Eleven Songs at Bender Arena
On November 9, 1991, Pearl Jam played the Bender Arena at American University in Washington, D.C., 5,400 sold out by one count, eleven songs and the longest printed for the run so far. Both chronologies say "Leash" was played for the first time, at the close.
On Saturday, November 9, 1991, Pearl Jam played the Bender Arena at American University in Washington, D.C., supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with the Smashing Pumpkins on the bill, one of two events both chronologies list for the day, the other an acoustic in-store at Tower Records in Rockville, Maryland. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology puts the attendance at 5,400 and marks the show sold out; Five Horizons gives no figure. Both list the same eleven songs, closing on "Leash," which both say was played for the first time.
The show
At the Bender Arena
The same day's in-store in Rockville is told in The First Tattoo; the arena's ticket prints 8 PM, neither chronology prints a time for the in-store, and neither says which came first.
The tour book for the run, as the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology reproduces it, has Washington, D.C., and the Bender Arena on Saturday the 9th, the night after a Friday it had planned for Philadelphia. By Wikipedia's account the arena had opened in 1988, a three-year-old campus arena that November, the university's main venue for concerts, on a campus in Northwest Washington. Both chronologies name the room the Bender Arena, and Five Horizons, the ad, and the ticket add American University.
A full-page ad the first reproduces, credited to the university's student union board, is headed A.U. Student Union Board Presents and names the Red Hot Chili Peppers for November 9 at the Bender Arena, American University, Massachusetts Ave, NW, with special guests the Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam, produced by a concert promoter, and gives the 9:30 Club as its information line. The ticket, from the same source, prints Bender Arena, The American University, SUB Presents, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Saturday, November 9, 1991, at 8 PM, general admission at $20, and does not name Pearl Jam.
The concert sold out in three weeks, the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology says, and was by its account the first Bender Arena concert ever to do so. Five Horizons prints no figure and no such statement.
The Performance
The set, the same in both entries, was eleven songs: "Wash," "Once," "State of Love and Trust," "Even Flow," "Garden," "Alive," "Black," "Deep," "Why Go," "Porch," and "Leash." Both entries say "Leash," the last of the eleven, was played for the first time.
The list is the longest printed for the run so far, longer than any the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology prints from the start of the run on October 16 to the night before, set and encore lines together; five nights of the run, Pittsburgh, Rochester, the first Toronto night, Boston, and Troy, have no printed list. Against CBGB the night before, "Wash" is back at the top, "Jeremy" and the Beatles song are out, and "State of Love and Trust," "Garden," "Deep," and "Leash" are in.
The Next Step
The tour book has Sunday, November 10, as a day off in New York, and the next entry in both is Monday, November 11, at the Roseland Ballroom there, the first of the run's Roseland nights; it is told in Number 10 at Roseland.
Recording & sound
What the Record Preserves
The two entries share the date, the room, the bill, the eleven songs, and the first "Leash"; the first adds the figure and the sold-out statement, the second the university in the room's name.
What the record preserves of the Washington Saturday is a campus arena sold out by one count, at 5,400 and in three weeks, a bill that printed the band third under the Chili Peppers' name, the longest list printed for the run so far, and a closing song both chronologies say was played for the first time.
Other Media (1)
Other accounts
No further accounts of this show have been added.
Sources & thanks (7)
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1991 page
- Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1990–91, entries for 11/09/91 and 11/11/91
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — Ad for November 9, 1991 (image linked from the second November 9, 1991 entry)
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — Ticket for November 9, 1991 (image linked from the second November 9, 1991 entry)
- 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)
- Wikipedia — Bender Arena (general reference, September 2026)
- Wikipedia — American University (general reference, September 2026)