For the Pistons

At the State Theatre

The night before, the band had played a club show of its own in Ann Arbor; it is told in A Real Band. The tour book for the run, as the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology reproduces it, has three Detroit dates, Friday through Sunday, November 22 to 24, at a room it prints as the State Theater. Both chronologies list two Detroit nights, the 22nd and the 23rd, and have Indianapolis on Sunday the 24th.

One ad the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology reproduces, which also carries the Kalamazoo date, prints a single Detroit date, Saturday, November 23, at 6:30, at the State Theatre (Clubland). Another prints both nights and says, in its own words, that by overwhelming demand a 2nd show has been added: November 22 and 23, all ages, doors open at 6:30. A sold-out stamp lies across its date line, and a side panel has tickets for the 2nd show on sale Saturday, October 12. Neither ad says which night was the added one, and nothing dates the two ads against each other.

A newspaper listing the same source reproduces, from the Friday itself, has the three bands performing "at 7:30 tonight and Saturday at Club-Land," the name split across a line end, and adds: "The shows are sold out." A newspaper feature printed the day before, by its own listing box, had tickets available only for the Saturday show, at $23.50, and called the Clubland dates all-ages shows. The room goes by several names in these documents: State Theatre in the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology, State Theatre (Clubland) in Five Horizons and on both ads, and Clubland alone in the listing and in the feature's box. Built in 1925, the room was known for most of its history as the State Theatre, by Wikipedia's account; the article's infobox lists Clubland among its former names, for 1989 to 1991.

The Performance

The set, the same in both entries, was seven songs: "Release," "Even Flow," "Once," "Alive," "Jeremy," "Why Go," and "Porch." Fragments aside, it is the list both print for the second Roseland night, November 12, with "Why Go" added before "Porch."

Both entries begin their note with the same four words, "A very chatty show," and what follows is in both. Vedder greeted the crowd: "Good evening. A really nice place you have here. I don't know if you've been waiting for this but we have so..." "Release" led in, in the chronologies' description, with "heys" instead of "whoas," and he changed a line of it to name the city. He then called for the distortion and promised, in rougher words than these, that the rest of the night would be flat out.

After "Even Flow" he admired the way the room had arranged itself. In the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's form: "I like the way this is set up: you got the hardcore fans right up front, the cool people are right after them... they're happy to go nuts with just their arms folded." The remark goes on to the people at the back, in words left to the chronologies. During "Once" he changed a line.

Later in the set he turned to basketball. "I don't suppose any of you guys are Pistons fans, huh?" he began, and said he felt really bad that the Bulls had beaten them. What he went on to say about the Bulls and their star is left to the chronologies. He joked that Michael Jordan was his illegitimate father. He and Jeff Ament, he said, were going to go and watch the Pistons play the Knicks as soon as they walked off stage. "So, who should we root for?" he asked. The crowd yelled "Pistons," and he counted the next song in: "This is for the Pistons... 1-2-3-4." Neither entry says which song that was, and the game is his word from the stage; neither chronology records anything more of it.

The Next Step

The next entry in both is Saturday, November 23, the second night in the same room.