An 'Alive' Feeling: 18-Year-Old Musician Plays Drums With Pearl Jam In Oakland

With drummer Matt Cameron out of the lineup with COVID-19, band Pearl Jam has been using various people to fill in behind the kit. On Friday, the band turned to an 18-year-old musician to help get through the set.

What Happened: High school senior Kai Neukermans got the chance to fill in for Pearl Jam on drums for one song during its Friday night show at the Oakland Arena with around 20,000 people in attendance.

“He hasn’t graduated high school yet. Everybody, this is Kai. Kai, this is everybody,” Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder said to the crowd.

Neukermans was only tasked with playing one song during the set: the 11th song of the night “Mind Your Manners” from the 2013 record "Lightning Bolt."

Josh Klinghoffer, formerly of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is touring with Pearl Jam as a guitarist and filled in on drums for several of the tracks, along with Seattle drummer Richard Stuverud.

“It was surreal, the amount of people that were there,” Neukermans told SFGate. “The arena lit up and everyone was screaming.”

How It Happened: Neukermans is a member of the band The Alive with his brother and friend. The trio have played at various festivals and small shows throughout the last four years.

When news of Cameron being sick and missing the Oakland shows, friends encouraged Neukermans to offer his services to the band.

Neukermans had an inside connection as he knew Vedder’s 17-year-old daughter Olivia from a previous festival. Neukermans texted Olivia, who said that Klinghoffer would be filling in.

“I went to bed and kind of forgot about it,” Neukermans said.

Olivia texted Neukermans the next day and said the band was taking submissions from potential drummers to fill in. Neukermans left school, skipping a statistics test and sent in an audition for the song “Mind Your Manners.”

Later, Neukermans got a call from a manager to say he was in for the show.

“It all happened so quickly, I’m super grateful,” he said.

Neukermans' name will go down in Pearl Jam history as he is now featured on the online setlist website and also featured on this hand-drawn setlist by the band.

Thanks for another great night, @OaklandArena! �🥁 pic.twitter.com/48D9otoVe4

— Pearl Jam � (@PearlJam) May 14, 2022

Photo: Screenshot from YouTube video