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. . Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003. , pg. 58 During this tour the band set a cap on ticket prices in the attempt to thwart scalpers.DeRogatis, Jim. . Cambridge: Da Capo, 2003. , 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".Pearl Jam: Song Index. pearljam.com.
On the evening of November 5, 1993, Pearl Jam partnered with Goldenvoice to put on a show in Indio, California for nearly 25,000 fans on the lawn of Empire Polo Club, a venue that had never hosted a rock festival. The 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, co-founder of Goldenvoice, said the concert sowed the seeds for an eventual music festival there, which later became the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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. . 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."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.
Tour dates Information taken from various sources.
Date City Country Venue Opening actWarm-Up Shows October 25, 1993 SeattleUnited States Off Ramp Café October 27, 1993 Santa Cruz The Catalyst American Music ClubUnited States Leg 1 October 28, 1993 San FranciscoUnited States Warfield Theatre Rollins Band October 30, 1993 San Jose SJSU Event Center October 31, 1993 Berkeley Hearst Greek Theatre Rollins Band, American Music Club November 2, 1993 San Diego Civic Theatre American Music Club November 3, 1993 November 4, 1993 West Hollywood Whisky a Go Go November 5, 1993 Indio Empire Polo Club American Music Club, Weapon of Choice, Eleven November 6, 1993 Mesa Mesa Amphitheatre Bill Miller, Butthole Surfers November 7, 1993 November 9, 1993 Albuquerque Convention Exhibition Hall Butthole Surfers November 11, 1993 Denton UNT Coliseum November 12, 1993 Dallas Moody Coliseum November 16, 1993 New Orleans Lakefront Arena Mudhoney November 17, 1993 November 19, 1993 November 20, 1993 Nacogdoches William R. Johnson Coliseum November 22, 1993 Little Rock Barton Coliseum November 23, 1993 Oklahoma City T&T Center November 24, 1993 Wichita Century II November 26, 1993 Boulder Balch Fieldhouse Urge Overkill, Mudhoney November 27, 1993 Mudhoney November 30, 1993 Las Vegas Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts Mudhoney December 1, 1993 December 2, 1993 Reno Lawlor Events Center Urge Overkill, Mudhoney December 7, 1993 Seattle Seattle Center Arena Urge Overkill, Six in the Clip December 8, 1993 December 9, 1993 Urge Overkill, HaterUnited States leg 2 March 6, 1994 Denver United States Paramount Theatre The Frogs March 7, 1994 March 9, 1994 Pensacola Pensacola Civic Center L7, Follow for Now March 10, 1994 Chicago Chicago Stadium The Frogs, Urge Overkill March 13, 1994 New Regal Theater The Frogs, Magic Slim and the MGs March 14, 1994 St. Louis Fox Theatre The Frogs, Grant Lee Buffalo March 15, 1994 The Frogs March 17, 1994 West Lafayette Elliot Hall Grant Lee Buffalo March 19, 1994 Detroit Detroit Masonic Temple March 20, 1994 Ann Arbor Crisler Arena March 22, 1994 Cleveland CSU Convocation Center March 24, 1994 Louisville Louisville Gardens King's X March 25, 1994 Memphis Mid-South Coliseum March 26, 1994 Murfreesboro Murphy Center March 28, 1994 Miami Bayfront Amphitheater March 29, 1994 St. Petersburg Bayfront Arena April 2, 1994 Atlanta Fox Theatre April 3, 1994 April 6, 1994 Springfield Springfield Civic Center Mudhoney April 7, 1994 Rochester Rochester Community War Memorial April 8, 1994 Fairfax Patriot Center April 10, 1994 Boston Boston Garden April 11, 1994 April 12, 1994 Orpheum Theatre April 17, 1994 New York City Paramount Theatre
Cancellations and rescheduled shows November 28, 1993BoulderBalch FieldhouseCancelledNovember 30, 1993Las VegasSands HotelMoved to Aladdin TheatreDecember 1, 1993Las VegasSands HotelMoved to Aladdin Theatre
Band members Jeff Ament – bass guitar Stone Gossard – rhythm guitar Mike McCready – lead guitar Eddie Vedder – lead vocals, guitar Dave Abbruzzese – drums
Songs performed
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"
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)
References