set the tone for a night where politics needed to be part of the conversation. But that was the era - a tumultuous time that had everyone on edge. However, the band brought their A (or B+) game for a show that doesn't get talked about all that often during this era. This show had its crowd pleasing moments with a few rare appearances including Glorified G that made a comeback that year, Present Tense that was played for the first time in 65 shows and only the 3rd appearance of Crown of Thorns with the first noted Chloe Dancer tease accompanying it. You'll also hear stellar performances of 1/2 Full and Black and a moment in Corduroy that is commonplace for today's versions, but was potentially snuck in for the first time here. Join our Patreon - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs Join our Discord - https://discord.gg/KmPyGph3

18 Nov 20201h 44min

The election is now in our rearview (sort of) and we can get back into business finishing off our year long Around The World series in South America. This week we dig into the band's only show in Colombia from the 2015 continental tour. As per usual with the South American crowd, they are on fire. From Ole chants to the patented singing during songs like Do The Evolution, Better Man, Even Flow and Black. The band gets themselves acclimated nicely to the new country and even shares a statement for violence against women awareness where they all wear orange t-shirts in the final set. Stay tuned in this episode for information about our Christmas Party and Secret Santa gift exchange! Contribute to the show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

11 Nov 20201h 33min

Happy Election Day! Remember to go out today and vote. This is the final episode in our month's long coverage of politically charged Pearl Jam shows and we finish off with a Vote for Choice show that became a Vault release in Constitution Hall 1998. Just like Charlotte 1996, this show was accompanied by Gloria Steinum with registering to vote as the priority of the night. This show is a Vault for a reason. Whenever they release a show as a Vault they do it consciously knowing that there are going to be songs on this release that you don't often get to hear live. Right off the bat, Act Of Love as the 2nd song in exemplifies that. They first time they played Act Of Love was in that same venue, it happened to be twice in one night for the same voter benefit show. Considering they've only played this song 10 times and only once since this night, it was easily one of the most memorable moments. Other rare live moments that you get from this show were two of the rarest from Yield - All Those Yesterdays and Push Me Pull Me. We talk a lot about big moments from this show such as Black with a blistering McCready solo and multiple songs where Ed's gravelly growl is in full force. Contribute to our Patreon and help the show: http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

3 Nov 20201h 32min

Warning: This episode contains sensitive topics of a political nature including the landscape of the world after the 9/11 tragedy. The energy in this episode is more angry and fired up than usual, which is saying a lot. If this seems unsettling to you, please avoid this episode. But please vote on November, 3rd. So it's come to this. You knew we couldn't have a month featuring Pearl Jam's most political moments without talking about this polarizing show. Nassau Coliseum will forever go down in infamy due to the perceived controversial actions that Ed displayed on stage, but even moreso due to the horrid fan reactions that followed. Anyone who has seen PJ20 remembers this story: Ed comes out on stage dressed up in his sparkling silver jacket donning facial wear representing then current President George W. Bush. They performed the track called Bu$hleaguer off their touring album Riot Act that so eloquently called out the President's actions. Ed riled up the crowd by mocking the maligned leader. He put a cigarette in the mask's mouth and poured a bottle of wine into it. He also displayed affection with the plastic piece of paraphernalia. Whether it was done to incite a riot or not (it was) the crowd retaliated by throwing quarters, garbage, t-shirts or whatever they could find onto the stage that had the band fearing for their lives. This was only 17 years ago and our average listener is probably in their 40s, so it's a high probability that you remember the time period, one that this current administration makes look like a favorable memory. While the country struggled to cope after the events from 9/11, the situation was escalated in suburban townships in Nassau and Suffolk County Long Island. Everyone knew someone who was affected. Maybe your neighbor was FDNY, its possible your cousin was a first responder, or even worse, you had a friend or family member in one of those buildings or on a plane. Any way you slice it, the area was in such close proximity to the attack that it was impossible not to feel the lingering effects. With sadness comes pain and pain can turn into anger. Anger can turn into anything. It didn't matter to them who it was - Afghanistan, Iraq it didn't make a difference. They were attacked by people who looked different than them and turned jingoistic acts of racism into justifiable reactions. This was life on Long Island from 2001-2008. Okay so there was actually a show outside of this mess of a controversy and it turns out, it was pretty damn good! 2003 was the sweet spot. Veteran songs such as Animal, Not For You and Even Flow meshed well with the rookie standouts like Save You, I Am Mine and the now super rare cut of Get Right. It gets lost within the headlines, but had this show gone a different route, people may be calling it the best from this tour. Don't forget to vote, and get ready for a sing along in this episode to the lovely quarantine anthem In Hiding. Support the show - http://patreon.com/liveon4legs

28 Okt 20201h 48min