It’s an honor to welcome Pearl Jamm onto the stage!
Some time back Henrik Tuxen had a cozy tete-a-tete with Pearl Jamm about what song they love to play live. Join us for a special live setlist:
As a musician and a fan, the songs you like to listen to are not always the best fun to play and vice versa. Playing a song gives a different perspective to it and can bring some to life to some tunes you don't usually listen to. The songs we have chosen are based purely on which put the biggest smiles on our faces or that we personally connect to emotionally during a live performance.
If you want to experience Pearl Jamm live, make sure to get your ticket soon. They are going fast: https://bit.ly/2DsI9gp. Next gig is at The Garage on 23rd March. Henrik Tuxen will be in town too.
The Playlist
Andy (“Matt Cameron”)
Porch
As a drummer, this sums up all the great Pearl Jam components: excellent grooves, great melodies, a middle part that allows some psychedelic instrumental breakdown and an insane ending!
Go
Pure fury. One of the most challenging to play. Once you learn to control that fury and incorporate some dynamics, it just sounds great.
Tim (“Mike McCready”)
Given to Fly
The intro riff took me a while to get under my fingers but it's super fun to play, it's also one of the few songs I get to start and there's no guitar solo, so it's kind of a break for my fingers. Lyrically I connect deeply to it
"He floated back down 'cause he wanted to share
His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere
But first he was stripped and then he was stabbed
By faceless men, well, fuckers
He still stands"
I was going through drink and drug addiction a few years ago and this is one of the songs I leaned on heavily.
Once
This doesn't have too much going on for me other than the solo, musically it's all Stone (Matt) I'm just colouring it with octaves and following the Bass. But there is so much intensity that it gives me goosebumps everytime I play it. It was also the first of Ed's Lyrics that I really 'heard'
Santi (“Eddie Vedder”)
Just Breathe
Just read the lyrics and you'll know why I appreciate this song so much. The song says it all, I don't need to say more.
....
"Yes, I understand that every life must end,
As we sit alone, I know someday we must go"
"Under everything, just another human being,
I don't wanna hurt, there's so much in this world to make me bleed"
Present Tense
This song for me again is all about the lyrics, really powerful and deep. It's hard sometimes to live in the present even though it's the only moment we're really living, right here, right now but we often forget and it's easy to get lost in our minds. I also love the way it looks into nature to find wisdom on the first verse
"Do you see the way that tree bends, does it inspire?
Leaning out to catch the sun's rays, a lesson to be applied"
Rich (“Jeff Ament”)
Jeremy
This song has a driving riff and a unique tone thanks to Jeff Ament’s use of multi-course basses (where each string has one or two matching octave strings to create a huge wall of sound). If there were a Top 100 greatest bass riffs of all time, Jeremy would be certain to feature. The tone has been a challenge to get right but I think I’ve nailed it. The song never gets introduced to the audience; I simply start playing and the crowd knows that opening riff so well that a huge cheer always erupts. The ‘Arms Raised in a V’ bit gives me goosebumps when I see people from the front of the audience all the way to the back with their arms aloft or hearing the ‘Woahs’ towards the end of the song where the audience can be louder than us. I love the vocals on the song, the change in dynamics between the verse, pre-chorus and chorus. The outro is also on bass and gives me a moment in the spotlight. A great song to listen to and an awesome song to play.
Rearviewmirror
Jeff Ament has written better basslines than that found in Rearviewmirror – in most places it simply follows the guitar line - I’ve chosen it because of what it feels like to play. It’s the song that, in my opinion, makes the audience go craziest. The scenes of anarchy we’ve witnessed when playing this song only serve to intensify our performance and these are the times I think to myself how lucky we are to do what we do. They may not be songs we’ve written, but the audience reacts as if they are. It’s probably our most requested song and a real fan favourite. I’ve chosen it simply because from the point of view of playing, nothing makes playing more fun than seeing the audience have fun. There have been times when I’ve literally wanted to jump into the mosh pit myself and if I didn’t have my bass strapped on, I probably would have!
Matt (“Stone Gossard”)
Nothingman
Lyrically this song is just amazing and like many other PJ tunes has spoken to me over the years, often describing my feelings at those times in ways i couldn't.
"Once divided...nothing left to subtract..."
Aside from containing one of my favourite lines, the music was written by Jeff but it's Stone's unique approach to the way he accompanies this song which I always marvel at. He plays it with a capo on the 5th fret and tunes the B and E strings up a tone so you get a really full chimey sound to the chords. Unorthodox, plain genius and I just love playing it.
Brain of J
Stone gets a rare solo in this one so it has to make one of my favourite tunes to play live! It has a really cool verse riff, an uplifting chorus, a dynamic breakdown and the solo comes in like a punch in the face, but it's the driving nature of the tune that I love.