PJ Music Factory

Tivoli, Utrecht

· Tivoli · Utrecht

Eddie Vedder singing at the microphone, a guitarist and the drum kit behind him, under purple stage lights
On stage at Tivoli, Utrecht, 4 March 1992

Setlist

Set groups follow the published chronologies; the recording's own listing places its encore break after 'Leash'.

Main set

  1. Intro
  2. Release
  3. Even Flow
  4. Why Go
  5. Jeremy
  6. Deep
  7. Alive
  8. Black
  9. State of Love and Trust
  10. Once
  11. Improvised jam
  12. Porch

Encore

  1. Improvised jam
  2. Alone
  3. Leash
  4. Encore break (as listed on the recording)
  5. Hunger Strike (tease) · Temple of the Dog
  6. Garden
  7. Improvised jam (closing)

Setlist sources: Five Horizons concert chronology; Pearl Jam Concert Chronology; the circulating soundboard recording's track listing; the Pearl Jam Daily YouTube upload's listing.

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On 4 March 1992 Pearl Jam played Tivoli, the former squat turned pop venue on Utrecht's Oudegracht, to a reported 950 people, according to Five Horizons and the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology. Eddie Vedder's voice problems had cancelled the previous night's show in Nijmegen. That afternoon, instead of miming for the Dutch TV show Countdown, the band played 'Alive' and 'Even Flow' live at their soundcheck, Louder reports. The evening set opened with 'Release', took in ten of Ten's eleven songs plus the then-unreleased 'State of Love and Trust' and 'Leash', and, as the chronologies list it, brief teases of 'Sympathy for the Devil', 'Outshined' and 'Hunger Strike'. Tivoli's Erik Mans remembers taking Vedder to Kafé België afterwards. Valeska Custers remembers giving him a ride to his hotel on the back of a bicycle. At Pinkpop that June, Vedder jumped from a camera crane in a Tivoli shirt he had made himself.

From the archive

Photos

7 pictures
Black-and-white photo of Eddie Vedder at the microphone stand, wearing a cap
Tivoli, Utrecht, 4 March 1992
Pink Tivoli flyer: Pearl Jam and City Pig Unit, 4 maart '92, entree 12,50, doors 20.30
The Tivoli flyer for 4 March 1992

The show

Arrival Town & Venue: Oudegracht 245

Tivoli's building at Oudegracht 245 has a long history. A cloister was founded on the site in the thirteenth century, the complex later became an orphanage, and from the 1920s it was the NV-huis of the railway and tram workers' union (DUIC; Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed). Squatters took it over in 1981 and it became the Tivoli pop venue. Its 1920s concert hall had a balcony and held about 1,000 people. Pearl Jam arrived in the middle of a run of Dutch club dates, after shows in Groningen and The Hague, following an earlier appearance at Amsterdam's Melkweg in February. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology lists City Pig Unit, a crossover band from Eindhoven, as the opening act. Erik Mans, who worked at Tivoli, later called it the band's first big sold-out show in the Netherlands or Europe, as far as he knew (3voor12). The stage was high enough to worry Vedder: with fans diving off it, he warned that it sat at about neck height to the crowd (Pearl Jam Concert Chronology).

Opening with 'Release'

The previous night's show in Nijmegen had been cancelled because of Vedder's voice problems, according to Five Horizons and the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology. The two list different venues for it: the Vereeniging and Doornroosje. Five Horizons adds that he got his calf tattooed that day, and in Utrecht he joked about the new tattoo from the stage. The band opened with 'Release'. Most of their February sets had opened with 'Wash' and the two Dutch shows just before Utrecht with 'Oceans', but 'Release' had opened at least one earlier European show, in Milan on 18 February (Five Horizons).

Performance Narrative & Core Highlights

The main set, as Five Horizons and the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology list it, ran 'Release', 'Even Flow', 'Why Go', 'Jeremy', 'Deep', 'Alive', 'Black' and 'State of Love and Trust'. That last song would not be released until the Singles soundtrack that June. After it came 'Once', a short jam and 'Porch'. The crowd dived from the stage often enough that Jeff Ament worried about the band's gear and Vedder warned that heads could break. A 2022 Live On 4 Legs look back at the show picks out Ament in 'Porch': a bass solo and running leaps off the side speakers. On the circulating soundboard version, 'Porch' runs about eight minutes.

Encores, Improvisations & Musical Teases

In the short jam between 'Once' and 'Porch', Vedder poured water over the crowd to cool it down (Pearl Jam Concert Chronology); Five Horizons lists a snippet of the Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil' there. Both chronologies list the encore as a jam, then 'Alone', a song from the Ten sessions not released until 1993. A snippet of Soundgarden's 'Outshined' came just before 'Leash', which was still more than a year from release on Vs. The crowd had been calling for Temple of the Dog's 'Hunger Strike', and Vedder asked whether a 'political strike' was going on (Pearl Jam Concert Chronology). The chronologies and the recording's source note list only a brief tease of it, not a full performance, before 'Garden'. A final jam closed the night.

Recording & sound

The Countdown soundcheck and the soundboard recording

The day survives in more than one recording. In the afternoon, Countdown, the pop show broadcast by Veronica, filmed the band's soundcheck at Tivoli. According to Louder, Countdown guests were normally asked to lip-sync, and Pearl Jam proposed a live soundcheck taping of 'Alive' and 'Even Flow' instead. Five Horizons and the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology both list the soundcheck as three takes of 'Even Flow', four of 'Alive', three more of 'Even Flow' and two more of 'Alive'. The evening concert circulates as a soundboard recording. That version runs 85 minutes 4 seconds over 19 listed entries, which include jams, an encore break and a tease. Five Horizons gives the show as about 90 minutes. Audience-shot video of the evening concert also circulates among collectors.

Videos & media

  • 1992-03-04 — Pearl Jam — Tivoli, Utrecht, Netherlands [with Soundcheck]

    YouTubeSlideshowThe Music Factory

    The Music Factory’s own upload for this date: a slideshow presentation, with the soundcheck named in its title.

Other Media (4)

Other accounts

These are recollections and later reports, attributed in the text to the people and publications who gave them. They sit apart from the documented record above.

Fan Memories & Post-Show Dutch Lore

Two stories from that night came out much later as personal recollections. In 2018 Erik Mans, one of the building's 1980s squatters who went on to work at Tivoli, told 3voor12 that he took Vedder to Kafé België after the show and gave him a Duvel and a De Koninck. According to DUIC, Mans is said to have later received a thank-you note from Vedder reading 'Thanks for introducing me to "the devil"... and the king as well.' NPO Radio 2 reports that the rest of the band were given Tivoli shirts but Vedder was not, so he made his own and wrote Tivoli on it; DUIC says he drew the logo on with a marker. By Mans's account, that was the homemade shirt Vedder wore on 8 June 1992 when he jumped into the Pinkpop crowd from a camera crane; that year's festival drew 55,300 visitors. Vedder wore Tivoli shirts again at Pearl Jam's Pinkpop shows in 2000, in one Mans had given him (3voor12), and in 2018 (DUIC).

In June 2019, at a solo show at AFAS Live in Amsterdam, Vedder recalled to the audience that a woman had taken him to his hotel on the back of a bike after an early Dutch gig, though he remembered the city as Amsterdam. Following an appeal in Het Parool, Valeska Custers came forward. By her recollection the ride took place in Utrecht after the Tivoli show: she had come to see a friend in the support act (the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology lists City Pig Unit as the opener), met Vedder backstage and later encountered him at Kafé België. At around 3 a.m. Vedder asked whether she had a bicycle, and she gave him a lift to his hotel on her brother's bike (NOS). Custers and Vedder met again backstage at Vorst Nationaal in Brussels on 12 June 2019 (NOS).

Sources & thanks (20)
  1. Five Horizons — Five Horizons: 1992 Concert Chronology for Pearl Jam (entry for 4 March 1992)
  2. Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — Pearl Jam Concert Chronology: 1992 (Entry for March 4, 1992)
  3. Louder — Watch Pearl Jam play Alive and Even Flow live for Dutch TV pop show Countdown…
  4. VPRO 3voor12 — PP18: Hoe Pearl Jam verliefd werd op Tivoli Utrecht
  5. De Utrechtse Internet Courant (DUIC) — Rocklegende Eddie Vedder draagt T-shirt van Tivoli tijdens optreden op Pinkpop
  6. De Utrechtse Internet Courant (DUIC) — Tivolicomplex: klooster, weeshuis, podium
  7. Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap — Rijksmonumentenregister: Monumentnummer 36543 (Oudegracht 245, Utrecht)
  8. Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) — Gezochte fietslift van Eddie Vedder meldt zich: 'Hij was zo verlegen'
  9. Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) — Weerzien van Pearl Jam-frontman met vrouw die hem in Utrecht fietslift gaf
  10. NPO Radio 2 — Eddie Vedder stagedivend in een Tivoli-shirt op Pinkpop 1992
  11. Live On 4 Legs — Making of a Moment – Utrecht, NLD 3/4/1992
  12. Wikipedia (nl) — Pinkpop 1992
  13. Wikipedia — Tivoli (Utrecht)
  14. Last.fm — City Pig Unit
  15. Wikipedia — Countdown (Dutch TV program)
  16. Wikipedia — Lost Dogs (album)
  17. Wikipedia — Vs. (Pearl Jam album)
  18. Wikipedia — State of Love and Trust
  19. Wikipedia — Ten Tour
  20. RusPearlJamVid — Pearl Jam Video: 1992-03-04 Tivoli, Utrecht, Netherlands (with DVD)