Pearl Jam Expands Australian Stadium Tour Following ‘Overwhelming Response’

More Australians will get the chance to see Pearl Jam’s swing Down Under later this year, their first in these parts for a decade.

Just 10 days after the rock legends announced a major global tour in support of their forthcoming studio album Dark Matter, Pearl Jam adds two stadium dates to their Australia lap.

As it stands, Eddie Vedder and Co. will play five dates across three Australian cities this November, starting Nov. 13 at Heritage Bank Stadium on the Gold Coast.

Additional shows are locked in for Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium and Sydney’s Giants Stadium, following an “overwhelming response to last week’s announcement of the Dark Matter World Tour 2024,” reads a statement from Live Nation, which is producing the domestic run.

Those dates will mark Pearl Jam’s first in Australia for 10 years, and form part of an international jaunt that kicks off May 4 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, B.C. for a round of north America shows.

Vedder, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCreedy and Matt Cameron will then head over to Europe for June and July, return to the States in late August, and bring matters to a halt in November with two shows in New Zealand and the five Australia concerts.

Pixies will serve as support for the dates in ANZ.

All of it is in support of Dark Matter, the Rock Hall-inducted group’s 12th studio LP, due out April 19. It’s the followup to 2020’s Gigaton, which peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart, and No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was described by some devotees as their most experimental album yet.

Produced by Andrew Watt, Dark Matter was “born in just three weeks,” according to a statement from reps, as the band mates wrote and recorded in a “burst of inspiration.” The “musicians faced one another in the same space and communicated sonically at the highest level,” the message continues.

The title track dropped earlier this month and is the musical equivalent of a boulder – heavy rock, no nonsense.

Dark Matter World Tour (Australia)
Nov.13 — Heritage Bank Stadium, Gold Coast
Nove.16 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Nov.18 — Marvel Stadium, Melbourne
Nov. 21 — Giants Stadium, Sydney
Nov. 23 — Giants Stadium, Sydney


Lars Brandle

Billboard