PJ Music Factory

A Voice in Trouble in Helsinki

· Jaahalli · Helsinki

Both notes tell of a singer whose voice was troubling him, and of two tags from other songs chanted in "Porch," which they credit to the Beatles and to Neil Young. The house's information file heads the night at Ishallen, where both chronologies print Jäähalli.

On Wednesday, June 30, 1993, Pearl Jam played Jäähalli in Helsinki, which both chronologies head by that name. Of the two chronologies, only Five Horizons prints an attendance, 8,000, and both print Neil Young on a supporting line, the chronology adding Booker T. & The M.G.'s. Both lists run the same nine songs in one order, from "Animal" to "Porch," and neither list marks an encore. The two notes tell one account in nearly the same words, from a good opening "Animal" to a "Porch" that was, they say, still delivered adequately.

The show

Jäähalli

Both chronologies name the venue Jäähalli and the city Helsinki, and Five Horizons brackets 41m after its heading without stating what it measures. Neither chronology's entry prints an opening act, a capacity, a show time or a ticket price, and neither note mentions Neil Young's own set.

The Performance

Both chronologies run "Animal," "Even Flow," "Why Go," "Jeremy," "Glorified G," "Daughter," "Black," "Alive" and "Porch," and both join two parentheses to "Porch," the same in each except that the chronology capitalises one word of the first and Five Horizons does not. Both notes say the singer's voice was giving him trouble and that he at times turned to an accentuated kind of talking in place of singing. They call the opening "Animal" good and the "Even Flow" after it typical, with Mike taking a short solo, and say "Why Go" began with an introduction of unusual length. The crowd, both say, took warmly to "Glorified G," after which the singer finally spoke to the audience and announced "Daughter," which was played in a delicate, gentle tone with no tags. Both say "Black" lacked the emotion it had carried six months before and ran on into an "Alive" they call canned. Before "Porch" the singer made a remark that both notes quote, and they say "Porch" was delivered adequately all the same, with two tags from other songs chanted in it, the ones the lists name in parentheses, which the notes credit to the Beatles and to Neil Young. Every difference between the two notes is one of quotation marks, punctuation or the singer's name, Ed in Five Horizons and Eddie in the chronology.

The Next Step

Stockholm, two nights before, is told in A Speaker Catches Fire in Stockholm; neither chronology prints a heading for June 29. Neither chronology prints a heading for July 1 either; both put the next show two nights later, on July 2, at the Stadio Bentegodi in Verona; it is told in First of Four in Italy.

Recording & sound

What the Record Preserves

Two objects hang with the night's entry on the chronology's page, images whose markup titles read Ad and Ticket. The house holds one text file for the night, a ConcertInfo information file. It heads the night 06/30/93 at Ishallen in Helsinki, Finland, with no bracketed figure and no note, and its nine numbered items follow both chronologies' order, the first, "Animal," marked as snipped at the start. It says the recording is complete but for the missing part of "Animal," measured against Five Horizons' setlist and information, a claim about the recording, not the concert. It dates the concert's digitizing and clean-up to 3/11/00; it gives no source, equipment or lineage. Helsinki comes down to one hall that both chronologies name Jäähalli and the house file Ishallen, one attendance that of the two chronologies only Five Horizons prints, nine songs in one order, one account in both notes of a voice in trouble, two objects and one house information file.

Other Media (2)

Other accounts

No further accounts of this show have been added.

Sources & thanks (4)
  1. Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1993 page
  2. Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1993, entries for 06/28/93, 06/30/93 and 07/02/93
  3. Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1993 page, the entry for the date
  4. The house archive — Information file in the 1993-06-30 folder