Someone asked about the merch and the comments don’t allow photos so I wanted to share this pic of the poster in Wilmington. I assume it’s the poster for the whole tour since it has all the dates listed
Pearl Jam – Performing GIGATON In Full, One Night Only!
TLDR: I made a new live compilation of Gigaton, message me or comment in the thread if you want the link to download it. Everything that follows are my thoughts and methodology on how I created this comp...
Gigaton is fucking weird album and I have a weird relationship with it. When it first came out it was my least favorite Pearl Jam album, but in recent years it has become one of my most favorites. It's grown on me like a fungus. I have fallen in love with the odd structures and experimental styles and sounds pervasive on the record.
Like, does “Who Ever Said” even have a second verse? It has a post-chorus interlude that leads into the bridge and the big build up to the final chorus, but does it have a second verse? Does Superblood Wolf Moon have a chorus? It repeats the line “Superblood wolf moon, took her away too soon,” but does that count? It also has that one part we all love, the part that STUNS. Does any other Pearl Jam album have a song like Dance of the Clairvoyants? What about the coda on Never Destination? Pretty sure Gigaton is the only Pearl Jam album with a pump organ and a KAZOO. I could go on...
This album is fucking weird and I can't get enough of it.
I recently had some fun compiling a live rendition of Gigaton. I was inspired by folks like lowlight79, ridleybradout, and Kevin Davis. I wanted to create an experience that would replicate what it would be like if Peal Jam played Gigaton live one night from top to bottom. My goal was to compile the best version of each song from the record and make it flow like a singular performance. Here are some priorities I had with this mix:
With those priorities in mind, here are further thoughts on my selections: I had to make concessions on the intersection of priorities 1 and 2 on a few songs. God bless Ed. He really struggled with the lyrics for Superblood Wolf Moon and Never Destination. I could not find versions of either song in its original key where he nailed the lyrics. These are the only songs on this compilation played ½ step lower than on the album, and I chose these performances because Ed got all the lyrics right, or more lyrics right than any version in the original key, and the overall energy and performance coupled with the lyrical correctness compensated for the lowered key.
Regarding Priority #3, none of the performances on this comp come from 2021, so I guess I didn't represent each leg. There are a few reasons for this. For one, between the “Tour Edition” version of Gigaton and ridleybradout's “Gigaton Live” comp, 2021 is pretty well covered already. The other issue is there are only 4 shows to pick from in 2021, and honestly, none of the 2021 performances were better to my ears than what I chose for this comp from 2022-2023. Otherwise, I covered every leg. You will find North America Leg 1 in “Quick Escape” and “Seven O'Clock,” the 2022 European Leg in “Superblood Wolf Moon,” “Alright,” and “Take the Long Way.” North America Leg 2 is found in “River Cross,” and North America 2023 is found in “Who Ever Said,” “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” “Never Destination,” “Buckle Up,” and “Retrograde.” And finally, “Comes Then Goes” is the outlier. I pulled it from Pittsburgh 2025. I left Ed's palm muted guitar intro to “Wishlist,” cut all of the actual song “Wishlist,” and married the guitar intro to the “Comes Then Goes” tag to create what I have named the “Comes Then Goes Interlude.” With all of this being said, it was hard to represent North America Leg 2 with Priority #2 in mind because most of North America Leg 2 was full of down-tuned songs due to the damage Ed suffered to his voice from smoke in the air during the band's 2022 Paris performance.
Regarding Priority #5, does anything need to be said? Listen, I am a big MFC fan. I thought the band would retire before they would continue without him, but Quick Escape and Seven O'Clock with Richard Stuverud on drums are unreal. Quick Escape rocks so much harder, especially the 3rd verse with the added toms, and Seven O'Clock becomes absolutely sublime. The way Richard slightly pulls back the tempo and plays behind the beat during the chorus of Seven O'Clock adds so much to that song in the way of dynamics. The chorus just becomes so heavy.
If you made it this far here is a disclaimer: This is my first foray into audio editing. I did my best to crossfade crowd noise between songs properly so that there are no jarring transitions from one song to the other – again, I wanted this to feel like one singular full album performance – but I do not guarantee perfection. As I mentioned earlier, I also made a big cut in “Wishlist (Comes Then Goes)”, but I think is sounds pretty good. On this note, I also chopped the first few bars of River Cross because Eddie is discussing the situation in Ukraine as the organ drones, but he started the discussion at the end of the previous track, and without that context his words in the first bars of River Cross sound random and out of place. Beyond the cuts in those 2 songs, I didn't edit any of the performances at all.
Finally, I'm really excited about the album art. I used a portion of the 2020 Baltimore show poster. That poster is so cool. It looks like it's from the 1950s or 1960s. It has funny pictures of each band member AND it happens to have each song from Gigaton advertised, so it's perfect for this project. I cropped it down to CD jewel case size and then edited part of the image in Canva to remove the section in the bottom right corner that was advertising the city and venue, replacing it with text saying “Performing Gigaton in full, one night only!”
I hope you all enjoy! Please give me feedback.
Tracklist:
