Yield Tour - History

History

Pearl Jam promoted Yield with tours in Oceania, and North America in 1998. Following the tour of Australia and before its summer tour of North America began, drummer Jack Irons left the band due to dissatisfaction with touring. Pearl Jam's sound engineer Brett Eliason stated, "We went and did Hawaii and Australia with Jack. When we came back, Jack wasn't in a position to carry on. He made that decision more or less by himself. He can be a really great drummer but he had difficulty on tour putting out the energy for the length of shows they were doing. I don't know if he thought they'd put things on hold for him." He was replaced on an initially temporary basis with former Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron. Cameron said, "I got a phone call out of the blue, from Mr. Ed Ved, Stoney and Kelly. I was ambushed. It was really short notice. He called and said 'hey what are you doing this summer?'" Cameron learned over 80 songs in two weeks.

Pearl Jam's summer tour of North America marked the band’s return to full-scale touring and the use of Ticketmaster, when previously the band had protested against the use of Ticketmaster. For this tour and future tours, Pearl Jam once again began using it in order to "better accommodate concertgoers." The first leg of the tour focused on the West Coast of the United States and the Midwest, and then the band moved to the East Coast for the tour's second leg. Cameron stated, "The guys made me feel real welcome and it wasn't a struggle to get it musically, but my style was a little bit different, I think, than what they were used to. And they've been through so many different drummers, I don't even know if they knew what they wanted. So, I just kind of played the way I played and then eventually we kind of figured out what worked best for the band." During the tour an organized fan campaign dubbed the "Breath Campaign" was started in which fans brought signs to shows requesting the song "Breath". After a four-year absence, "Breath" finally made a return appearance at the band's September 11, 1998 show in New York City at Madison Square Garden. The North American summer tour was a big success, and after it was completed the band released its first live album, Live on Two Legs, which featured select performances from the tour. Guitarist Mike McCready stated that the band released the live album due to the strength of Pearl Jam's shows on the tour.