Welcome back to the Pearl Jam Stories. In every episode, we explore key moments from the band's catalog of bootlegs with the fans that were there to see it live. Pearl Jam's home shows took place at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington on August 8th and 10th of 2018. A benefit for local homelessness initiatives, the concerts were the first time the band had performed in the city of their conception in over five years and they also acted as their de facto 30th birthday party.
What was really interesting about these nights though is that they each collected 48,000 people that all carried random fragments of Pearl Jam's three decades of history. Each night featured an arena filled with stories about a band that is much more than just a band to their fans. Their memories range from mistakes to magic and everything in between.
In this episode, we'll speak with Jeremy Heath and Dave Chinacki, who both attended the August 8th show. Each had followed Pearl Jam throughout their lives and arrived at the home show under very different circumstances. My name is Jeremy Heath, 43, from Seattle. I'm a dad. I work at Microsoft. In the 90s, I was a teenager with Pearl Jam, probably like a lot of people back then. I didn't know who they were. I hadn't heard of them.
until uh i think it was the live video blew me away it's like what the is this holy you know just it was amazing you know i was hooked basically the first time i saw them I'll get home from school one day and I get this letter in the mail and the return address says Seattle. It doesn't say who it's from, it says Seattle.
And I'm like, I don't even know anybody in Seattle. Like, who's sending me a letter from Seattle? It's just weird, right? And I actually, I kept a scrapbook in my hand. I have it right here in front of me. I open this envelope. There's a letter. that unfold the letter and there are two tickets and to says well the tickets right here says pearl jam with special guests more theater doors at seven february 5th 1995.
And the ticket number is 0026. Hell, so I read this, right? So I'm like, what the fuck is going on? This is dear selected fan club member. In close, you will find two tickets for a show at the Moore Theater this Sunday, February 5th.
Each ticket admits one person. There's no cost. This is our way of saying thank you. There may or may not be a supporting act. If we can, we can get anyone to take the stage right now. Right now it looks like our stage manager may do a rare repeat performance of Copacabana.
Let's keep our fingers crossed. I love this. If you are unable to attend, please do not sell this ticket. That would not be in the spirit of the event. Either give it to a friend or keep it as a souvenir of a really cool event you could not attend. So I about shit my pants. I'm like, what the fuck? At that point, they were my favorite band. So my best friend, he's
Huge Pearl Jam fan also, just as crazy about him as I was. And so, you know, we went up there that day. We got there really early. When we got there, I think there was only like maybe three or four people in front of us maybe. So we waited in line. Got to go in. We wound up being in the front row. Other shows, I'll tell you, songs definitely stood out to me. But this one, nothing really stood out to me. I think I was just so blown away by the whole thing. Like, holy shit, I'm...
watching my favorite band ever. I'm like, they're right in front of me. There they are. You know, Eddie's like 10 feet away from me or whatever. You know, the whole band, they're having fun clearly. It's, you know, it's just a great time. And even on the, they called the piss bottle pearls. They wanted to keep it on the down low, I guess, or whatever. This was like a couple of warmup shows. I think this was like right around when they first started playing with Jack Irons, which.
which I love. I love all the Pearl Jam drummers, but Jack, there's something special about him. I love his style. Jack. Check out Check out Check out Pearl Jam. I didn't see them again for quite a few years. I still love Pearl Jam, but then kind of around Riot Act, like Riot Act, I didn't love it. I do now, but at the time I was like, it was all right. It was just kind of weird. Then in my personal life, my personal life took a complete U-turn.
I got religious, man. It was weird. It was a weird couple of years for me. One of those things where I got rid of all my CDs, my books, you know, like I've sold everything. It was fucking weird. But anyway, as a part of that. As a part of that, you know, like I didn't listen to their music. I didn't listen to Pearl Jam certainly for Probably Year and a half
Yeah, it was wild, man. I mean, I went headfirst into this. But then I kind of got out of that. I started kind of getting out of the fog of everything and kind of getting back into the real world a little bit. Anyway, so I'll tell you about my favorite, you know, the show that really did it for me. So this is the show, probably the concert that has meant the most to me in my life, probably.
So, do you know about the Gorge? The Gorge Amphitheater? It's the best place on the planet, as far as I'm concerned. The Gorge is my favorite place on Earth. Pearl Jam is my favorite band on the planet. You know, and here we go. I'm going to this show. I don't remember what time they were supposed to come on. Let's say it was eight o'clock. It was maybe about 45 minutes or so before.
They were supposed to go on stage. And the stage is like set up, right? But then they've got like, it's a little bit different. They've got like acoustic guitars and shit like sitting out there and you're like, what? What's going on? And then all of a sudden, they all come out on stage early, like 45 minutes or so, right? And we're like, what the fuck is going on? And they're like, I don't think he said anything. He said, is everybody in? And then they start playing, I believe, in miracles.
They're all sitting down. It's mostly acoustic, very mellow. This is the gorge. The floodgates opened on my eyes, man. It was a little bit embarrassing, to be honest with you. And I thought like, oh my God. Now look over at my buddy. He's crying. What the fuck? I went to the first home show of the two nights. And that was like a really intense show for me personally. I've kind of gone through a really hard time in my life. I should go through a divorce.
It wound up being a really good thing. But at the time, I had also had this weird medical thing happen to me. I almost died. I had this weird, it's called a collapsed lung. And I don't even know, the doctors still don't know what happened. Like I just... it just happened to me like some people like can randomly have their get a hole in their lung so anyway long story short i almost died i was in the hospital and i had tickets to the home show going through all this stuff in my life and um
I mean, I just got out of the hospital, and I probably shouldn't have went to a Pearl Jam concert. You know, I'm sitting there at home, and I'm like, what the fuck, man? I got a ticket to this show. Am I really going to fucking just sit here in my apartment and... not go to this concert you know just because i might you know because i just died almost no way so i went to the show by myself and and then again like when they started the show uh they started the long road
which that song uh really means a lot to me and it actually uh they could have picked a better song to open that show for me you know that that song in particular the lyrics like and it always meant a lot to me but like what i was going through like it it you know it it it almost felt like they picked that song for me obviously you know obviously didn't but you know what i mean it's like they couldn't have picked a better song
lyrics that reflected what I was going through at the time. So that was the other time where the floodgates kind of came up and like, what the fuck is going on? They played the long road and then to top it off, they segued at the end of the long road into release. So it was like the long road into, they didn't even stop the songs. It was just at the end of the long road, like they're playing like this D, kind of, and then Stone starts playing. You can kind of hear it, like they segue into it.
you know that goes way back for me obviously to the first album and you know that song's meant a lot to me so you know long road to release is like literally couldn't pick the two better songs to start that concert for me But anyway, the crowd, man, when the release started, the whole fucking crowd was singing that song. And, oh, dude, it was amazing. It was beautiful.
Okay. Here's something that showed that I went to. It should be a highlight for like any Pearl Jam fan ever. And you definitely should listen to this. Eddie, he tells this story of this homeless man named Ed in Seattle.
that he had met and befriended while they were recording 10. And I won't tell you all the, because I don't want to ruin the story for you, but he tells the story of this guy who we met and how he... befriended him and he would go hang out with him during recording Tandy like go out and like eat with him and like listen to his stories and and then he kind of wraps up the story talking about saying that
This guy never knew it but this song was written about him. This next song was written by a guy I used to hang out with when our office was... Started out in Pioneer Square. We were making the first record, and Jeff and I were spending a lot of time down there doing the artwork and checking the mixes, and we were down there every day. And there was a guy that lived in one of the foyers and then in the middle of the day kind of take his grocery cart and hang out in the deal and I would get him.
the same sandwich that i would get and and he just looked interesting so we started having these these hangout conversations you know and uh his name was eddie and he was a a large african american man who kind of took to wearing like a blue tarp most of the time and some of you might even remember him and he he had a shopping cart but he always had a globe sticking out of it you know
So we'd talk, and he was a Vietnam vet. So we'd spend time, and he'd kind of show me. He'd have these good moments, and he'd tell me these stories about what he'd been through and some of the atrocities he had seen. And then other days, he wasn't there. And it was, I could see him fighting with his mind and his own experiences. And he didn't, obviously, wasn't getting.
help or the resources weren't there or he had been too far gone. We came back from European tour and after knowing him for about a year and a half and I couldn't find him anywhere. And I started asking around, asking around, and some of the other folks. And he was under the viaduct, which was great, because I thought I lost my friend. And so we had about a month. more of hanging out, and then after the next tour, I came back, and that's when I had really lost him. So...
The song was written before he passed away and he never got to hear it and He never knew that that he was part of it So, and I've never really told that story about him in particular until tonight, because it's the issue that we're talking about. I think one of the things that could be most important to do is just elevate the understanding and the empathy towards our homeless neighbors. This one's for Eddie.
I live in Tucson, Arizona, and I've been a Pearl Jam fan since probably 94-ish. I know people are just kind of like, wow, you're really into that band. I'm like, yeah, it's more than a band, you know? I sometimes can't articulate it accurately enough. But yeah, it truly is a part of who I am. I feel attachment to those songs, to those guys, even though I never met them, and what they mean to me is something really special and really remarkable.
You know, growing up, being young in the early 90s and such, you know, I watched a bunch of MTV and I liked Even Flow, Alive, Jeremy. I liked those songs, but never really, really gotten into them until... a buddy in eighth grade who moved to our school and was a huge Pearl Jam fan and we became friends and he turned me on to him.
First time I saw him live was in 98 on the Yule tour. One of the disadvantages, one partially being young and late grade school, early high school, you don't have much opportunity to go to concerts by yourself until you can drive. your parents think you're old enough. They also were doing the smaller tours and had the battle with Ticketmaster and stuff around that time too, which made it a lot harder.
to find a way to see them. And so, you know, when they put out Yield, they had that first big tour in several years. And so I was living in Kansas City, growing up in Kansas City at the time. And they, we just happened one day after school we were in.
I think our Spanish classroom for some reason, I have no idea why, but the radio was on and they're like a new song from Pearl Jam. It was given the fly. And they said, you know, rumors are they're coming to Kansas city in July. And me and my buddies just like started free.
like, oh my God, it's happening. We lucked out, but we ended up getting 10th row seats. I don't remember exactly how long it was from when those tickets were on sale until the show. Yeah, I mean, it was all good to think about. We were like the first car at the gate to get into the parking lot that day. And we just sat there. It was the day before 4th of July. It was July 3rd. And so we had nothing else to do than hang out in the parking lot when the lots opened.
went in and got to the seats as soon as we can. Each bought a, you know, it was me and two buddies and each of us bought a couple of t-shirts. I do remember the opening band was a band called the Murder City Devils, which the crowd, never gone back and listened to them. I probably have a better appreciation for some other music. Nobody was really terribly into them opening for that show.
I remember the lead singer could sense that the crowd wasn't really into it and he stopped between a couple songs and said, hey, you know. I hear about how Kansas City's this great rock town and Eddie Vedder's been telling me about how great it is to play Kansas City and you guys better get into our, you know, music or whatever like that. And they were kind of like, okay, whatever.
They play a couple more songs and I look and we're kind of on to the side of the stage. I look up and I could see a door open from the backstage and saw Eddie kind of walk out. from back and he kind of went to hide behind something so people wouldn't see him or whatever but it was like right between songs i I yelled out, I saw him yell, hey! And I see him go, and I'm like, all right, I can die happy man right now.
I mean, Mike McCready, Matt Cameron, you can see across the stage, staying on the side, watching the opening band play, and eventually Eddie made his way over there, and they're like, oh, we got one more song, and Eddie walks out onto stage, and the crowd goes nuts, obviously.
grabs the mic from the lead singer and says, what's this? I hear you telling about people that you were talking to me backstage. You weren't talking to me backstage. Stop lying to these people. So he like goes off on the lead singer on stage.
the crowd goes nuts one because Eddie's out there and two because like it's his band nobody's really getting into it like you're lucky you only have a couple dates left on this show otherwise you know I'd kick you off that was that was a pretty wild start for the for the first show and then yeah they came out and the intro music was the red dot song from yield um as what they walked out to opened with corduroy and i remember it being
over way quicker than I ever wanted it to be. And this was after Matt Cameron had joined the band too. And I was a drummer for many years and kind of had graduated guitar, but he had always been one of my favorite drummers. So I heard he was joining Pearl Jam. I was like, oh my gosh. Favorite drummer in my favorite band, you know? How great is this to be able to see him play live? The version of Nothing Man that they played at that show is what ended up on the Live on Two Legs live album.
Oh, that was cool. That one of those songs from that show ended up on that too. There's nothing left to subtract Some words when spoken 2003, July, Kansas City. My wife and I weren't really even dating yet, but I asked her if she wanted to go to this Pearl Jam show. It was the same amphitheater as I saw them in 98.
And we get there super early and grab some food just so we can have it hanging out in the parking lot, tailgate, whatever. This is middle of June in Kansas City. And so it's humid and it was hot and sticky. But whatever, we got there early, grab the tickets. And it being like about fourth row center and eventually get into the venue. Once it opens, get to the seats, you know, buy a t-shirt, that kind of thing. And band I go wild was opening for them. And as their set was going on.
clouds like and he was like not a cloud in the sky the entire day and clouds just start rolling in like crazy and then starts drizzling halfway through the set starts raining even a little bit harder they leave the stage crack of thunder, and the sky just opens. Absolutely opens. Torrential downpour coming down. You know, we're in the amphitheater. We're in the fourth row of an amphitheater. You know, amphitheaters go like this.
So all the water from the entire amphitheater is rushing down to our feet. So me and my wife stand up, we're standing on the seats, and the water was clear in the bottom of the seat maybe by like that much.
it was coming down that much. And there's some people who were nice who either watched the weather report or just came prepared because I had no idea it was even a chance of rain that day. And it had a couple of trash bags gave them to us to help us keep dry. It was kind of too late at that point. There's some lightning kind of off in the distance and coming and going and it kind of delayed Pearl Jam coming out.
By the time they came out, the rain had let up. It was still raining a little bit, but it wasn't downpouring anymore. They come out and they start with release. And it's just kind of this slow burn of beginning to the show.
but there's this amazing moment and you can hear it on the official bootleg the official track you know Eddie's singing oh dear dad can you see me now and all of a sudden there was this massive flash of lightning lit up the entire sky and you can hear the crowd roar when it happens and then he goes hi dad and the crowd goes nuts and then they go on and play the rest of the the
the song and then it kick into the show but it was I mean that whole experience because of everything with the rain and everything but just that moment I mean it was just a such a special performance of that song and it's it I've Heard it several times since then, but I don't think any time, any release performance will pass that one up ever at this point. It was just remarkable. and still love. Oh, snap I am myself like you
I saw the first of the two home shows in Seattle back in 2018. Ever since I started loving this band, just the chance to go to Seattle to see where they're from and stuff. I'd never been before. They announced these shows. And my cousin was getting married that week in Monterey, California. So they announced this. I'm like, so honey, what did you think about maybe going to Seattle first, then to the wedding?
God bless my wife, she said, yeah, what's there to think about? She's like, it's Pearl Jam in Seattle. That whole experience, that whole trip was really, really special to go to, just to go to Seattle and walk around and be in that town. After so many years of wanting to make the trip, we toured London Bridge Studios where they recorded 10 and a bunch of the early Alice in Chains and some Soundgarden stuff was recorded there.
and you know just to walk in that room and know that that's where like all these great songs had been recorded. was really something else and in the studio you have to walk through the vocal booth to get to like the control room And so we walked through and I just took one second and pictured Eddie standing in there or whatever. And then we get to the control booth and they had all the stems of the audio for Jeremy loaded into the board.
And so they started mixing Jeremy and bringing up stuff that you don't necessarily notice in the mix and additional tracks and stuff like that. And that was one of those moments, like being in the control room, having just walked through the vocal booth, seeing where everything else was recorded. recorded and they brought up. Eddie's vocals on the Jeremy stems and I was like getting choked up. I was not expecting that to happen, but it was something really, really special.
That was the day of the show, the morning of the show. And then after that, we had passes to do the big exhibit at the Museum of Pop Culture that they have there in Seattle, where just fan club members could get in. This is just memorabilia from the band's warehouse. from almost 30 years at that point. And so we got in to see that and then grabbed some lunch and then went to stand in and we had GEA.
tickets for the show and so then what you know basically we're close enough walked down to the stadium and got in line and made friends with people online. hung out for the show but I mean to be there in Seattle to see them play three hours 35 something songs um hear some songs I never heard live I think I mentioned to you all those yesterdays Yield is my all-time favorite
So anytime they play something from there that I hadn't heard live before, that was pretty great. They brought Brandi Carlile out to do a song with them. At one point during Porch, and this is one of those moments where I was like, I can almost die happy now. We were there and we were probably, I don't know, seven to eight rows of people back from the barrier to the stage. So we were pretty close.
towards the end of the porch Eddie hops down from the stage and like hops up on that barrier right in front of people and I was kind of bracing myself so I figured everybody's pushing forward well nobody behind us pushed forward but everybody in front of us pushed forward so now they're like all of a sudden there was just this huge open gap right in front of me and I just stepped right up into it and there's Eddie Vedder like three people away from me. This is where...
That's it for this episode. Thanks to Dave and Jeremy for their stories. We'll be back with episode three soon. In the meantime, drop us a line if you have any concerts that you think would be interesting to feature. Talk soon. Take care.