No Chairs in DeKalb
On October 17, 1991, Pearl Jam played the Duke Ellington Ballroom in DeKalb, Illinois, with the chairs taken out for a general-admission crowd of about 900 by one count and 800 to 1,000 by the other. The chronologies part on the set, seven titles against all of Ten, and agree on Eddie Vedder's upside-down swing from the bars and dive into the crowd.
Setlist
Pearl Jam Concert Chronology
No separate printed encore line; this does not prove no encore occurred. Any inline encore description remains in its printed position.
setlist
- Release
- Even Flow
- Alive
- Jeremy
- Why Go
- Once
- Porch
On Thursday, October 17, 1991, Pearl Jam played the Duke Ellington Ballroom at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with the Smashing Pumpkins on the bill. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology puts the attendance at about 900; Five Horizons gives 800 to 1,000. Both say the chairs were taken out for a general-admission crowd, and both have Eddie Vedder swinging upside down from the bars onstage and diving into the crowd; what was played, the two entries state differently.
The show
At the Duke Ellington Ballroom
The night before, the band had played the first of the Red Hot Chili Peppers dates in Madison; that night is told in Feel Lucky Tonight. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology names the ballroom and the university, and the band's own tour book for the run, which it reproduces, has DeKalb on the 17th and a day off in Ames on the 18th; Five Horizons places the room in the Holmes Student Center.
It was a general-admission show, both entries say in the same words, and all the chairs were removed to accommodate the crowd.
The Performance
The two chronologies do not agree on what was played. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology lists seven songs: "Release," "Even Flow," "Alive," "Jeremy," "Why Go," "Once," and "Porch." Five Horizons prints no list and says instead that the band performed all of Ten, in an order it calls unknown. The two statements stand as each chronology's: seven titles are not the whole of the album, and neither entry accounts for the other.
Against Madison the night before, the list opens with "Release" in place of "Wash," drops "Deep," and brings in "Jeremy"; "Once," second at Madison, is printed sixth, just before "Porch." It is the first list the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology prints since the Troubadour on October 2 to open with "Release."
Vedder did his upside-down swing from the bars onstage, both entries say, and dove into the crowd; Five Horizons places it after the set, and the other entry does not say when.
The Next Step
Neither chronology lists a show on October 18, the tour book's day off. The next entry in both is Saturday, October 19, at the C.Y. Stephens Auditorium at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa; that night is told in Basketball in Ames.
Recording & sound
What the Record Preserves
The two entries share the date, the room, the bill, the chairs, and the swing and the dive in the same words; their figures, about 900 and 800 to 1,000, sit together, and they part on the set, seven titles against all of Ten in no known order.
What the record preserves of DeKalb is a college ballroom cleared of its chairs for a crowd of about 900 by one count and 800 to 1,000 by the other, a set the two accounts describe differently, and a singer's upside-down swing from the bars onstage and a dive into the crowd.
Other Media (0)
Other accounts
No further accounts of this show have been added.
Sources & thanks (3)
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1991 page
- Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1990–91, entries for 10/16/91, 10/17/91 and 10/19/91
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — Pearl Jam tour book for the Red Hot Chili Peppers run, fall 1991 (scanned pages linked from the Red Hot Chili Peppers tour heading)