Pearl Jam Sets South America & Europe Gigs

Pearl Jam fans may have had to suffer through a relatively quiet 2017, with the band eschewing the road and Eddie Vedder indulging his love of baseball. But signs point to a big return next year, as a sizeable calendar of South American and European dates has just been released.    

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam
Tony Nelson
– Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam
Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, Minn.

They’re kicking things off in a big way at Lollapaloozas in Chile, Argentina and Brazil March 16, 18 and 24, respectively. In between they’ll play in the massive Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil March 21, home to the original Rock in Rio. 

No North American dates have been announced, but there’s a three-month gap between Pearl Jam’s South American trek and a June-July European leg that kicks off June 12 at Amsterdam’s 16,800-capacity Ziggo Dome

The tour hits festivals including Nandgraaf, Netherlands’ Pinkpop Festival, I-Days Festival in Milan, Italy; Rock Werchter in Belgium, Mad Cool Festival in Madrid, Spain, and NOS Alive Festival in Lisbon, Portugal. Arena and stadium stops in between include two dates at O2 arenas in London and Prague, Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Stadio Euganeo in Padova, Italy, Tauron Arena in Krakow, Poland; Waldbuhne in Berlin, and Palau St. Jordi in Barcelona, Spain. 

Pearl Jam took 2017 off from regular touring, though frontman Eddie Vedder made appearances at Chicago Cubs baseball games and even filmed a documentary, “Let’s Play Two.”

The band last toured North America from April through August in 2016, and continued to show they are a box office force more than 25 years after emerging from grunge’s Petri dish in Seattle to transform into one of the jam scene’s most potent purveyors. 

Pearl Jam put up impressive numbers in 2016, selling 97 percent of its tickets over 20 mostly arena dates and festivals with Chicago’s Wrigley Field and Boston’s Fenway Park baseball stadiums thrown in, natch. Total tickets sold on that outing tallied more than 418,000 for a reported gross of $27,887,738.