Pearl Jam Play A Different Kind Of Show In Oakland

Matt Cameron tested positive for COVID just before Pearl Jam’s show in Oakland Thursday, but hey decided to press on and wound up playing one of their oddest shows ever.

Eddie Vedder came out before the opener, Josh Klinghoffer’s Pluralone, to play two acoustic covers — Neil Young’s “The Needle and the Damage Done” and Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” He told the crowd, who were unaware of the positive test, “Do we have a show for you. No, I mean do we have a show for you?”

Klinghoffer got behind the drum kit for the band’s opening song, a cover of “Rockin’ in the Free World,” and the next three songs. Vedder told the crowd that Cameron had tested positive and then said that their friend and frequent Jeff Ament collaborator Richard Stuverud had come to the arena to sit in. Klinghoffer and Stuverud traded off for the rest of the show.

After they played “Daughter,” Vedder shared the story of Pete Townshend getting a fan out of the crowd to fill in for a passed-out Keith Moon at a Who show. He then picked out a person wearing a shirt with the last name of all five of Pearl Jam’s drummers and asked if he could play. The fan, later identified as Josh Arroyo, said yes and was taken backstage to get a COVID test. Arroyo came out and played the final song, “Yellow Ledbetter,” with the band.

Klinghoffer and Stuverud rotated for Friday’s show but there was a fan that played on one song. Drummer Kai Neukermans, a high school senior from nearby Mill Valley, was spotted on YouTube by Eddie Vedder’s daughter Olivia. The band brought him out to play on “Mind Your Manners.”

Pearl Jam’s next show is tonight in Fresno, California.