After three successful albums and becoming a world wide phenomenon, Pearl Jam entered 1996 ready to put out a new album and shift the dynamics of their song writing in a direction that perhaps the world wasn't ready for. To the wayside went some of the aggression and raw power that dominated Vitalogy opting for a more self reflective approach for No Code. The live shows were still without Ticketmaster, but continued to evolve, and this became the first year where we got to see marathon performances reaching nearly three hours and over 30 songs featured on the set. The 1996 representative for our Chronology Series is a show from Buffalo, New York that had everything you'd want from this era - flawless performances and an energized crowd.

We invite our good friend, Steve Bennett, back to the podcast this week to talk about this show being his first of nearly 100 that he's attended. And the stories here are can't miss. From failing to get tickets through an 800 number to dealing with brokers through the newspaper as a fifteen year old, it is the classic story of how far a high school student was willing to go in order to experience this band. And for it to be life changing once stepping inside the arena makes all the difference. This show marks the first non-VIP event in the building that's housed the Sabres for 30 years, and Pearl Jam would go on to play there three more times in following tours.

Steve's stories will dominate the conversation, but we'll also dig into the next step that this band took to develop a more mature sound in their music. We'll spend some time talking about how Present Tense marked massive changes for the band's mentality, and how even a song like Better Man was greatly improved upon since the following tour in 1995.

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