Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron missed his first show with the band in 24 years on Thursday night (May 12th) after testing positive for Covid. For the band’s Northern California appearance at the Oakland Arena, touring member Josh Klinghoffer and longtime Jeff Ament collaborator Richard Stuverud both handled drum duties during the show. The band allowed a fan, named Josh Arroyo, to drum on the show’s final tune — “Yellow Ledbetter.”
Blabbermouth reported, “Klinghoffer was behind the kit for set opener, a cover of Neil Young‘s ‘Rockin’ In The Free World,’ as well as ‘Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town,’ ‘Why Go,’ and ‘Corduroy,’ before Stuverud stepped in for the tracks ‘Quick Escape’ and ‘Superblood Wolfmoon.'”
Prior to performing “Why Go,” Eddie Vedder told the crowd: “Matt Cameron is a true artist and he’s a force of nature. However, even his superhero status could not prevent him from testing positive. This damn Covid thing yesterday. We’ve been scrambling for 24 hours because after 25 months of. . . We were supposed to be here 25 months ago. We’ve been waiting and we’ve been waiting. Postponing wasn’t an option and for us neither was canceling. We didn’t want to pull the plug and we couldn’t pull the plug. We’ve got our group here, we’ve got our equipment here and, most importantly, you’re here. So, lucky for us, we have some friends, and one of our friends has already been on our team this tour — the multi-talented, multi-faceted, multi-instrumentalist playing behind the drum kit right now, Mr. Josh Klinghoffer. Like the Shohei Ohtani of rock n’ roll. Let’s let the s*** hit the fan and hopefully it’s good s***.”
- Pearl Jam North American tour dates (subject to change):
May 16 – Fresno, CA – Save Mart Arena
May 18 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
May 20 – Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Garden Arena
September 1 – Quebec City, QC – Videotron Centre
September 3 – Ottawa, ON – Canadian Tire Centre
September 6 – Hamilton, ON – FirstOntario Centre
September 8 – Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena
September 11 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
September 14 – Camden, NJ – Waterfront Music Pavilion
September 16 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
September 17 – Louisville, KY – Bourbon & Beyond Festival at Kentucky Expo Center
September 18 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center
September 20 – Oklahoma City, OK – Paycom Center
September 22 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena
October 1 – Dana Point, CA – Ohana Festival at Doheny State Beach (Eddie Vedder solo)
FAST FACTS
- Pearl Jam‘s latest album, 2020’s Gigaton, entered the Billboard 200 albums chart at its peak position at Number Five.
- Gigaton is Pearl Jam’s 11th studio album, and all 11 of those have reached the Top Five on the chart.
- Recently released on vinyl and CD is Pearl Jam’s 1992 MTV Unplugged appearance.
- The set was officially released for Record Store Day, featuring seven tracks: “Oceans,” “State Of Love And Trust,” “Alive,” “Black,” “Jeremy,” “Even Flow,” and “Porch.”
CHECK IT OUT: Pearl Jam on Thursday night with fan Josh Arroyo playing drums on “Yellow Ledbetter”: