After months of speculation and social media activations, American rockers Pearl Jam are headed back to Australia in 2024.
Arguably the biggest rock band of the '90s and one of the pillars of Seattle's grunge movement, the 'Ten' and 'Vs' band will headline concerts in Gold Coast, Melbourne and Sydney in November as part of their 35-date world tour. The three Australian shows will feature special guests, alt-rock legends Pixies.The news is packaged with Pearl Jam's 12th studio album 'Dark Matter' that will land 19 April, with the title track just released.
The 'Dark Matter' recording sessions took place at Rick Rubin's Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, the quintet of Eddie Vedder (vocals), Jeff Ament (bass), Stone Gossard (rhythm guitar), Mike McCready (lead guitar), and Matt Cameron (drums) simply plugging their instruments in and jamming with producer Andrew Watt (2021 Grammy Award for Producer Of The Year) at the helm.
Within the space of three weeks, 'Dark Matter' was written and recorded. "I'm getting chills, because I have good memories," Vedder said during the band's 'Dark Matter' listening party at the iconic Troubadour in West Hollywood during Grammy week.
"We're still looking for ways to communicate. We're at this time in our lives when you could do it or you could not do it, but we still care about putting something out there that is meaningful and we hopefully think is our best work. No hyperbole, I think this is our best work."
Adds Ament: "What Ed said about getting us in a room at this point, we felt like we were about to make a really important record. A lot of that had to do with the atmosphere Andrew set up.
"He has encyclopaedic knowledge of our history, not only as a band and how we wrote songs, but as players. He could pinpoint things we did on old songs to the point where I was like, 'What the f... is he talking about?'.
"His excitement was contagious. He's a force. I just want to say thanks for keeping us on track. I couldn't be prouder of us as a band. I feel so grateful for the fans, but mostly for my brothers and these people I've made music with."
Find last-minute tickets here.
Pearl Jam 2024 Tour Dates
Wed 13 Nov - Heritage Bank Stadium (Gold Coast)Sat 16 Nov - Marvel Stadium (Melbourne)
Mon 18 Nov - Marvel Stadium (Melbourne)* new show
Thu 21 Nov - Giants Stadium (Sydney)
Sat 23 Nov - Giants Stadium (Sydney)* new show
