2002–2005

Pearl Jam released its seventh album, Riot Act on November 12, 2002. It included the singles I Am Mine and Save You. The album only sold 500,000 copies in total, fewer than Vitalogy and Vs. sold in their first weeks. The album featured a much more folk-based and experimental sound, evident in the presence of B3 organist Boom Gaspar on songs such as Love Boat Captain. The track entitled Arc was recorded as a vocal tribute to the nine people who died at the Roskilde Festival in June 2000. Vedder only performed this song nine times on the 2003 tour, and the band left the track off all released bootlegs.

In 2003, the band embarked on its Riot Act Tour, which included tours of Australia and North America. The band continued its official bootleg program, making every concert from the tour available in CD form through its website. A total of six bootlegs were made available in record stores: Perth, Tokyo, State College, two shows from Madison Square Garden, and Mansfield, Massachusetts. At many shows during the 2003 North American tour, Vedder performed Riot Act's Bu$hleaguer, a commentary on President George W. Bush, with a rubber mask of Bush, wearing it at the beginning of the song and then typically hanging it on a mike stand to allow him to sing. The band made news when it was reported that several fans left after Vedder had impaled the Bush mask on his mike stand at the band's Denver show.

In June 2003, Pearl Jam announced it was officially leaving Epic Records following the end of its contract with the label. The band stated it had no interest in signing with another label. The band's first release without a label was the single for Man of the Hour, in partnership with Amazon.com. Director Tim Burton approached Pearl Jam to request an original song for the soundtrack of his new film, Big Fish. After screening an early print of the film, Pearl Jam recorded the song Man of the Hour for Burton. Man of the Hour, which was later nominated for a Golden Globe award, can be heard in the closing credits of Big Fish.

The band released Lost Dogs, a two-disc collection of rarities and B-sides, and Live at the Garden, a DVD featuring the band's July 8, 2003 concert at Madison Square Garden through Epic Records in November 2003. In 2004, Pearl Jam released the live album Live at Benaroya Hall through a one-album deal with BMG. 2004 marked the first time that Pearl Jam licensed a song for usage in a television show; a snippet of the song Yellow Ledbetter was used in the final episode of the television series Friends. Later that year, Epic released Rearviewmirror, a Pearl Jam greatest hits collection spanning 1991 to 2003. This release marked the end of Pearl Jam's contractual agreement with Epic Records.

Pearl Jam played a show at Easy Street Records in Seattle in April 2005; recordings from the show were compiled for the Live at Easy Street album and released exclusively to independent record stores in June 2006. The band embarked on a Canadian cross-country tour in September 2005, kicking off the tour with a fundraising concert in Missoula, Montana for Democratic politician Jon Tester, then playing the Gorge Amphitheater before crossing into Canada. After touring Canada, Pearl Jam proceeded to open a Rolling Stones concert in Pittsburgh, then played two shows at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, before closing the tour with a concert in Philadelphia. The official bootlegs for the band's 2005 shows were distributed via Pearl Jam's website in MP3 form. Pearl Jam also played a benefit concert to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief on October 5, 2005, at the House of Blues in Chicago, Illinois. On November 22, 2005 Pearl Jam began its first Latin American tour.