By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Iconic 1990s grunge band Pearl Jam will return to perform live in Rio de Janeiro at the famed Maracanã Stadium on Sunday, November 22nd. The critically acclaimed and multiple award-winning American rock band has released nine studio albums since their 1991 breakthrough debut, Ten, and has sold an estimated sixty million albums worldwide.
Rio de Janeiro will be the final stop in Brazil during Pearl Jam’s ongoing Latin America 2015 tour. The band began in Porto Alegre on November 11th then headed to São Paulo on November 14th. They then played Brasília on November 17th and will play Belo Horizonte on November 20th before arriving in Rio.
No strangers to Brazil, Pearl Jam has performed multiple times in the country since the band’s formation in Seattle, Washington, Unitied States in 1990. Consisting of members Eddie Vedder, Mike McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, and Matt Cameron, Pearl Jam performed as a group during the 2013 Lollapalooza music festival in São Paulo and Vedder was last in Rio during May of last year, playing two shows as part of a solo tour.
Pearl Jam was formed in 1990 by bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard following their work with the band Green River. Enlisting vocalist Eddie Vedder and guitarist Mike McCreedy, the core four members have remained with the band since its creation. Drummer Matt Cameron, who had been a member of the grunge band Soundgarden, joined Pearl Jam in 1998 and has remained a member since.
Pearl Jam is known for singles that include “Jeremy“, “Alive“, “Even Flow”, “Daughter“, “Go”, “Spin the Black Circle”, “Last Kiss”, and “Just Breathe / Got Some.” They are also well known for their political and social activism and live covers and songs that address current issues faced by the bands’ fans around the world.
During the November 14th show in São Paulo, Pearl performed a reworked version of “Love Boat Captain,” a song originally written as a tribute to fans killed during a crowd collapse at the Roskilde Festival In Denmark in 2000, to pay tribute to the victims Paris Terror Attacks. In the reworked live tribute the lyrics “Lost nine friends we’ll never know, two years ago today,” were changed to “Lost 90 friends we’ll never know, oh, again today.”
Tickets remain available for Sunday night’s show and Maracanã’s gates will open at 10PM.
What: Pearl Jam
When: Sunday, November 22nd, 10PM
Where: Maracanã, Avenida Presidente Castelo Branco, s/n – Maracanã
Entrance: R$120 – R$560