The Pearl Jam 2018 Tour was a concert tour by the American
rock band
Pearl Jam. The tour consisted of twenty-seven shows, with five in South America, fifteen in Europe and seven in North America.[1][2] It was the band's first tour following their
North American tour that finished in August 2016.[3][4]
The South American shows took place in March 2018 and were part of the
Lollapalooza festival.[5][6] The band also played their own headlining shows at the
Movistar Arena, Chile and the
Maracanã Stadium, Brazil.[7][8] The European shows started at the
Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on June 12 and concluded at the
NOS Alive Festival in Lisbon on July 14, 2018.[9][10] On March 30, 2018, a second show at the Ziggo Dome was announced.[11][12]
In January 2018, the band announced two shows at
Safeco Field in
Seattle, billed as the "Home Shows", with proceeds to benefit
regional homelessness programs. It was the first time in five years since the band last played in their hometown.[13][14] Later the same month, five more dates were announced in North America, under the name of the "Away Shows".[15] The band used the show at
Washington–Grizzly Stadium in
Missoula, Montana to promote their Rock2Vote campaign to encourage young people to vote.[16][17] Pearl Jam's shows at
Wrigley Field and
Fenway Park ended up earning $8.1 million and $7.7 million respectively,[18] toping the Billboard Boxscore chart that was dated November 3, 2018.[19]
Tour
South America
Prior to the first shows in South America, Pearl Jam released a new song, "
Can't Deny Me", which was at the time supposed to be on their forthcoming album,
Gigaton, but didn’t end up making the final cut.[20][21][22] The tour started on March 13, 2018, with a show at the
Movistar Arena in
Santiago, Chile.[23] At the opening show of the tour, the band played their new song for the first time, dedicating it to the victims of the
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.[24] They also played the song "Come Back" in memory of
Chris Cornell who died the previous year.[25] Pearl Jam's show on March 18, 2018, at the Lollapalooza festival in Argentina, was cancelled due to severe weather.[26][27] At the final show in South America, in Brazil, Pearl Jam were joined onstage with
Perry Farrell, frontman of
Jane's Addiction and co-founder of Lollapalooza, to play the Jane's Addiction track "
Mountain Song".[28]
Europe
The European tour started with two shows at the
Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, with the band paying tribute to
Anthony Bourdain and Chris Cornell.[29][30][31] The tour continued with an appearance at the
Pinkpop Festival, also in the Netherlands.[32] The next scheduled dates were two sold out nights at the
O2 Arena in London, England.[33] However, after playing the first show,
Eddie Vedder lost his voice,[34] and the second night was postponed until July 17.[35] It was the first time that the band had postponed a show for this reason.[36] The tour continued, with Pearl Jam playing at the i-Days Festival in
Milan, Italy on June 22.[37] They played two further shows in Italy, in
Padua and
Rome.[38][39] The show in Rome saw the band cover several songs, including "
Comfortably Numb" by
Pink Floyd, "
Eruption" by
Van Halen and "
Black Diamond" by
Kiss, with drummer
Matt Cameron on vocals for the latter.[40]
The European tour continued with several more arena shows, with Pearl Jam covering "
Help!" by
the Beatles at the gig in Prague,[41] and they were joined onstage with
J Mascis of
Dinosaur Jr. to cover
Neil Young's "
Rockin' in the Free World" in Berlin.[42] Following the arena shows, the band played three festival dates: the
Werchter Festival in Belgium, the Mad Cool Festival in Spain, and the
NOS Alive Festival in Portugal.[43][44][45] The European leg concluded on July 17, 2018, with the rescheduled date at London's O2 Arena. The
Donald Trump baby balloon was on display outside the venue prior to and during the gig.[46][47]
North America
The American leg started on August 8, 2018, with a concert at Safeco Field in the band's hometown of Seattle, as part of project across the city to tackle homelessness.[48] At the first show in Seattle, the band covered "
We're Going to Be Friends" by
the White Stripes.[49] At the second Seattle show, Pearl Jam covered the
Chris Cornell song "Missing", which was written for the Singles Soundtrack.[50] The band were also joined onstage with
Kim Thayil of
Soundgarden, along with
Mark Arm and
Steve Turner from
Mudhoney.[51] The two shows raised more than $11 million to help with homelessness in the city.[52][53] The next show was at the
Washington–Grizzly Stadium in
Missoula on August 13, where Pearl Jam promoted the Rock2Vote campaign, to get young people voting.[54] The poster for the gig featured an image of
Donald Trump's corpse being pecked at by a bald eagle outside the
White House.[55] It drew some controversy, with the
Republican candidate for the
Senate election in Montana,
Matt Rosendale, calling it "disgusting and reprehensible".[56]
The next two dates of the tour were at
Wrigley Field,
Chicago. At the first night, the band covered "
Rebel Rebel" by
David Bowie,[57] and were later joined onstage with
Dennis Rodman.[58] Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, Selena Fragassi said that "Pearl Jam shows remain some of the most unpredictable and eclectic live performances".[59] As per the show at Wrigley Field on the
2013 tour, the second night in Chicago suffered a rain delay during Pearl Jam's set.[60] The band were able to return to the stage to complete the show, which included the first ever live performance of the song "Evil Little Goat", an outtake from their debut album Ten.[61][62]
The tour concluded with two sold-out shows at
Fenway Park in
Boston.[63][64] At the first show, the song "Out of My Mind", an outtake from Vitalogy, was played for the first time in nine years.[65] The Boston Herald's Jed Gottlieb said that the band "seemed to pluck sublime rock, unafraid of real emotion from nowhere, and thrill the stadium".[66]
Tour dates
List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, tickets sold, number of available tickets and amount of gross revenue