Happy Early Birthday, Eddie Vedder!
I want to wish a happy early birthday to an absolute legend and frontman for the iconic band Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder!
Eddie is turning 58 years old tomorrow, December 23rd.
In celebration of Eddie’s birthday, I will be taking an extended vacation, so that is why I had to post an early birthday shoutout today!
I hope you enjoy my gift to you, Eddie!
All jokes aside, Pearl Jam is one of my favorite band’s ever – so much so that I have actually seen them play over 70 times.
The first time I ever saw them live was actually all the way back on November 11th of 1991 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City.
It is crazy looking back on that show since all three bands went on to become huge names in the rock music world, but back then Pearl Jam was relatively unknown.
The second time I saw them perform was on April 16th, 1992, at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queen, New York, which was for the taping of their MTV Unplugged performance.
That was a lot of fun being in such an intimate venue.
A few months later I saw them again at Lollapalooza 1992, where they took the stage at 2 p.m. and tickets were just $26!
I was able to snag a cool picture with Eddie, too!
It is hard to imagine seeing Pearl Jam take the stage in anything but a headliner slot, but I did!
I also can’t forget when they headlined Philadelphia’s Made in America Festival and brought out Jay-Z.
All that being said, my favorite Pearl Jam shows I’ve attended were the four shows they played to close out the late-and-great Spectrum on October 27th, 28th, 30th, and 31st of 2009.
They played 103 different songs over the stretch of those four shows, including the first time they performed “Bugs,” where Eddie was on accordion, and “Sweet Low” from Lost Dogs with Jeff Ament on vocals.
Jeff actually told me they were rehearsing every day and night in the hotel room because they had never performed a ton of the songs on the setlist at all, and many more songs that they had only played once.
Check out the setlist from the October 28th show!
Don’t get me wrong, Pearl Jam always puts an amazing show on, but those four nights at The Spectrum were truly special.
Anyway, happy birthday, Eddie. Enjoy your day!
MATT CORD
Join me weekdays 9am to 2pm right after The John DeBella Show and before André Gardner from 2pm-7pm. CONNECT 3 at 10am for FABULOUS prizes, Noontime Nuggets at 12noon, and you can win concert tickets throughout the show for many of the upcoming MGK Concerts. Text in your requests at MGKMGK or call 215-263-WMGK. I end every show with a voicemail from my late father Jack Cord because he always left the coolest voicemails on my machine and phone.
Also the PA Voice for the Philadelphia 76ers for the past 26 years, and the Voice of NBA2K22 and NBA2K23.
