Pearl Jam Boston 1994: My First Rock Show Was a Smashing One

Pearl Jam Boston 1994. My first real rock show. Thirty years on, and it's still one of the greatest live moments I've ever witnessed.

Pearl Jam played three shows in Boston in 1994. The first two were at Boston Garden on April 10 and 11. The third was at the Orpheum Theatre on April 12. That was a hot ticket.

I was at the second show: April 11 at the Garden. To put things into proper historical context--and this is important--the shows was four days after Kurt Cobain's body was discovered.

Again, this was my first proper live rock show. I had just turned 17 and, up until this point in time, my live music experience consisted of jazz. Clark Terry at UNH. Maynard Ferguson at St. Anselm.

As far as live rock, all I'd seen to that point in time were cover bands on the Common in my hometown of Wakefield. So taking the Orange Line to North Station was a pretty big deal. Pearl Jam Boston 1994. What a way to pop a cherry.

Fellow Seattle rockers Mudhoney were the support act and they blew me away. Pure grunge punk fury in a half-full Garden; I bought their tshirt. By the time Pearl Jam hit the stage, all 12,000 seats were full.

This was the Vs. tour, so you can imagine what the setlist was like. It featured the first-ever live performance of "Immortality." "Breathe" was played for the last time in a long time.

Eddie wove some lyrics from "Come As You Are" into their performance of “Black” and the crowd went ballistic. But that wasn’t the only tribute the band paid to the late Nirvana front man.

That’s footage of Eddie Vedder smashing a hole in the Garden stage and crawling down into it. The Garden crowd en masse understood exactly why Eddie did it and what he must’ve been feeling at the time.

We were feeling it too, still reeling from the news of Cobain’s suicide less than a week before. It was a one-of-a-kind rock moment, and I got to witness it firsthand during my first-ever rock show: Pearl Jam Boston 1994.

Thinking about it and watching the footage still gives me chills. And the setlist still blows me away. You can take a look at that here. Then, take a look back at Vs. below.

Pearl Jam's Vs. might be my number two. But there's an argument to be made that it's the '90s greatest sophomore album.

I'm writing this as I reflect on the album's 30th anniversary. Which is up for debate in an of itself. If you go by the Vs. Wikipedia page, the album was released on October 5, 1993. But if you go by the album's page on Pearl Jam's official website, it tells you that Vs. had its proper release on October 19, 1993, with an early vinyl release on October 12. I'm going with the 19th, as that's my dad's birthday.

I actually tackled this topic (sort of) earlier this year with this 12-Inch Poll: What’s the Greatest Rock Album from 1993? That year was absolutely stacked with great alternative rock. As of now, Vs. is second in the Poll to Siamese Dream from the Smashing Pumpkins. Which pleases me, as that's my pick. I wrote about my love for that one on its 30th anniversary earlier this year. Read that here.

Refocusing solely on sophomore releases, we're putting Vs. up against the aforementioned Siamese Dream. Nirvana's In Utero technically isn't in the conversation; that turned 30 this year as well, but it's their third album. What are the other heavy-hitters? Alice In Chains Dirt? Stone Temple Pilots Purple? There are likely a few more, but that's already a murderer's row of '90s sophomore releases.

So how does Vs. stack up? Let's look at it in context. At the time, Pearl Jam were arguably the biggest rock band in the world next to Nirvana. And while In Utero was perhaps the most highly-anticipated release of the '93s, Nirvana was so big that no matter what they did on that album, it was going to sell. You could say the same for Pearl Jam, but they had a bit more to prove.

The band had toured their asses off behind Ten, and seen their popularity soar. So the pressure was on to deliver a strong follow-up. The members and producer Brendan O'Brien took a one-at-a-time approach with the songs to give Eddie Vedder the time he needed for his lyrical and vocal approach. The process was still slow. Vedder was uncomfortable. The tension was palpable.

But instead of cracking under pressure, that tension became a crucible. And from the crucible emerged a contender for '90s greatest sophomore album that was as strong as--if not stronger--than the debut. And shouldn't that be the primary criteria for judging a follow up? The numbers bear that out: the album sold 50,000 shy of 1,000,000 copies in the first five days of release. And that record stood for a half-decade.

The music bears it out as well. I've hand-picked a handful of standout tracks that I believe to be examples of excellence below. Check them out, then find some time in the coming days to revisit the album if you haven't in awhile. I mean, hey, it's no Siamese Dream. But it's still a damn fine '90s rock follow-up album'90s greatest sophomore album. (Your sarcasm detector should be going off right about now.)

Your fans are anxiously awaiting your second album. So you lead with this and punch them directly in the face. Power move.

"Oh, what's that? "Go" wasn't enough of a rocker for you? Here, get a load of this." What a one-two punch to open an album.

I remember my first spin through this album 30+ years ago and thinking what a throw-back, classic rock riff this was. It's one of McCready's finest, really.

Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese was so frustrated by the multiple takes on this track that, on the take they ended up using, you can hear him throw his drumsticks in frustration at the end of the song. Legendary Pearl Jam lore.

Sure, "Daughter" is the enduring hit ballad. But "Elderly Woman..." was a real surprise toward the end of the album. If you've seen Pearl Jam live a bunch of times like I have, you don't need me to tell you what a highlight this one is live.

Pearl Jam knew how to open their sophomore album, and they knew damn well how to close it, too.