A sampling of Pictures from Pearl Jam’s epic second night in Alpine Valley, WI Sept. 4, 2011. Photos by Kathy Davis (the ones not credited), Matt McPherson & Jonathan Goetz.

A small gallery of the most epic night in Pearl Jam ever experienced by your humble co-editors…Our Band and their guests,
PJ20. Night 1. All photos by Kathy Davis/TwoFeetThick.com

Our boy Ed Ved performed “Without You” on Late Night With David Letterman  Monday June 20, 2011 – and here is a nice HD video (thanks to @3wefnet/EstupidaFregonia.net via IdolXFactor on the YouTubes)

And here is a Gallery of Ed’s appearance – a few screencaps of the performance, and some candids of the man arriving at the Ed Sullivan Theatre. Enjoy!

Mike McCready turns 45 today! Last week, if you were lucky, you saw Mike McCready appear at the Team McCready Global Event in New York City with Danny Clinch and the Tangiers Blues band, and PJ Cover Band “No Code”. Mostly likely you walked a few blocks to the Tres Mts show at the Grammercy.

If you’re really into Mike, catch a plane to Seattle and catch him at the Annual “Flight To Mars” show this Saturday. If you’re really really really into Mike, you can meet him or even play on stage with him with one of these VIP passes!

Mike is shown below in an unknown 1992 Lollapalooza show. Thanks to Tim “Skully” Quinlan for this crew Polaroid.

1992: Things are looking up!

Eddie Vedder, born December 23, 1964, turns 46 today. Oh how the years fly by…

Courtesy of Rolling Stone

These amazing Arkansas Online photos from the Voices For Justice West Memphis Three benefit August 28th were too fantastic – I thought they deserved their own post.

Full credit to the unnamed staff photographers at Arkansas Online, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and affiliated parties; original link containing all 84 pictures they captured from the event is here.  In this post: the Ed-centric highlights.  Enjoy!

Setlist from the Message Pit:

June 22, 2010 Dublin, Ireland, The O2

Set List: Long Road, Once, The Fixer, Why Go, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Nothing Man, Lukin, Not For You, Down, Got Some, Comatose, Arms Aloft (Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Bullen, Shields, Slatterly, Stafford, Strummmer), Do The Evolution

1st encore: Just Breathe, Given To Fly, Of The Earth, Porch

2nd encore: Small Town, Better Man/Save It For Later (Charley, Cox, Morton, Steele, Wakeling), Kick Out The Jams (Davis, Kramer, Smith, Thompson, Tyner), Alive, Yellow Ledbetter/Cowboy Song (Downey, Lynott)

not on the Pit list: also riffed during Ledbetter:  ”Bad” by U2. Thin Lizzy + U2 = Famously Irish

Dublin, Ireland – 02 Arena, June 22, 2010.   First show of Pearl Jam’s European Tour, folks – and it was a doozy! The crowd gave the boys such a boisterous extended welcome, the night could only be what it was – brilliant.

While my more detailed review is forthcoming, I just have to say – how much do I love a band that starts a tour playing a brand new cover (“Arms Aloft In Aberdeen” by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros) and a BRAND NEW  song? I guess I love them enough to travel to Ireland from San Francisco to see them. WORTH.IT.

The cover,  was prefaced by Ed saying “my birthday is December 23rd”, and talking about how he got a call on his birthday about 5 years ago maybe longer (it was 2002) that legendary Clash front man Joe Strummer had passed away the day before.  Ed called his death ” really heartbreaking”, and spoke of how Joe and the Mescaleros were due to open for Pearl Jam on an upcoming tour (indeed, on some of the 2003 tour T-Shirt sleeves, and I think on a poster or two, the words “R.I.P Joe” can be found).   Ed called the song “Arms Aloft in Aberdeen”,  that it was one of the best things Joe had ever done , and that Joe “left us too early”.   So right, Ed.  The track was on the Mescaleros final album “Streetcore” which came out in late 2003.  A sampling of the lyrics:

Sometimes there’s no star shining
Scounting the edge of the universe
Sometimes you can’t see the horizon
Between the ocean and the earth

And just when you’re thinking about slinkin’ down
I’m gonna pull you up – I’m gonna pull ya round
May I remind you of that scene
The spirit is our gasoline
May I remind you of that scene
We were arms aloft in Aberdeen
May I remind you of that scene
Let a million mirror balls beam
May I remind you of that scene

The new song, according to the Message Pit setlist and the lovely Sea,  is called “Of The Earth”, and it is 6 minutes and 40ish seconds of goodness! Ed described it as “so new it might not even be a song yet”, and it may be in the evolutionary phase, however an astute person on the official PJ message board discovered this article in which Jeff speaks about a song with the same title, described during the release of their 2006 self-titled album (we call it Avocado) :

Ament singled out two other tracks as his current favorites. “One is called ‘Of the Earth,’ that’s a song Ed wrote that is kind of a cross between early Peter Gabriel/ Genesis and Sleater-Kinney with, like, the Who’s Live at Leeds or something.

Jeff described it perfectly: to my ears it’s quite an amazing amalgam of sounds that combine all of the the bands influences, done with their flavor in a way that is uniquely PJ. The song, to me called on the breadth of song structure at which our band excel: unique timing, jazz-esque chord progressions, strummy jam moments (I remember Ed and Jeff jamming close together a time or two) and urgent quick rocking moments that get Ed doing the splits. It was like many PJ songs and riffs all stirred together in a magical pot creating it’s own unique brew.  It sounded and looked as though Ed played the e-bow toward the end of the song, and Mike interplayed with that a whale song-like guitar riff reminiscent of the pre-chorus of “Indifference” live. Like I said, a Pearl Jam Potpourri.  A new classic! Interesting that the lyrics contain the phrase “on the horizon”, the Mescaleros cover has that word “horizon” too.

Here’s a few pix of our Pearl Jam boys at the 02 Arena in Dublin, Ireland on June 22, 2010.  Photos by the generous Shannon Monroe – do not steal without crediting her and TwoFeetThick.com!

Your intrepid reporter Kathy and her dear friend Laurie Hester snapped a healthy crop of photos documenting those Pearl Jam boys tearing it up live in Buffalo, New York.  Here is a darn big and chock-full-of-goodness gallery illustrating what went on.

All photos are by Kathy Davis and Laurie Hester and should be credited to either of us and TwoFeetThick.com should you nab them.  We will haunt you if you profit from them without our permission. Otherwise, ENJOY! Credit key: kd = Kathy LH = Laurie (d’oh!) Thanks!

Happy 44th Birthday Mike! Enjoy this photo from June 3, 2003 LA Forum, taken by Photographer Dominic Disaia, who provided us with awesome pictures from the Santa Barbara 2003 show.

Mike McCready, Courtesy of Dominic Disaia

Three of our Pearl Jam boys were spotted at the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City on Monday March 15th, and here are a pile of pictures to prove it!  Ed in particular is a popular photo subject, and joined The Stooges onstage (featuring old pal Mike Watt on bass) for “I Wanna Be Your Dog”. All photos courtesy Wire Image, photographed by Kevin Mazur, Kevin Kane, Theo Wargo and  Dimitrios Kambouris.  Enjoy the eye candy!