After playing just two shows in 2007, Pearl Jam will return to the road this summer for a 10-date tour beginning June 11 in West Palm Beach, Fla. The dates come in conjunction with the group's previously announced co-headlining appearance at Tennessee's Bonnaroo Festival in mid-June.
"I'm looking forward to Bonnaroo," bassist Jeff Ament tells Billboard. "The thing that's probably the most exciting to me is that we've been a band for 17 or 18 years and there's still things like this that we haven't done."
The trek includes a June 24-25 stand at New York's Madison Square Garden, which has hosted some of the band's most iconic shows. Kings Of Leon will support from June 11-17, while Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will open the other dates.
A couple weeks ago, band members got together for eight days to begin kicking around ideas for the next Pearl Jam album, although Ament cautions, "It doesn't mean there'll be a record our next month, but it's the start of the process. Sometimes it takes six months and sometimes it takes two years."
"It's just fun to play," he continues. "We've actually gotten really good at jamming with each other, so it's fun to get together and crank up the amps. We'll have (drummer) Matt (Cameron) throw a beat at us and try to come up with something. There's some new, different kind of things coming out of people."
"We're just getting into it, which is so exciting," guitarist Stone Gossard opines. "We have no idea where it's going but we have a lot of great little starts."
Band members have plenty on their individual plates as well. Gossard is working on his second solo album with longtime collaborator Pete Droge and guitarist Mike McCready is preparing for his annual benefit show for the Northwest Chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, to be held May 3 at Seattle's Showbox.
Meanwhile, frontman Eddie Vedder's first solo tour, a short West Coast run, will get underway April 2 in Vancouver. "He's going to do great," Ament says. "He's been warming up for this his whole life, but especially the last seven or eight years, playing a song or two himself before our shows."
Here are Pearl Jam's tour dates:
June 11: West Palm Beach, Fla. (Cruzan Amphitheatre)
June 12: Tampa, Fla. (St. Pete Times Forum)
June 13-15: Manchester, Tenn. (Bonnaroo Festival)
June 16: Columbia, S.C. (Colonial Center)
June 17: Virginia Beach, Va. (Verizon Wireless Center)
June 19: Camden, N.J. (Susquehanna Bank Center)
June 22: Washington, D.C. (Verizon Center)
June 24-25: New York (Madison Square Garden)
June 27: Hartford, Conn. (Dodge Music Center)
June 30: Mansfield, Mass. (Tweeter Center)
"I'm looking forward to Bonnaroo," bassist Jeff Ament tells Billboard. "The thing that's probably the most exciting to me is that we've been a band for 17 or 18 years and there's still things like this that we haven't done."
The trek includes a June 24-25 stand at New York's Madison Square Garden, which has hosted some of the band's most iconic shows. Kings Of Leon will support from June 11-17, while Ted Leo and the Pharmacists will open the other dates.
A couple weeks ago, band members got together for eight days to begin kicking around ideas for the next Pearl Jam album, although Ament cautions, "It doesn't mean there'll be a record our next month, but it's the start of the process. Sometimes it takes six months and sometimes it takes two years."
"It's just fun to play," he continues. "We've actually gotten really good at jamming with each other, so it's fun to get together and crank up the amps. We'll have (drummer) Matt (Cameron) throw a beat at us and try to come up with something. There's some new, different kind of things coming out of people."
"We're just getting into it, which is so exciting," guitarist Stone Gossard opines. "We have no idea where it's going but we have a lot of great little starts."
Band members have plenty on their individual plates as well. Gossard is working on his second solo album with longtime collaborator Pete Droge and guitarist Mike McCready is preparing for his annual benefit show for the Northwest Chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, to be held May 3 at Seattle's Showbox.
Meanwhile, frontman Eddie Vedder's first solo tour, a short West Coast run, will get underway April 2 in Vancouver. "He's going to do great," Ament says. "He's been warming up for this his whole life, but especially the last seven or eight years, playing a song or two himself before our shows."
Here are Pearl Jam's tour dates:
June 11: West Palm Beach, Fla. (Cruzan Amphitheatre)
June 12: Tampa, Fla. (St. Pete Times Forum)
June 13-15: Manchester, Tenn. (Bonnaroo Festival)
June 16: Columbia, S.C. (Colonial Center)
June 17: Virginia Beach, Va. (Verizon Wireless Center)
June 19: Camden, N.J. (Susquehanna Bank Center)
June 22: Washington, D.C. (Verizon Center)
June 24-25: New York (Madison Square Garden)
June 27: Hartford, Conn. (Dodge Music Center)
June 30: Mansfield, Mass. (Tweeter Center)
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