Row D in Two Archives
Two tickets survive for the Dallas night, one held by each chronology, printed for two seats beside each other in one row and numbered in sequence. Neither chronology publishes a set list for the room, and the stub names only the headliners.
On Wednesday, December 11, 1991, Pearl Jam opened at the Bronco Bowl in Dallas, Texas, for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with the Smashing Pumpkins also on the bill. Both chronologies carry the night and neither publishes a set: the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology prints a hyphen where its set lists go, and Five Horizons prints no set line at all. What survives instead is a ticket, in two copies, and the sheet advertising three cities, now under its third date. Later the same evening it played a second show across the city.
The show
At the Bronco Bowl
By the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's dates the band had played Austin three nights earlier; that night is told in Two Days Apart. Both chronologies print the room in two words, and the ticket prints it in three, as BRONCO BOWL AUDITORIUM across its face. Five Horizons keeps one note of the room, that the band opened here and later went over to Trees, where it headlined. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology keeps no note of the room, and hangs nineteen photographs under this entry, credited to two photographers.
The ticket has a torn-off end at the left and the bill boxed at the right. Across the head it gives an event code, then BALC. under SECTION/AISLE, D under ROW/BOX, a seat number under SEAT, and ADULT under ADMISSION, in that order. Below that it prints BALCONY CENTER, then $20.50 beside the word for the price and 4.00 below it, unlabelled, and repeats those fields down its left edge. In the box, above the bill, it prints KDGE AND TAB PRESENT, and the bill is the headliners' name, with a definite article neither chronology uses, and no other band. Then BRONCO BOWL AUDITORIUM, then a road line reading HAMPTON EXIT OFF I-30, then WED. DEC. 11, 1991 7:30PM at the foot of the box.
Two scans of that stub survive, one hosted by each chronology, and they are not the same card. The event code, both money figures, the section, the section name, the row letter, the presenters, the room, the road line, the date and the hour agree. Two printed fields do not: the seat, 20 on one and 19 on the other, and the serial, which runs consecutively across the two. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's scan also carries a watermark listing five Texas cities. Its caption on that image credits the scan to a named person, where the Austin and Denver captions give the bare word.
The Performance
Neither chronology publishes a song from the Bronco Bowl. Five Horizons publishes no set line and no figure for the room, though it publishes a figure for the second show of the same night. Nobody who was in the hall left an account of the opening set, and the one note either keeps is about where the band went next.
The Next Step
The band played again the same evening, at Trees across the city, and that show is told in Last Minute Booking. Both carry it under this same date.
Recording & sound
What the Record Preserves
Between them the chronologies give the date, the room, the city, the bill and a sentence about what happened next, and no song. The stub gives a price, a section, a row, a seat, an hour and a road direction, and of the three bands on the bill it names one.
The Bronco Bowl survives as one printing on two cards, from two seats beside each other and two serials that run on, one held by each chronology. The set the band played to open the night is in neither of them.
Other Media (0)
Other accounts
No further accounts of this show have been added.
Sources & thanks (4)
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1991 page
- Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1990–91, entries for 12/11/91, both rooms
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — Ticket stub for December 11, 1991 (image linked from the December 11, 1991 entry, captioned Ticket followed by a personal name)
- Five Horizons — Ticket stub for 12/11/91, a second and different copy of the same ticket (image linked from its 12/11/91 entry)