A Small Club That's Full

At the Springfield Civic Center

The night before, the band had played Burlington; that night is told in Grapes for My Good Friends. The tour book for the run, as the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology reproduces it, has Springfield on the 3rd in a room it prints as the Civic Arena; a poster it also reproduces, in three versions, prints the Springfield Civic Center, Sunday, November 3, at 7:30 PM, all tickets $18.50, the Red Hot Chili Peppers with special guest the Smashing Pumpkins plus Pearl Jam. The building, today's MassMutual Center, was by Wikipedia's account a city arena opened on September 5, 1972, and the home of the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League from 1972 to 1994.

Eddie Vedder greeted the crowd, both entries say, in the same words: "Hello Springfield. I always knew if we played a room this big it would be half empty, but you know, to me, it just looks like a small club that's full. You guys are there. You're standing on an ice rink. We're gonna warm it up real slow. By the end of the night, it'll be melted away."

The Performance

The set, the same in both entries, was six songs: "Release," "Even Flow," "Why Go," "Alive," "Porch," and "I've Got a Feeling." Between "Even Flow" and "Why Go" both carry "Suggestion," Fugazi's song, as a fragment, the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology in parentheses and Five Horizons joined to "Why Go." The last is the Beatles song, which the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology had identified as such when it first listed the band playing it, at the Town Pump in Vancouver in September.

Against Burlington the night before, the list is a song shorter, and it opens with "Release," which no list of the run had done since DeKalb on October 17; "Wash," "Once," and "Jeremy" are out, and the Beatles song is in at the close. Among the run's printed lists it is the first without "Once" and the first to carry "I've Got a Feeling," last on a list at the Cat's Cradle on October 14, as the encore; three nights of the run, Rochester, the first Toronto night, and Boston, have no printed list.

Before "Alive," both entries say, Vedder told the crowd: "We made some new friends right before the show... actually, I hope you're all friends. I hope you're all friends with each other."

During "Porch," both note, he changed the words to complain that someone had taken the shirt off his back when he jumped into the crowd. Before the last song, both say, he told the crowd to enjoy the Pumpkins and that the Chili Peppers would follow, and both close their entries on the same verdict, that it was a great show and the band was really on.

The Next Step

Where the band played next, the two chronologies differ: the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology lists Monday, November 4, at The Haunt in Ithaca, New York; Five Horizons lists, for that day, the Student Union Ballroom of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and The Haunt two days later, as a show moved from the 4th.