You probably saw this one coming, what with the PearlJam.com forum reminding us all to make sure our 10 Club membership are current last week. But the news is here: Eddie Vedder is heading South this spring.

Thirteen dates in 13 cities have been announced. The 10 Club onsale starts TODAY, so head over to PearlJam.com RIGHT NOW for details. The public on sale is on Feb. 3. The utterly fantastic Glen Hansard will, once again, be the opening act for all the shows.

Here are the dates in list and calendar form for your convenience:

Apr-11  Las Vegas, NV  The Pearl
Apr-13  Phoenix, AZ  Comerica Theater
Apr-16  Albuquerque, NM Kiva Auditorium
Apr-19  Tulsa, OK  Brady Theater
Apr-22  Houston, TX  Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Apr-25  San Antonio, TX  Lila Cockrell Theatre
Apr-27  Austin, TX  Bass Concert Hall
Apr-30  Dallas, TX  The Music Hall at Fair Park
May-03  New Orleans, LA New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
May-08  Jacksonville, FL  Moran Theater
May-10  Clearwater, FL  Ruth Eckerd Hall
May-13  Ft. Lauderdale, FL Broward Center for the Performing Arts
May-16  Orlando, FL  Bob Carr Performing Arts Center

photo by Rubens Chiri -Sao Paulo.net

Well, a chilly evening in Sao Paulo, Brazil was warmed up by Pearl Jam’s performance at Morumbi Stadium to kick off their 10-date tour of South America, Costa Rica & Mexico.  We offer some info on the evening’s events to remember the night by…

Setlist from the Official Message Board

Morumbi Stadium
São Paulo, Brazil
Nov 03, 2011

01. Release {Ed mentions “Johnny” in the lyrics, a reference to Johnny Ramone}
02. Corduroy
03. Why Go
04. Animal
05. World Wide Suicide
06. Got Some
{Ed addresses the crowd in Portuguese}
07. Evenflow
08. Unthought Known
{crowd sings the “olé, olé” football song. The band plays along with them}
09. Whipping
10. Daughter/WMA
11. Olé
12. Down
13. Save You
14. The Fixer
15. Do The Evolution
16. Porch

Encore Break 1
{Ed introduces the band in Portuguese}
17. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
18. Just Breathe
{Ed thanks X for playing with Pearl Jam. He then addresses the crowd in Portuguese. He talks about the Ramones playing in Brazil and mentions that “Come Back” was written for Johnny Ramone}
19. Come Back
20. I Believe In Miracles-(Ramone, Ray)
21. Alive

Encore Break 2
22. Comatose
23. Black
24. Betterman
{Ed talks about being glad to be back in Brazil and that they see more Brazilian flags than any other no matter where they play.}
25. Rearviewmirror
26. Rockin’ In The Free World-(Young) {changes lyric to “there’s color in the streets/ green, yellow and blue” referring to the Brazilian flag}

TFT General Notes:  The was an added show after the tickets for the concert  Nov. 4th sold so quickly, so the stadium wasn’t as packed as tomorrow will likely be.  The show started 30 minutes late.

Poster designed by Chuck Sperry, courtesy the always awesome InsideTheRockPosterFrame

poster by Chuck Sperry

Incidentally, the San Francisco-based artist will be offering a release of 100 signed/numbered “Artist Edition” and 20 signed/numbered “Variant Editions” of the above beauty on Sunday, November 6th “at a random time”.  Collectors, be on the lookout! Sperry’s online store can be found  here,   and the variant is shown on his site as well.

Photos, and photo links:

Some nice ones from MTV Brazil, taken by Katia Flavia:

And here are links to bunch more:

The best of the lot: 50+ from Yahoo Musica, taken by Alexandre Ferreira

A nice gallery from UOL Musica, taken by Rogerio Albuquerque

A lovely bunch from SaoPauloFC.net, taken by Rubens Chiri

Brazilian Rock!

Setlist and notes from Eddie Vedder’s appearance Saturday at the 25th Anniversary Bridge School Benefit.

10/23/2011 Bridge School Benefit, Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA, USA
Set: Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, Last Kiss, I Am A Patriot, Society, Tonight You Belong To Me, Sleepless Nights, Don’t Cry No Tears
TFT Notes: Ed greets the crowd on the second day of the benefit, “Good evening. Thanks for the reception. It’s beautiful out there, it’s a beautiful day … that’s two in a row. Ya know, last night I started with a Neil song, a Neil Young song, and it only took me about 30 seconds to screw it all up. I’m not gonna do that again tonight. I went in the back and told Neil “I can’t believe … that was a big mistake.” and he said “No, the only mistake you made was not telling me you were gonna play it because I woulda went out and played it with ya. We coulda fucked it up together (laughter)”. I didn’t mean to cuss in front of the kids, sorry about that. Neil and Pegi, they don’t use the F-word.” “Elderly Woman…” starts and gets a big “Hello!”. “Thank You. I was thinking about htis i couldn’t sleep last night thinking about the weight and the intensity of neil and pegi and all of the people involved to do this 25 years consecutively it’s such an amazing feat. And coming over coming here maybe 10 times in the last however many years to get to know some of thesee kids and to see the work that’s been done, these Young men and young women and their parents i just can’t tell them what a huge impact they’ve had on my life.” Before another crowd-pleaser, “Last Kiss”, Ed talks about Maricor, “And my one friend Maricor, that’s her right there (points, to applause) Last night I was saying she was two college degress more than I do which isn’t saying much. But she’s probably got two more than all of y’all! And this one I think is her favorite, so this is for Maricor. If you want to sing, sing it for maricor.” Ed references the Occupy Wall Street Movement with “I’m going to play one for the 99%-ers. I feel like that’s a movement that you can fully back, because you’re either one of the 99% or you’re one of the 1%, and if you’re one of the 1%, you’ve got it pretty fucking good. You have to learn to play well with others, pass the ball to other people and give them a shot. (“I Am A Patriot”) is written by a guy called Little Steven Van Zandt”. Today, Eddie was “walking with his boyfriend” and “sure as hell ain’t no Republican either.” For “Society”, Ed mentions “I have a few friends that are gonna help me here. The first one I’d like to introduce … he’s a local (San Francisco). He’s an extermly talented musician and songrwiter, please welcome, Mr. Jerry Hannan. I met Jerry through a friend called Sean Penn we worked on something called Into The Wild. There’s a song – probably the best song on there, it’s called “Society” – it’s Jerry who wrote it so we’re gonna do that.” “Alright this is exciting for me I get to invite Regine from Arcade Fire to join me and the ukulele”, which leads to another collaboration on “Tonight You Belong To Me”. “Not only is it great to call this guy a friend, but it’s great to be able to play with him, Beck Hansen”, leading to a well-received version of “Sleepless Nights”. “Alright, this is Uncle Neil” who helps Ed make up for the previous night’s miscue with terrific harmonies and harmonica on “Don’t Cry No Tears”.

Setlists

Video, Setlist and notes from Eddie Vedder’s appearance Saturday at the 25th Anniversary Bridge School Benefit.

10/22/2011 Bridge School Benefit, Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View , CA, USA
Don’t Cry No Tears (stopped), You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Don’t Cry No Tears, Rise, Without You, Tonight You Belong To Me, Just Breathe, Porch, Sleepless Nights
TFT Notes: Sporting a wide-brimmed hat and a Bridge Schoool t-shirt, Eddie performed at Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit for the second time as a solo artist (read about his 2004 appearance). Smiling and energetic, Ed starts “Good evening, thank you. I was thinking to start with a Neil Young song. He’s got a lot of them, he can’t possibly use them all tonight, so I thought I’d make use of this one.” He debuts Neil Young’s “Don’t Cry No Tears” but unfortunately stops during the first verse, joking “Alright I might have to play that one later. ” Donning the harmonica, Ed plays a rousing “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” with the crowd taking a few lines of the chorus. “Don’t Cry No Tears” is revisited with hesitation “I’m gonna try this one one more time (crowd cheers, big smile)  just relax”. “Don’t Cry No Tears” is the lead track from Neil Young’s 1975 album, Zuma. “Here’s a little Mandolin for you” leading to “Rise”. “Neil and Pegi asked if I was gonna bring my ukulele so here it is. And this is – well, it’s kind of an unexpurgated love song written for my wife – I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if I dedicated it to Maricor, my friend back here tonight. Maricor has two more college degrees than I have, from (University of California at) Berkeley. She’s my hero, (then looking back at all the students) or one of ‘em.” Régine from Arcade Fire “graciously accepted the invitation to try this next one with me”, to which they duet on “Tonight You Belong To Me”. Pearl Jam standards “Just Breathe” and “Porch” bring the crowd to their feet. Beck joins Eddie for the last track of his set, “Here’s my friend for the last one, here’s Beck. This is one we did years and years ago, it’s nice to do it again”. Beck and Eddie last performed “Sleepless Nights” at the Concert for Artists’ Rights at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles in February 2002. “Thank you Bridge School, thank you Beck, good night” in closing to an appreciative crowd.

Setlists

If you were in Edmonton, Canada last night, and you caught some live Mudhoney ahead of their opening set at tonight’s Pearl Jam gig: you witnessed quite a two-fer. Mudhoney’s headlining set at Edmonton’s basement New Legion club yesterday (Sept. 22) featured very special guest Eddie Vedder rocking MC5′s “Kick Out The Jams” at the end of the set.

The Edmonton Journal put up a fun little article including some fan tweets here: Edmonton Journal article

But even more fun were Edmonton photographer Eric Kozakiewicz’s shots of a grinning, Austin-City-Limits-t-shirt-wearing EV rocking with the Mudhoney and posted on Flickr: PHOTOS: Eddie Vedder With Mudhoney by Eric Kozakiewicz

Click the image to see the photos on Flickr

Pearl Jam Twenty, the documentary by Cameron Crowe, opens today September 20 worldwide one day in select theaters (and for a week-long run Sept 23-30 in select cities).

From Iceland to Indonesia, fans can get a chance to see the film in theaters before its premiere on TV on October and its DVD/Bluray release on October 25.

Pearl Jam Twenty - Movie Released Sept 20.

Jump Around

Though it’s certainly  not the avalanche of press that the band received in Toronto, some nice info, photos & reviews have surfaced for the band’s night in Ottawa.

Setlist taken from the Official Message Board:

Pearl Jam
Scotiabank Place
Ottawa, ON. CA
Sept. 14, 2011

Set List
01. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
02. Last Exit
03. Do The Evolution
04. MFC
05. Unthought Known
06. Low Light
07.Given To Fly
08. Setting Forth
09. Whipping
10. Corduroy
11. Evenflow
12. Grievance
13. Lukin
14. Breath
{Ed talks about the 5 year anniversary of “Wishlist Foundation” and some of the causes they have been supporting. He also thanks the founder Laura Trafton.}
15. Wishlist
16. Olé
17. 1/2 Full
18. Betterman/Save It For Later-(Charley, Cox, Morton, Steele, Wakeling)

ENCORE BREAK 1
19. The End
20. Inside Job
21. Just Breathe
22. Off He Goes
23. Why Go
24. The Fixer
25. Rearviewmirror

ENCORE BREAK 2
26. Come Back {played by request of an unnamed friend of the band}
27. The Real Me-(Townshend)
28. Alive
29. Yellow Ledbetter

Props to our homies!  Awesome of the most righteous Laura Trafton and the incredible Wishlist Foundation to be recognized. It’s the creme de la creme of fan communities, mobilizing to raise half  a million dollars over the years for various causes…

Poster (courtesy InsideTheRockPosterFrame):

Ames Bros. designed Ottawa poster

Press Reviews: (click titles to view complete articles)

Pearl Jam Better With Age Ottawa Sun – by Denis Armstrong

“By the end of the night, this should feel like Friday,” Vedder promised before Given To Fly… The first half-hour tore past in a sonic blur. Pure and unadorned, this was turning into a vintage guitar-rock concert, hellbent on playing as long and hard as possible. What other band has that kind of stamina? Or a voice as beautiful as Vedder’s growling baritone. There’s a lot of emotion in those 46-year-old pipes and Vedder uses them all, whether its funny, sad, pissed off or hopeful. There’s simply a lot of emotional content to their music.”

Pearl Jam Takes Fans Across The Universe – Lynn Saxberg, Ottawa Citizen

“I understand it’s Wednesday,” he said early in the concert, “but by the end of the night, it should feel like Friday around here. Come witness as we go across the universe.”  …Vedder is a compelling singer but the best thing about the band is how they function as a unit. Guitarist Mike McCready tore into the lead guitar riffs that influenced a generation, bouncing them off the chords crunched out by rhythm guitarist Stone Gossard, while bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Matt Cameron created a bottom end that was thunderous but precise.

Photos:

Full photo galleries from Ottawa newspapers can be found here for the Ottawa Sun (13 pictures) and here for the Ottawa Citizen (9 pictures).

Pearl Jam writes music. Pearl Jam does not write books. Jonathan Cohen writes books and books music. We’ll give you a minute to digest that.

Today, September 13, 2011, marks the release date of “Pearl Jam Twenty”, the band’s book written by Jonathan Cohen with Mark Wilkerson.  As with the “big three” releases this month for PJ20 – the book, the movie (Sept. 20) and the soundtrack (Sept. 20) – it fulfills the monumental task of encapsulating twenty years of Pearl Jam into a single digestible unit. And you better be hungry, because it’s filled with 384-pages of great writing, foreword by Cameron Crowe, awesome pictures, terrific interviews from the band, those around the band, and plenty of artists.

Jonathan Cohen also meets impassioned fans’ strict qualifications: he’s a former Billboard.com editor and writer, a Ten Club member, a PJ concert traveller, and currently the music booker for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. You won’t get some outsider’s viewpoint; you’ll get the perspective crucial to presenting Pearl Jam the right way.

We need to digest this behemoth ourselves, so we’re not going to review it just yet! In the meantime, here are the links you need to preview, purchase and absorb yourself in this great work:

• Buy The Book – from Ten Club, iTunes, Amazon, B&N, Indiebound
• Excerpts of the book are available from Billboard.com, Simon & Schuster and Rolling Stone.
• Alternate perspective on Bruce Springsteen’s inclusion in the book from Backstreets.com
• Reviews by Triple-M and Media Decay

Details:

• Simon & Schuster, September 2011
• Hardcover, 384 pages
• ISBN-10: 1439169217
• ISBN-13: 9781439169216

Published in celebration of Pearl Jam’s twentieth anniversary and in conjunction with Cameron Crowe’s definitive documentary film and soundtrack of the same name, PEARL JAM TWENTY is an aesthetically stunning and definitive chronicle of their two decades as a band—by the band itself.

In 1991, Pearl Jam’s debut album, Ten catapulted the little-known Seattle-based band into superstardom. Then, at the height of their popularity, the band shunned the spotlight, refusing to shoot videos or do interviews. Even as Pearl Jam’s studio albums continued to be critically acclaimed and commercially successful, selling over 60 million albums worldwide, the inner workings of the band—their day-to-day routines, influences, and motivations—remained unknown even to their diehard fans.

Twenty years later, this is their story. PEARL JAM TWENTY is a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, rare archival memorabilia, and the band’s personal photos, tour notes, and drawings. Told with wit and insight in the band members’ own words, and assembled by veteran music writer Jonathan Cohen with Mark Wilkerson—and including a foreword by Cameron Crowe along with original interviews with legends and contemporaries like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Dave Grohl—this intimate work provides an in-depth look at a group of musicians who through defying convention established themselves as “the greatest American rock band ever” (USA Today Readers’ Poll 2005).

Holy Uncle Neil! What a way to get back to the tour, guys! First full performance of Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns…guest appearance from Canadian legend Neil Young…where do they go from here? Likely to heights unknown, if the show Sept. 11 in Toronto is any indicator.

Setlist: from the Official Message Board

Pearl Jam
Air Canada Centre
Toronto ON. CA
Show 1
Sept. 11, 2011

01. Long Road
02. Do The Evolution
03. Once
04. Got Some
05. Faithfull
06. Nothing As It Seems
07. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
(Ed talks about PJ20. Thanks Cameron Crowe. Says now they feel like they can put those 20 years behind them and start work on the next 20. Talks about Neil Young’s 51 years putting out albums)
08. Setting Forth
09. Not For You/Modern Girl-(Sleater Kinney)
10. Given To Fly
11. Just Breathe
12. Off He Goes
13. Daughter/It’s OK-(Cole)
14. Grievance
15. Down
16. Unthought Known
17. The Fixer
18. Porch

ENCORE BREAK 1
19. Nothingman
20. Betterman/Save It For Later-(Charley, Cox, Morton, Steele, Wakeling)
21. Leatherman
22. Black
23. Rearviewmirror

ENCORE BREAK 2
24. Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns-(Wood, Mother Love Bone)
25. Alive
26. Rockin’ In The Free World w/Neil Young-(Young)
(Partway through the song Mike McCready runs off stage and hands his guitar to Neil Young. Neil comes up and plays with the band)
Notes from the PJ Message Board- the enthusiasm of those in attendance tells quite a story in itself!

(Innocent Bystander) Absolutely epic, thank you Pearl Jam, and Neil Young, for an awesome show and possibly the coolest moment I’ve ever seen on a stage. Seriously, how spritely is he? He was running around the stage like a demented school child, and what a solo! The guys faces were priceless, beautiful moment, too late to recut PJ20 or add another extra feature? Too tired to even attempt to articulate the feelings from the show, great crowd also, fantastic night. Here’s to night 2.

(RidinTheWave) That was by far the most amazing show I have ever witnessed. I totally agree with what everyone else has said so far, especially that I don’t think anybody but Mike knew that Neil was coming out. Eddie’s face was awesome.

(mcgruff10): the setlist was just incredible; huge sing a longs for the majority of the night. the band was on fire, the crowd rivaled if not better than a msg/spectrum audience. pj is in top form, i honestly don’t know how they can get better. this show definitely topped last sunday night in wisconsin. thank you pj!

(rodent): In all the shows that I’ve seen over the past 20 years, this was in the top 5 FOR SURE. You could feel so much excitement & energy in the air building up before the band hit the stage and could just tell it was going to be an epic night. Seeing Cameron Crowe on the side of the stage taking pictures with fans was great. The band was on FIRE. Mike’s solo during Black – f*****************ck. The look on Jeff’s face when he was jamming with Neil – priceless. That version of Porch blew my mind, definitely my favorite aside from the Unplugged version. And of course Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns. My heart & mind imploded tonight. The end.

(100 Pacer): The crowd didn’t seem as loud, to me anyway, as the Montreal crowd but the with the band’s friends (Cameron Crowe and company sitting Mike’s side in the stands) and family (girlfriends, wives, and management sitting Stone’s side in the stands) in attendance (Ed commented on the fact it was rare for all of their wives/girlfriends to all be in attendance at the same show) you could certainly tell the band was ready to kick it into high gear immediately. Faithfull and Nothing As It Seems (played for Dimitris, Tim came over to find Dimitris right as the song was beginning to acknowledge his request) were my main set standouts. Just Breathe slowed the momentum right down and at that very moment it felt like a total buzz kill. Once the It’s OK tag rolled around the momentum picked right back, but Grievance mixed things up a bit again because it sounded like someone was either playing in the wrong key/tuning and/or someone wasn’t keeping up with the tempo. Come Back was to follow Down but got passed over. The crowd was on board for the loud segments, and Porch was a highlight as a result. The “Man” trilogy was another high note (and a 1st for a Toronto show if I’m not mistaken). Ole was on the setlist before the “Man” trilogy and got bumped down on the setlist to then follow the “Man” trilogy only to get ignored altogether. The 2nd encore is obviously what this show will be remembered for. Chloe Dancer wasn’t originally on the setlist, it was written into the setlist right before the 2nd encore began. The PJ20 premiere yesterday definitely cast a positive shadow over tonight’s setlist and we were very fortunate for that. State of Love and Trust was to follow Crown of Thorns (another rarity for Toronto) but was scratched off. It was a toss-up between RITFW and Fucking Up on the setlist, and we know what they ultimately chose. All of McCready’s guitars operate on the same wireless transmitter frequency, so after he handed Neil his guitar he was left to operate his pedalboard for Neil as he couldn’t pick up another one of his guitars…until it dawned on him that he could pick up Ed’s guitar and join in. Ed appeared to be awestruck and in partial disbelief that Neil was actually there and joining them on stage. The song could have easily continued for another 10 minutes.

(Torontoian) My wife was induced at 2 pm today. She told me to go to this show.  I have been to about 10 shows and I have never felt like I do right now. I have tickets to tomorrow night’s show which I cannot make as my first child will be born tomorrow or Tuesday morning at the latest. If I just have to give up the tickets for tomorrow or tonight is my last show ever I would be at peace. Thanks to the best band, fan club and fans ever.

Video , courtesy TFT pals mfc172 on YouTube:

Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns – epic.

Rockin’ w/Neil!

Press reviews:
Toronto Sun, by Jason MacNeil Excerpt:

The group – in town also for the premiere of their Cameron Crowe-produced documentary Pearl Jam Twenty – had the audience up and belting out songs without any coaxing. This was particularly evident on Better Man as Vedder opened the nugget before realizing the arsenal of amplification wasn’t nearly enough to fight the united thousands.

Toronto Globe & Mail, by Brad Wheeler:

As you might imagine, the event was well attended by people judged to be important – actors Woody Harrelson and Jay Baruchel, and directors Crowe and Paul Haggis among them – but Vedder and crew do not play to Hollywood. The singer used stage monitors as a personal jungle gym and was easygoing (in contrast to his sometimes sullen singing) between songs. Before the first encore set began with the acoustic ballad Nothingman, he noted the similarities between Toronto and Seattle. “We share large concrete erections and, yeah, we know, yours is bigger,” he allowed, before adding that his town’s tower had “kind of a nice shape.” …the band endures with melodic guitar rock, leanly and boldly presented, especially on stage, where their level of consistency, charismatic passion and generosity of energy is fairly unparalleled.

A plethora of great images from the night: (all Kevin Mazur,  Wire Image except as noted)

That’s it for now, if we find more juicy bits, we’ll post ‘em. What a way to get back on it, boys!  Rock. Seriously.

Pearl Jam kicked off their 2011 Canadian tour in lovely Montreal September 7th with a solid set of crowd-friendly tunes; we’ll post reviews, pictures and details here to kick off our tour coverage.

Setlist: (from Official Message Board)

Montreal Bell Centre
Montreal, QC. CA
Sept. 07, 2011
Set List

01. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
02. Last Exit
03. Hail Hail
04. The Fixer
05. Amongst The Waves
06. Severed Hand
07. Setting Forth
08. Corduroy
09. Given To Fly
10. Insignificance
11. Daughter/Blitzkrieg Bop-(Ramones)
12. Glorified G
13. 1/2 Full
14. Do The Evolution
15. Unthought Known
16. Why Go

ENCORE BREAK 1
17. Evenflow
18. Come Back
19. Sleight Of Hand
20. Down
21. Black
22. Arms Aloft-(Bullen, Shields, Slatterly, Stafford, Strummer)
23. Lukin
24. Porch

ENCORE BREAK 2
{Ed thanks the crowd and says Montreal was a great place to start the tour.
He then reads his horoscope in the local paper which suggests he should avoid glum people and needs to surround himself with happy, laughing people today}
25. Betterman
26. Crazy Mary-(Williams)
27. Alive
28. Yellow Ledbetter

Poster (courtesy InsideTheRockPosterFrame):

Bernarde Perusse  at the Montreal Gazette posted this review of the night, excerpted below:

Before Pearl Jam unleashed their encore set near the end of a triumphant concert at the Bell Centre Wednesday night, lead vocalist Eddie Vedder read from his horoscope, which recommended that he avoid people and places that depress him and instead go where there is music and people are happy.

He took the advice.

Just over 15,000 people showed up for the kickoff stop on the group’s 20th-anniversary Canadian tour. The faithful came prepared to celebrate, with lung-busting and throat-shredding intensity, the band’s happy milestone…. continued here.

Photos: