Porch - Medialoper

B-side, 1994

Almost from the start, Pearl Jam were feted as a great and intense live band. So there was some serious irony in early 1994 when the tour to support Vs was thrown into chaos as they got into a fight with Ticketmaster over the exorbitant “service” fee that the concert behemoth routinely charged each and every customer.

While I’m not going to go into too many details — Pearl Jam basically lost, at least partially because Ticketmaster had a system of kickbacks to venues in order to be their exclusive vendors — the upshot was that the tours to support Vs and Vitalogy had a shitload of logistical issues, no matter how great the music was.