#2, DAVE KRUSEN RETURNS TO PEARL JAM
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| Credit: PearlJam.com |
This is not just a story about Dave Krusen. This is a story about Matt Cameron, who came down with COVID-19 just before Pearl Jam's two shows in Oakland. It's a story about Richard Stuverud, friend of Jeff Ament, who stepped in to play drums for three shows in Oakland and Fresno. It's a story about Josh Klinghoffer, who also picked up drums, leading to a drum battle between he and Stuverud during the performance of W.M.A. on night two in Oakland. It's a story about Josh Arroyo, who was just a fan in the audience wearing a shirt with the names off all the Pearl Jam drummers, which got him on stage to play drums for show closer, Yellow Ledbetter.
We love all of that and hope to see Josh back in 2023, but our particular highlight of the tour was having Dave Krusen back behind the set for all of our Ten-era favorites in Fresno. If we can't have Matt Cameron, and we can't have Jimmy Shoaf, Dave Krusen is an amazing and exciting third choice. For a brief window of time, we got to have Pearl Jam, as Pearl Jam was originally formed, and it couldn't have been a better show.
We could have had two more amazing shows, rumor had it that Jack Irons was trying to get to California, if COVID-19 had not spread further into the band, cutting them down before end of that leg of the tour.
