Pearl Jam rocked Seattle on Wednesday and will do so again tonight (Friday 10th) as the band are on the way to raise more than 12 million dollars to tackle the city’s chronic homelessness. These special concerts called ‘The Home Shows’, herald the band’s first Seattle dates in five years. The stadium gigs at Safeco field are the main event of a week’s worth of promotions designed to raise money for the city and county.
There’s video footage below of the band performing The Beatles ‘Help’ at the Safeco stadium on Wednesday as it merges into the band’s own song ‘Help Help’.
As Vedder and co were planning their stint of Stadium shows in North America they started talking about donating some of the proceeds from their Seattle shows, to take on the growing problem of the city’s homelessness. The metro area of Seattle has one of the worst rates of Homelessness in the U.S. by sheer figures alone. Currently, the number of people without permanent shelter there is over 12,000 as of earlier this year with half of those people on the streets.
Thanks to the charitable rockers, Pearl Jam’s ‘Home Shows’ have so far raised nearly $12 million in conjunction with businesses, organisations across the city. Speaking to the Seattle times, guitarist Mike Mccready discussed how the band wanted to be a part of Solution, “ I grew up here and I’ve never seen anything like this — none of us have,”. “so what do you do? Do you just sit around and go, ‘that’s just how it is?’ or do you dig in and hopefully have organizations compromise or get together, figure out some sort of solution or long-term plan. … we don’t know what the solution is, but we want to be part of some of it.”
The Times reports that more than 80 restaurants will offer at least 10 percent of their Aug. 8 sales to the Home Shows fund and station, 107.7 The End is chipping in $2 per ticket sold to its annual summer camp concerts (Aug. 11-12). In conjunction with the shows, Mopop opens a new exhibition of pearl jam memorabilia aug. 11.
According to Fortune Magazine, the band initially agreed to match up to just under $1,000,000, which was quickly met by partners and donors, and the funds raised currently totals roughly $12 million Once the band and the home shows team know where all the designated money will go, they will work out how to distribute it later this month.
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