Watch Pearl Jam debut ‘Dark Matter’ songs at opening night of 2024 world tour in Vancouver

Pearl Jam kicked off their 2024 world tour in Vancouver on Saturday (May 4), playing several songs from new album ‘Dark Matter’ for the first time. Check out footage below.

The band played a 25-song set at the Rogers Arena, including a total of nine tracks from their recently-released 12th album, seven of which graced a setlist for the first time ever.

Also played at the show were early classics including ‘Alive’, ‘Black’ and ‘Daughter’, as well as deeper cuts like ‘Leatherman’, at the request of drummer Matt Cameron, and covers of Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’, Tom Petty’s ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and Mother Love Bone’s ‘Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns’.

See footage from the show here:

Pearl Jam’s setlist at Rogers Arena, Vancouver on May 4: 

‘Wash’ 
‘Low Light’ 
‘Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town’ 
‘Given to Fly’ 
‘Scared of Fear’ 
‘React, Respond’ 
‘Wreckage’ 
‘Dark Matter’ 
‘Daughter’ 
‘Leatherman’ 
‘Corduroy’ 
‘Red Mosquito’ 
‘Upper Hand’ 
‘Won’t Tell’ 
‘Running’ 
‘Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns’ 
‘Porch’ 

‘I Won’t Back Down’ 
‘Black’ 
‘Do the Evolution’ 
‘Something Special’ 
‘Alive’ 
‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ 
‘Yellow Ledbetter’ 
‘Setting Sun’ 

The Seattle band announced the tour back in February, and it will continue around North America for the rest of May, before heading to Europe and the UK. Those shows include Manchester’s Co-Op Live on June 25 and London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 29, preceded by Dublin’s Marlay Park on June 22. Check out the full dates here and visit here for US tickets and here for UK tickets.

NME gave ‘Dark Matter’ a glowing four-star review, and praised it as “some of their strongest work in recent memory”.

“For those longing for the charismatic songwriting that first put the band on the map over three decades ago, ‘Dark Matter’ will come as a pleasant surprise,” it read. “Not only does it showcase Pearl Jam reclaiming the charm that first made them a force to be reckoned with back in 1991, it comes alongside some of their most impressive musicianship yet, as well as a determination to take risks after years of playing it safe.”

Eddie Vedder recently said that he thinks the band have “one or two” good records left in them after ‘Dark Matter’.

“The older you get the better you are at living in the present,” he said. “The understanding you have less time is the biggest number in the quotient. The goal is to keep making music.”

The band’s drummer Matt Cameron has also been speaking about the time that he received a cease-and-desist letter from KISS as a teenager.