Vitalogy Tour

The Vitalogy Tour was a concert tour by the American rock band Pearl Jam to support its third album, Vitalogy.

History

Pearl Jam promoted Vitalogy with tours in Asia, Oceania, and the United States in 1995. The band was joined by new drummer Jack Irons. The short tour of the United States focused on the Midwest and the West Coast. The band continued its boycott against Ticketmaster during its tour of the United States, refusing to play in Ticketmaster's venue areas, but was surprised that virtually no other bands joined it in refusing to play at Ticketmaster venues.^[1] The band chose to use alternate ticketing companies for the shows.

The tour of the United States faced various troubles. Bassist Jeff Ament said that the band and its crew had to "[build] shows from the ground up, a venue everywhere we went."^[2] In June 1995, the band was scheduled to play at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in front of 50,000 people. Before the concert vocalist Eddie Vedder was forced to stay at a hospital after suffering from the effects of food poisoning. Vedder left the hospital to play the show, however he was not able to finish and ended up performing just seven out of twenty-one songs with the band.^[3] Neil Young filled in for Vedder for the rest of the show that day. Vedder said, "That whole [Golden Gate Park] thing was a blur based on some bad food. It was really, really bad. Looking back at it, it doesn't seem as intense as it was, but it was horrible. I just felt not human and looking back I should have got through that show somehow, and I think the fact that Neil [Young] was there made me feel like I could get off the hook in some way and I did go out for a few songs."^[2] Because of Vedder's health the band was forced to cancel the remaining dates of its tour of the United States.^[4] The Milwaukee dates at the Marcus Amphitheater and the Chicago date at Soldier Field were eventually reinstated and the rest of the dates were rescheduled for the fall.

About cancelling the dates, Vedder said, "I think we all agreed that it had gotten insane, that it was no longer about the music."^[5] Ament later said, "We were so hardheaded about the 1995 tour. Had to prove we could tour on our own, and it pretty much killed us, killed our career."^[2] A concert video of the Australian tour was planned,^[6] but later scrapped.

A professionally shot and edited video bootleg of the Pacific Leg tour has been circulating among fans for years, but was never officially released. Several scenes from this video can be seen in Pearl Jam Twenty, which was released in 2011.

Tour dates

Information taken from various sources.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Band members

• Jeff Ament – bass guitar
• Stone Gossard – rhythm guitar
• Mike McCready – lead guitar
• Eddie Vedder – lead vocals, guitar
• Jack Irons – drums

Songs performed

References