Pearl Jam Past And Present In The A To Z
Its undeniable the relationship Pearl Jam and the city of Philadelphia have. It starts with their remarkable discography which at this writing is twelve studio albums deep, including their latest release Dark Matter from this past April. That music provides a launching point for their outstanding live concerts, which are notorious for a rotating and varying setlist meaning you never exactly know what you’re going to hear each night.
That formula for a concert experience has led to several legendary concerts here in the City of Brotherly Love. One prime example would be the four night run in October of 2009 as they played the last shows at the beloved Spectrum before it was demolished. The final evening of that stint concluded on Halloween with a whopping 41 song setlist which is the longest of the band’s performing career (including a rendition of Devo’s “Whip It” in full Devo gear!). There was one other night in particular that Professor Pierre celebrated during the Back to School A to Z.
Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ And MMR’s 48th
In April of 2016, the art of synchronicity as Pierre puts it was in full swing. We were welcoming Pearl Jam for two very sold out nights at The Big Joint (aka Wells Fargo Center) on April 28th and April 29th. The second date shares a very special connection with us here at WMMR. It was on April 29th, 1968 that MMR came into existence and there was no better way to celebrate our 48th birthday then with some Seattle supersonic sounds in South Philly.
The celebrations and synchronicities didn’t end there as it was determined that the evening would be Pearl Jam’s 10th sold out show in South Philly. To commemorate that achievement, the Wells Fargo Center dropped a banner from the rafters honoring it along with other notable performer’s sell-out shows like Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.
The band got word of this happening and decided to do something really special themselves. No better way to to honor the 10th sold out show than playing their debut record Ten in its entirety. It is only the 2nd time the record has been played fully live the first going all the way back to March of 1992! And after concluding Ten they still had 21 additional songs lined up in the set for that night, including a couple of shout-outs to WMMR which collectively blew our minds. Professor Pierre took us back to that night on Friday September 6th during the A to Z in the letter J and from that very evening he played “Jeremy“.
PJ Returns This Week!
Flashing forward 8 years to the present here in 2024, we once again are so excited to welcome Pearl Jam back to South Philly for two more sold out nights! The Big Joint will be jumping Saturday September 7th and Monday September 9th as we come together to celebrate their return. MMR will have pre-concert coverage from 5-730pm each of those nights with Pierre, Brent Porche, and Nick McIlwain as well as post-show highlights afterwards. We hope to see you down there and please keep sharing how you’re enjoying the Back To School A to Z. Be sure to tag WMMR on X, Instagram, and Facebook and use the hashtag #WMMRAtoZ
