PJ Music Factory

Welcome to Pearl Jam Music Factory: Every Show Has a Story

The story of Pearl Jam, night by night. Inside: a full concert page for one night in 1992, the setlist of a show from 2000, the album Ten, Jeff Ament's story and a long read on Mike McCready's guitars.

By Pearl Jam Music Factory

A cream brush-stroke stick figure with a loop of shaggy hair plays a red electric guitar at the centre of a wooden stage, half hidden in white smoke, with white and amber beams crossing behind it and a red spotlight above.
Illustration: Pearl Jam Music Factory site art

Every show has a story. Part of it is in the setlist, part in the concert chronologies, broadcasts and tapes that survive, and part in what people who were there remember. Pearl Jam Music Factory is a concert-history reference: stories and setlists, with the sources on the page so you can check them. Some pages add selected links to other providers and to videos on YouTube. Here is what you can explore, and where to begin.

The Concerts

Concerts lists the shows year by year. The two nights listed there are different kinds of page.

Tivoli in Utrecht, March 4, 1992, has the full concert page. The setlist notes where its sources differ about the encore break. The show tells the night, from the history of the building to the encores. Recording & sound covers the soundcheck filmed that afternoon for Dutch television and the soundboard recording, and has a YouTube video for the date that you can watch on the page. Other accounts gathers recollections that came out later, each credited, and keeps them apart from the documented story. Sources & thanks lists the twenty sources behind the page, with links where they exist.

Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, New York, August 23, 2000, has a shorter page with no written story: the setlist of that night, twenty-five songs across the main set and the encore, with the three sources it comes from.

Albums and the Band

Albums lists the band's studio albums in order. Ten, the first, has a page of its own: the album's story through the end of 1991, the track list, the credits and the editions. It links to the Utrecht night, where songs from Ten were played.

The Band lists the members, the touring and session players and the guests. Jeff Ament, the bass player, has his own page, with his story through 1991 and his album credits, which lead back to Ten.

Where to Begin

Start with Utrecht. Read the night, look over the setlist, then open Sources & thanks and follow a link or two. After that, step back to Ten and Jeff Ament, whose stories run to the end of 1991.

The Blog carries this welcome and a long read on Mike McCready's guitars, amplifiers and pedals, with a section that goes song by song.

Every show has a story. Come and read one.