Vs. Tour
{{Short description|1993–94 concert tour by Pearl Jam}}
{{Infobox concert
| concert_tour_name = Vs. Tour
| image =
| image_caption =
| artist = Pearl Jam
| location = United States
| type =
| album = Vs.
| start_date = October 28, 1993
| end_date = April 17, 1994
| number_of_legs = 2
| number_of_shows = 52
| last_tour = 1993 European and North American Tour
(1993)
| this_tour = Vs. Tour
(1993–94)
| next_tour = Vitalogy Tour
(1995)
}}
The Vs. Tour was a concert tour by the American rock band Pearl Jam to support its second album, Vs.
History
Pearl Jam promoted Vs. with tours in the United States in the fall of 1993 and the spring of 1994. The fall 1993 tour focused on the Western United States, while the spring 1994 tour focused on the Eastern United States. Industry insiders compared Pearl Jam's tour to the touring habits of Led Zeppelin, in that the band "ignored the press and took its music directly to the fans."DeRogatis, Jim. {{sic|Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90's}}. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003. {{ISBN|0-306-81271-1}}, pg. 58 During this tour the band set a cap on ticket prices in the attempt to thwart scalpers.DeRogatis, Jim. {{sic|Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90's}}. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003. {{ISBN|0-306-81271-1}}, pg. 59
During the tour Pearl Jam concurrently worked on its third album. Several songs from the band's third album, Vitalogy, were premiered during this tour. These include "Last Exit", "Spin the Black Circle", "Not for You", "Tremor Christ", "Nothingman", "Whipping", "Corduroy", "Satan's Bed", "Better Man", and "Immortality".[https://www.pearljam.com/music/songs Pearl Jam: Song Index]. pearljam.com.
On the evening of November 5, 1993, Pearl Jam performed before almost 25,000 fans that stood and sat through the night on the lawns of Indio, California previously rock-festival free Empire Polo Club. (This show is well known among fans because halfway through the set, fans in the pit began pelting the band with shoes, provoking Vedder and the band to walk off stage, only to come out and play the rest of the set from behind a wall of speakers.) Although band management had chosen this untested and under-developed site as part of a boycott of Ticketmaster and the Southern California auditoriums it controlled, the show established the polo club's suitability for large-scale events; Paul Tollett, whose concert promotion company Goldenvoice booked the venue, said the concert sowed the seeds for an eventual music festival there, which eventually became the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/touring/1083099/paul-tollett-goldenvoice-team-on-the-struggle-and-ultimate-success|title=Paul Tollett, Goldenvoice Team on the Struggle – And Ultimate Success – of Creating Coachella|magazine=Billboard|first=Andrew|last=Flanagan|date=November 9, 2012|access-date=April 11, 2014|archive-date=April 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170407213846/http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/touring/1083099/paul-tollett-goldenvoice-team-on-the-struggle-and-ultimate-success|url-status=live}}
Pearl Jam's November 30, 1993 concert in Las Vegas at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts featured a reunion by the grunge band Green River. Participating in the reunion were Pearl Jam members Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, Mudhoney members Mark Arm and Steve Turner, and Chuck Treece, who filled in on drums for Green River drummer Alex Vincent.
Pearl Jam was outraged when it discovered after a pair of shows in Chicago in March 1994 that ticket vendor Ticketmaster had added a service charge to the tickets.Wall, Mick. "Alive". Nirvana and the Story of Grunge. Q p. 99 The band's April 3, 1994 concert in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre was broadcast live on the radio in the United States and was also eventually released as a part of the "Dissident"/Live in Atlanta box set released in Europe. On April 8, 1994, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home in Seattle due to an apparent suicide, which deeply affected Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder. At the band's April 8, 1994 concert in Fairfax, Virginia at the Patriot Center, Vedder proclaimed, "I don't think any of us would be in this room tonight if it weren't for Kurt Cobain."Gunderson, Edna. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090214092453/http://nirvanafreak.net/art/art75.shtml "Musical artists offer commentary on the late Kurt Cobain"]}}. Gannett News Service. Vedder later said that "the day that we found out about Kurt...I was just spinning. I was lost and didn't know if we should play, or if we should just go home, or if we should attend the services. I still have some regrets about that, even though in the end it was probably better that we played the last two weeks of the tour. I decided I would play those next two weeks and then I'd never have to play again."Marks, Craig. "Let's Get Lost". Spin. December 1994. This was Pearl Jam's last tour with drummer Dave Abbruzzese.
Following the tour, the band brought a lawsuit against Ticketmaster that accused them of being a monopoly whose anticompetitive practices allowed markup prices of more than 30%. The band's intention was to get ticket prices lowered for its fans.[http://www.fivehorizons.com/archive/articles/testimon.shtml "PJ's testimony before Congress regarding Ticketmaster"]. June 30, 1994. Pearl Jam's plans for a 1994 summer tour were cancelled as a result of a Ticketmaster boycott.{{cite web | url=http://www.ew.com/article/1994/10/28/brawls-their-courts | title=The Brawls in Their Courts | access-date=2007-09-03 | author=Gordinier, Jeff | work=Entertainment Weekly | date=1994-10-28}}
Tour dates
Information taken from various sources.{{cite web | url=http://pearljam.com/tour | title=Pearl Jam: Set Lists | access-date=2007-12-08 | publisher=Pearljam.com}}{{cite web | url=http://www.fivehorizons.com/tour/cc/index.shtml | title=The Five Horizons Concert Chronology | access-date=2007-12-08 | publisher=fivehorizons.com }}{{cite web | url=http://jr2ft.bizland.com/concert-chronology/ | title=The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology | access-date=2007-12-08 | publisher=twofeetthick.com }}
class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
! style="width:150px;"| Date ! style="width:150px;"| City ! style="width:150px;"| Country ! style="width:250px;"| Venue ! style="width:150px;"| Opening act |
colspan="5"|Warm-Up Shows |
---|
October 25, 1993
| Seattle |rowspan="2"|United States | Off Ramp Café | |
October 27, 1993
| The Catalyst |
colspan="5"|United States Leg 1 |
October 28, 1993
| San Francisco |rowspan="27"|United States | rowspan="2"| Rollins Band |
October 30, 1993
| San Jose |
October 31, 1993
| Berkeley | Rollins Band, American Music Club |
November 2, 1993
| rowspan="2"| San Diego | rowspan="2"| Civic Theatre | rowspan="3"| American Music Club |
November 3, 1993 |
November 4, 1993 |
November 5, 1993
| Indio | American Music Club, Weapon of Choice, Eleven |
November 6, 1993
| rowspan="2"| Mesa | rowspan="2"| Mesa Amphitheatre | rowspan="2"| Bill Miller, Butthole Surfers |
November 7, 1993 |
November 9, 1993
| rowspan="3"| Butthole Surfers |
November 11, 1993
| Denton |
November 12, 1993
| Dallas |
November 16, 1993
| rowspan="3"| New Orleans | rowspan="3"| Lakefront Arena | rowspan="7"| Mudhoney |
November 17, 1993 |
November 19, 1993 |
November 20, 1993 |
November 22, 1993 |
November 23, 1993
| T&T Center |
November 24, 1993
| Wichita |
November 26, 1993
| rowspan="2"| Boulder | rowspan="2"| Balch Fieldhouse | Urge Overkill, Mudhoney |
November 27, 1993
| Mudhoney |
November 30, 1993
| rowspan="2"| Las Vegas | rowspan="2"| Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts | rowspan="2"| Mudhoney |
December 1, 1993 |
December 2, 1993
| Reno | Urge Overkill, Mudhoney |
December 7, 1993
| rowspan="3"| Seattle | rowspan="3"| Seattle Center Arena | Urge Overkill, Six in the Clip |
December 8, 1993
| |
December 9, 1993
| Urge Overkill, Hater |
colspan="5"|United States leg 2 |
March 6, 1994
| rowspan="2"| Denver | rowspan="25"| United States | rowspan="2"| Paramount Theatre | rowspan="2"| The Frogs |
March 7, 1994 |
March 9, 1994
| L7, Follow for Now |
March 10, 1994
| rowspan="2"| Chicago | The Frogs, Urge Overkill |
March 13, 1994
| The Frogs, Magic Slim and the MGs |
March 14, 1994
| rowspan="2"| St. Louis | rowspan="2"| Fox Theatre | The Frogs, Grant Lee Buffalo |
March 15, 1994
| The Frogs |
March 17, 1994
| rowspan="4"| Grant Lee Buffalo |
March 19, 1994
| Detroit |
March 20, 1994 |
March 22, 1994 |
March 24, 1994
| rowspan="7"| King's X |
March 25, 1994
| Memphis |
March 26, 1994 |
March 28, 1994
| Miami |
March 29, 1994 |
April 2, 1994
| rowspan="2"| Atlanta | rowspan="2"| Fox Theatre |
April 3, 1994 |
April 6, 1994
| rowspan="7"| Mudhoney |
April 7, 1994 |
April 8, 1994
| Fairfax |
April 10, 1994
| rowspan="3"| Boston | rowspan="2"| Boston Garden |
April 11, 1994 |
April 12, 1994 |
April 17, 1994
| New York City |
;Cancellations and rescheduled shows
cellpadding="2" style="border:0 solid darkgrey; font-size:90%" |
style="width:150px;"|
! style="width:200px;"| ! style="width:250px;"| ! style="width:700px;"| |
---|
border="0" |
November 28, 1993
|Balch Fieldhouse |Cancelled |
November 30, 1993
|Las Vegas |Moved to Aladdin Theatre |
December 1, 1993
|Las Vegas |Sands Hotel |Moved to Aladdin Theatre |
Band members
Songs performed
{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
;Originals
- "Alive"
- "Alone"
- "Angel"
- "Animal"
- "Better Man"
- "Black"
- "Blood"
- "Breath"
- "Corduroy"
- "Daughter"
- "Deep"
- "Dirty Frank"
- "Dissident"
- "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town"
- "Even Flow"
- "Footsteps"
- "Fuck Me in the Brain"
- "Garden"
- "Glorified G"
- "Go"
- "Hard to Imagine"
- "Immortality"
- "Indifference"
- "Jeremy"
- "Last Exit"
- "Leash"
- "Not for You"
- "Nothingman"
- "Oceans"
- "Once"
- "Out of My Mind"
- "Porch"
- "Rats"
- "Rearviewmirror"
- "Release"
- "Satan's Bed"
- "Spin the Black Circle"
- "State of Love and Trust"
- "Tremor Christ"
- "W.M.A."
- "Wash"
- "Whipping"
- "Why Go"
- "Yellow Ledbetter"
{{col-break}}
;Covers
- "Across the Universe" (The Beatles) (snippet)
- "Ain't Nothing to Do" (Dead Boys)
- "American Pie" (Don McLean) (snippet)
- "Androgynous Mind" (Sonic Youth) (snippet)
- "Another Brick in the Wall" (Pink Floyd) (snippet)
- "Baba O'Riley" (The Who)
- "Beginning to See the Light" (The Velvet Underground) (snippet)
- "Crazy Mary" (Victoria Williams)
- "Fuckin' Up" (Neil Young)
- "Golden Years" (David Bowie) (snippet)
- "Happy Birthday" (traditional)
- "Happy Trails" (Dale Evans)
- "Hate the Police" (The Dicks) (snippet)
- "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" (Neil Young) (snippet)
- "I Am a Patriot" (Steven Van Zandt)
- "I Won't Back Down" (Tom Petty)
- "I'm One" (The Who)
- "I've Got a Feeling" (The Beatles)
- "Instant Karma!" (John Lennon) (snippet)
- "The Kids Are Alright" (The Who)
- "Monkey Gone to Heaven" (Pixies) (snippet)
- "My Generation" (The Who)
- "The Real Me" (The Who) (snippet)
- "Rockin' in the Free World" (Neil Young)
- "Sail Away" (Neil Young) (snippet)
- "Sheraton Gibson" (Pete Townshend)
- "Shine" (Rollins Band) (snippet)
- "Sick o' Pussies" (Bad Radio) (snippet)
- "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (Otis Redding)
- "Sonic Reducer" (Dead Boys)
- "Street Fighting Man" (The Rolling Stones)
- "Suck You Dry" (Mudhoney) (snippet)
- "Suspicious Minds" (Elvis Presley) (snippet)
- "Swallow My Pride" (Green River)
- "Sweet Emotion" (Aerosmith) (snippet)
- "Tearing" (Rollins Band) (snippet)
- "Three Little Birds" (Bob Marley and the Wailers)
- "Throw Your Arms Around Me" (Hunters & Collectors)
- "Tonight's the Night" (Neil Young) (snippet)
- "Young Man Blues" (Mose Allison) (snippet)
{{col-break}}
{{col-end}}