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| July 1992
After recovering from what happened during the European shows, they jumped
at the opportunity to do Lollapalooza which consisted of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden,
Ministry, Lush, Jesus and Mary Chain, Ice Cube and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Lollapalooza
II kicked off on July 18th, 1992, at
the Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco, before winding its way across the
U.S., playing to capacity crowds at every stop. The tour finished in
mid-September at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. The Bus that rolled up to the
curb to collect the band on departure day had the words 'HOTEL CALIFORNIA' on
it. Many critics leveled complaints at Lollapalooza this
time out asserting that it had drifted from its original intent of presenting a
so-called alternative lineup in a festival/carnival atmosphere. The scribes
griped that the 92 bill was too white-male-metal major-label oriented-in a word,
too corporate.
"Eddie was saying, 'Well, we have our crowd, some skaters and stuff like that'. He was worried about mass appeal", Mike McCready. "To me, the soundbite words of the year would be 'corporate' and 'alternative.' Those two words are kind of funny. They're words I'm really sick of hearing. Anybody who's selling records on any level is involved in some sort of corporate bullshit. If all you want to do is play music, fine-- sit at home on your porch and play music to your dog or to your wife or your kids or whatever. But if what you really want to do is reach people and play music in front of people and exchange that energy and exchange ideas, the best opportunity to do that is to play in front of more people and sell more records and go to more countries, and it all kind of relies on each other. The only way you can go overseas is if you sell a certain amount of records or have enough money to do it. It's kind of this round-robin thing for people to bitch and complain about. I think if your heart is good and you stay on top of where the money is going and what's happening, you can do it in a way where you actually feel good about it. It doesn't have to be something that makes you lay awake at night and say, 'God I can't sleep because I'm too corporate'", Jeff Ament. " I don't really know Ministry that well, but I'm looking forward to checking out Ice Cube, who blows me away. My God, his album is incredible. It's such honest music, with awesome grooves -- those old Parliament samples are incredible. That, and Soundgarden, of course. It's always awesome to see them play night after night. The Peppers are an amazing band, and they were really cool to us when we toured together; they went out of their way to take care of us. Eddie incited riots a couple of times, and we were going to be forced to pay for the damage, but the Peppers took care of it. We really love playing with them", Mike McCready. "I think the Lollapalooza lineup is great. Ice Cube is probably the most exciting for me, too, just because I'm such a huge fan. Right now, he makes the greatest rap records around. I'm really interested in seeing how his show comes across live. Other than that, any time you have the Chili Peppers and Soundgarden together, it's going to be cool. Ministry could be interesting; I've never seen them live, but I've heard great things about them. I hear the singer is a totally "out there" dude. I have no idea whatsoever what Lush and the Jesus and Mary Chain are like. My impression is that they're a little more low-key than the rest of us", Stone Gossard. "Pearl Jam would get together in a circle before they went onstage and Eddie pulled me into the circle before one of their Lollapalooza shows. I put that in [my 2000 film] Almost Famous, even though it actually happened 20 years later", Cameron Crowe (Singles director).
In San Francisco on July 18th in front of a 18000 crowd, Pearl Jam's set was fraught with technical problems. Afterwards at the hotel Eddie was stopped by a group of Hebreuw students. At first, he'd been irritated by the intrusion, but the students had persisted, even inviting Eddie and Beth to come to a class with them. He'd declined, signed a few autographs, and turned to leave. But then he'd changed his mind and later he would credit the experience with lightening his mood. "I didn't feel obligated to do it, but then I was walking away, thinking 'Man, I bet I could throw a serious monkey wrench into that prayer meeting if I showed up in the back'. So me and Beth did. They were talking about religious philosophy. And I was so glad I was there. It was pretty cool. I was able to put the substandard show in perspective. The coolest part was realizing that it didn't fucking matter, because there was so much to do. You realize 'Okay, so the bass guitar went out on two songs', or 'They couldn't hear my vocals-big fucking deal'. It's so much bigger than just individual bands", Eddie Vedder.
"it was the worst show we ever played,
and I was really embarrased. If itīs going bad, you know it, and it sucks. Itīs
like going to the dentist. I just couldnīt wait to get off stage", said Mike
McCready.
Attendance: 18,000 Soundcheck:
Even Flow (without
vocals) 07/19/92 - Shoreline Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Lollapalooza II) Attendance: 18,000
Setlist: Even Flow, Why Go, Jeremy, Deep, Alive, Black, Once, Porch Notes:
Before playing the first song of their set 'Even Flow', Eddie adressed the
crowd "Stand up for we can all pretend that there's no seats". "This one is dedicated to all the photographers who have to
leave",
leading to Deep. During the last verse of 'Deep', Eddie changed the lyrics
"I wasn't a huge fan of the band, but the lyrics intrigued me - I spoke to Eddie, and I really got connected to his passion. Probably the greatest frustration I've ever had is that the ending [of the "Jeremy" video] is sometimes misinterpreted as that he shot his classmates. The idea is, that's his blood on them, and they're frozen at the moment of looking. I would get calls years later about it, around the time of Columbine. I think that video tapped into something that has always been around and will always be around. You're always going to have peer pressure, you're always going to have adolescent rage, you're always going to have dysfunctional families", Mark Pellington (Jeremy's video director).
"It's a good story. A kid blew his brains out in front of his english class. That probably happens once a week in America. It's a product of America's fascination, or rather perversion, with guns", Eddie Vedder. "Some of the inspiration for 'Jeremy' came from a Texan newspaper article, but you can tell that some of the elements are out of Eddie's own experience", Stone Gossard.
07/21/92 - Thunderbird Stadium, UBC: Vancouver, British Columbia (Lollapalooza II)
07/22/92 - Kitsap County Fairgrounds: Bremerton, WA (Lollapalooza II)
07/25/92 - Fiddlers Green: Denver, CO (Lollapalooza II)
On July 27th at the Riverport Amphitheatre, Eddie during 'Porch', climbed the scaffolding up the side of the stage to the top and then crawled to the middle of the stage and then continued to crawled out towards the crowd on a beam all the way to the lawn section. The result of that situation was that Pearl Jam was banned from playing at Riverport for a time.
07/27/92 - Riverport Amphitheatre: St. Louis, MO (Lollapalooza II) 07/28/92 - Riverbend Music Center: Cincinnati, OH (Lollapalooza II)
Attendance: 19,000 Setlist (incomplete and not in order): Why Go, Even Flow, Alive Notes: In Cleveland in front of a 19000 crowd, Pearl Jam took the stage at 3 pm playing renditions of "Alive," "Even Flow," and "Why Go", "I dare them to ignore me! I dare them! I dare them!", said Eddie. Several passing thunderstorms soaked the audience on the grass and turned the Blossom lawn into a muddy slide. But the rain and mud didn't faze the fans. In fact, many dived into the quagmire, transforming part of the hillside into a wild mud ride. Eddie and Chris Cornell were among them out on the lawn, slidding after the Soundgarden set.
"The crowd responded politely to Lush's offerings, but went ballistic when Vedder and Pearl Jam took the stage. The pavilion crowd immediately surged forward, overcoming security guards to breech barriers that separated the mosh pit (or dance area) from the rest of the seats. Like previous generations, today's young have transformed cutting edge rock into something that adults probably can't fathom (and certainly can't stomach). The mosh pit, a place for slam-dancing and diving toward the stage, is a way of keeping all but the most dedicated fans out of the prime viewing area. "We're redistributing the wealth," is the way Vedder put it, as he urged security guards to go easy on the crowd", The Cleveland Plain Dealer. 07/31/92 - Pine Knob Music Theatre: Clarkston, MI (Lollapalooza II)
It was the camaradie among the bands on the bill that made Lollapalooza a blessing in disguise for Pearl Jam. With Soundgarden and the Red Hot Chili Peppers along, there was a comfortable, familiar air to the proceedings. The billing was low-pressure because of their almost unknown status back when the tour had been organized, Pearl Jam had been given the second slot of the afternoon, following openers Lush. They were free by early evening to relax and spend their time as they wished "Jim Rose is amazing...He's a full-on freak. I've never seen anyone open a can of tunafish with his finger before", Stone Gossard. "Eddie was the first rock star I ever met, and I've met 'em all since. Ten years later, who's the one guy I could call who's going to call me back in a week and we go hang out? Eddie", Jim Rose [Circus] (a collective who liked to lift weights with their genitals, pump their stomachs etc.)
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07/18/92 - Shoreline
Amphitheater: Mountain View, CA (Lollapalooza II)
In Vancouver on July 21th, during 'Porch' Eddie climbed the scaffolding to
the side of the stage and dived into the crowd. The very next day in
Bremerton, Eddie did the same during 'Porch'. He even joined Soundgarden during
their set singing back-up vocals on 'Outshined' from a mic beside the drumkit.
While Pearl Jam was playin' at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds, 'Jeremy' was
released as a single. It was the third single released from 'Ten', following 'Alive',
and 'Even Flow'. The 'Jeremy' video by director Mark Pellington began full
circulation around this time on TV Stations including MTV which placed it on
their so-called heavy rotation schedule. Although it propelled the album on to even
greater sucess, 
"I have the unedited "Jeremy" video. It was too explicit. The boy
sticking a gun in his mouthit still gives me a chill to watch it. As you can
imagine, the band didn't want to change it. They felt this was their statement.
I got on the phone with Eddie on a couple of occasions to argue our position,
like, God forbid some kid thinks that's cool and sticks a gun in his mouth. But
it wasn't a pleasant experience, for me or for them. In my office, I have a
poster from the first record, which actually has a picture of Kelly [Curtis]'s
daughter when she's three years old, she's playing with a gun in crayons. They
all signed it, and Eddie's note points to the gun and says: "the gun you
wouldn't let us show. And thanks to you, I think you showed too much."
Meaning, the combination of having to compromise their artistic vision and then
it got so popular. That was the end of videos for Pearl Jam", Rick
Krim (MTV/VH1 producer).
07/29/92 - Blossom Music
Center: Cleveland, OH (Lollapalooza II)