Matt Cameron Misses Pearl Jam Concert In Oakland Due To COVID

Pearl Jam moved forward with their concert in Oakland last night despite drummer Matt Cameron testing positive for COVID. Touring member Josh Klinghoffer split drumming duties with Seattle-based drummer Richard Stuverud at Oakland Arena on Thursday and Pearl Jam welcomed a fan to sit behind the kit for the evening’s “Yellow Ledbetter” finale.

Once again, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder kicked off the festivities with solo performances as he covered Neil Young’s “The Needle And The Damage Done” and Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” before turning the stage over to Klinghoffer for a Pluralone set. Josh was behind the kit when Pearl Jam started their main set with a cover of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ In The Free World” and Vs. gem “Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town.”

Eddie Vedder addressed the crowd before the ensuing “Why Go” and said the following:

Matt Cameron is a true artist and he’s a force of nature. However, even his super hero status could not prevent him from testing positive. This damn COVID thing yesterday. We’ve been scrambling for 24 hours because after 25 months of … we were supposed to be here 25 months ago … we’ve been waiting and we’ve been waiting. Postponing wasn’t an option and for us neither was canceling. We didn’t want to pull the plug and we couldn’t pull the plug. We’ve got our group here, we’ve got our equipment here and most importantly you’re here. So, lucky for us we have some friends and one of our friends has already been on our team this tour — the multi-talented, multi-faceted, multi-instrumentalist playing behind the drum kit right now, Mr. Josh Klinghoffer. Like the Shohei Ohtani of rock ‘n’ roll.

“Let’s let the shit hit the fan and hopefully it’s good shit,” Vedder concluded. After “Corduroy,” Pearl Jam turned drumming duties over to Stuverud. Eddie described the phone call to a drummer “we’ve all known forever” and noted Richard is a member of RNDM with Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament. Stuverud played drums on a run of “Quick Escape,” “Superblood Wolfmoon,” “Nothing Man” and “Even Flow” before Klinghoffer returned to the kit for the next six songs.

At one point, Vedder told the story of the night The Who drummer Keith Moon passed out at a 1973 concert and the band recruited a fan to sit behind the kit. Eddie asked fans who are talented drummers to submit videos via Ten Club for a chance to play with Pearl Jam tonight. He also revealed a crowd member thought to be a good drummer was currently getting tested for COVID and might join the band.

Richard Stuverud helped Pearl Jam close out their main set with “Seven O’Clock,” “Jeremy” and “Porch.” Vedder then went solo to start the encore with The Beatles’ “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.” Next, Klinghoffer was on drums for “Better Man” before Stuverud was back behind the kit on “Lukin,” “Animal,” “Alive” and “Baba O’Riley.” Finally, Pearl Jam brought out fan Josh Arroyo to play drums on the show-closing “Yellow Ledbetter.” The band returns to Oakland Arena tonight. No word yet on when Matt Cameron will rejoin the tour.

Watch fan-shot video footage from last night’s concert below: