Pearl Jam‘s Mike McCready recently fell from the stage while performing but continued to play his guitar solo.
The legendary band kicked off their 2024 world tour in Vancouver on Saturday (May 4). They 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.
During their performance of ‘Porch’, the 17th song of the night, McCready ended up taking a tumble during the middle of his guitar solo. The pro fell and while he was down, he continued to shred his Gibson Les Paul guitar, even while being picked up by a stage hand.
Fan-captured footage shows the moment in which he looked as though he was going to walk down to a lowered part of the stage. Sadly, he fell right down, with only the neck of his guitar visible to the crowd for a brief period.
Although he fell, he did not miss a single note of his solo and was back up on his feet in no time. He returned for the band’s eight-song encore after.
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.
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“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.
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