Pearl Jam baby 🤘🏻

I've been a Pearl Jam fan for as long as I can remember. They are up there with my favourite bands and I guess that is because of when I got into them in my formative childhood years.

My older siblings were into Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Neil Young, Therapy, Alice in Chains, R.E.M., Guns n Roses, Pink Floyd to name a few. My parents weren't and still aren't really into music, so the above bands are what I grew up on and were thus some of the first artists that I got into.

All these years later, I still love all of these artists and they all live on my playlists and get regular play time. RHCP's Blood Sugar Sex Magik is one of my favourite albums from that time, but there's an album that trumps it. It's an album of excellence from start to finish. No filler, no so so songs, all are bangers. In case you haven't guessed, I'm talking about Ten from Pearl Jam.

It's an album that permanently lives in my top ten albums of all time, ironically enough given it's title!

Eddie knows about that too, and that's him pointing at me on Saturday asking where the new Album Dark Matter resides in my top albums list! I won't lie to you Eddie, it's not inside the top 100, but having said that it's their best work since their first two albums Ten and Vs from Thirty years ago. They have refound something and I believe the Producer Andrew Watt played a big part in that.

I think that you can appreciate why Pearl Jam are among my favourite bands now and they are most certainly my favourite band to never see live.

During their last planned tour, Dublin was not on the list, so I had bought flights, hotel and concert tickets to see them in Hyde park in London in the summer of 2020. The dream was about to come through and my wife and I would see Pearl Jam at long last, but someone had other ideas, a certain B. B. of a P.

Big Bastard of a Pandemic! Yep, that's right Covid 19 restrictions put the kibosh on that plan. Worse still, there was no rearranged tour and we just got a refund. I was gutted, but it made Saturday all the sweeter!

The gig was on in Marley park on front of a crowd of 40,000 revellers, with support from Dublin band The Murder Capital and The Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft.

Here's a few snaps of Murder Capital who did a decent set.

Next we had Richard Ashcroft taking to the stage and he literally looks like he hasn't aged a day since releasing Urban Hymns with the Verve and luckily for us, he played a few of the best tracks from that album for us to revel in.

Ok, I was sufficiently warmed up now.

The Murder Capital ✔️
Richard Ashcroft ✔️
Beef Burrito ✔️
Plenty of pints ✔️
Insanely overpriced Gig t shirt for wife and me ✔️

How much for the t shirt? 40 big ones.... Yep rip off central, but pretty cool to have. I need to start selling Three Tune Tuesday merch folks!!!

Ok, so the time was approximately 8pm and four men were about to walk out onto the stage.

The Main Attraction

It was on like Donkey Kong.

Years of waiting was finally over.

2020's disappointment was forgotten.

The time had come.

Show time baby!!!!

Here's another bunch of photos I took on the night for those interested in seeing what it was like for 40,000 Pearl Jam fans.

So..........

What was the verdict?

Was it worth the wait?

Abso-fucking-lutely!!!

It was top notch, one of the best Gigs I've been to, top five I'd say of All time, definitely top ten anyway and loads of songs from both Ten and Dark Matter.

It was so good in fact, that I'd be tempted to travel again. Now I just need to decide between London, Spain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand or America....

Who am I kidding!! I can't afford that! I'd love to though and I'll actually be in Spain when those gigs are on too, but down near Malaga.

Just shy of 11 hours on the AP7.... Will I?? Nah, not this time, but hopefully the next time they tour, I get to see them again. I just hope 14 more years don't pass, as it was 2010 the last time they played at a much smalller venue that I couldn't get tickets for.

The images used throughout are all my own captured on my Samsung Smartphone

Thanks as always for stopping by everyone.

Peace Out