The Talk of the Town

At the American Theatre

Three nights before, the band had played the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago; that night is told in A Sea of Helpful Hands. Between the two, both chronologies print Saturday, November 30, at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota, and it has no page here. The room is spelled both ways in the record: the promoter's advertisement, the ticket and the review print it Theatre, and the newspaper listing prints it Theater. By Wikipedia's account the building at 416 N. 9th Street went up in 1917 as the Orpheum and was restored in the 1970s and renamed the American Theater.

Three documents hang under the Monday: the promoter's calendar, a newspaper listing and the review. The listing prints the headliners' name, then 7:30 p.m., then Dec. 2-3, the room and 416 N. 9th St., and then SOLD OUT Dec. 2. A second line has the Smashing Pumpkins and Pearl Jam open the funk and rock show, and a third gives the price as $20. The listing gives the street address and the next night's ticket gives the corner, 9TH AND ST CHARLES.

The calendar's American Theatre panel prints ON SALE NOW, the headliners, special guests SMASHING PUMPKINS & PEARL JAM, and DECEMBER 2 at 7:30 pm. No second night appears anywhere on it. Its other panel offers two dates in mid-November at another of the promoter's rooms, which places the sheet early.

The Performance

Neither chronology prints a song, so the only account of what was played is a critic's. A critic's review runs under the headline Explosive Performance By Red Hot Chili Peppers, on a clipping with no masthead and no issue date, filed as from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He has the three bands landing "at the American Theatre on Monday evening for the first performance of a two-night stand."

The critic's verdict on this band is unreserved: "The Seattle-based Pearl Jam was the unexpected highlight of the program, coming across with terrific sound, songs and attitude." He notes Stone Gossard on guitar and Jeff Ament on bass, and names two Northwest acts he says they came from. He calls two songs, "Alive" and "Deep," just fine, and then gives the night to the singer, who by his account stole the show. The critic has him climbing "monkey-like the length and breadth of the mezzanine balcony" during a third song, "Porch." His closing line: "It was a performance that should be the talk of the town for weeks to come."

The review says nothing about which band played when, and the listing says only that the two guests opened.

The Next Step

The stand's second night follows, on the Tuesday, and it is told in A Seat in the Second Balcony.