A Sweatshirt Burned at Mesa
Both notes say the singer hung a University of Arizona sweatshirt, thrown from the audience before "Leash," on a mic stand and burned it, displeased with the university's plans for land the Apaches value. Of the two chronologies, only Five Horizons adds a passage on Mount Graham, the observatory planned there, the two benefits and the band's letter to President Clinton.
On Sunday, November 7, 1993, Pearl Jam played the venue in Mesa that the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology heads as the Mesa Amphitheatre and Five Horizons as the Mesa Amphitheater. The chronology prints an attendance of 4 200 (sold out) and Five Horizons 5,000, and both bill lines name Bill Miller, whom Five Horizons calls a Mohican singer-songwriter, and Butthole Surfers. Both chronologies print the same twenty-one entries in the same order, sixteen from "Release" to "Porch" and then five over two encore lines, ending with "Indifference." The two notes tell one account in nearly the same words, of a decision to give the shows' proceeds to the cause of those who hold a mountain sacred, a song played on request and a sweatshirt set alight.
The show
The Mesa Amphitheatre
Five Horizons' heading brackets no figure, and neither chronology's entry prints a capacity, a show time or a ticket price. Of the two chronologies, only the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology marks the show sold out. The chronology's opening-acts line and Five Horizons' support-act line name the same two acts in reverse order, and neither line calls its order a playing order.
The Performance
The chronology's setlist line holds sixteen entries that open with "Release" and "Why Go," set "Better Man" sixth and close with "Rearviewmirror," "Whipping" and "Porch"; its first encore line holds "Rats," "Sonic Reducer" and "Footsteps," and its second "Leash" and "Indifference." Five Horizons' set line and two encore lines carry the same entries in the same order. Neither chronology prints a soundcheck. The chronology's note says the singer told the crowd that, after the band had visited the mountain with Native Americans who hold it sacred, it had decided to give ALL of the shows' proceeds to their cause, and it adds in parentheses that $1 from each ticket had first been meant for it. It says "Footsteps" was played on request, after someone raised a sign, and that the singer was angered by a crowdsurfer. Before "Leash," it says, someone in the audience threw a University of Arizona sweatshirt on stage, and the singer hung it on a mic stand and burned it, displeased that the university was trying to develop untouched land that the Apaches hold to be of considerable historical worth. The note ends by saying that the setlist was reordered from its handwritten form. Five Horizons' notes tell the same account in nearly the same words, with Ed for Eddie, but without the dollar a ticket and without the closing sentence on the handwritten list. Of the two chronologies, only Five Horizons adds a passage headed About Mount Graham, which calls the mountain the San Carlos Apache people's most sacred and home to plants and animals found nowhere else. It says the Mount Graham Coalition, an international group it links to Earth First!, sought to shield the mountain from an observatory complex the University of Arizona was then building, and that the Vatican and the university wanted an observatory there to search for alien life. It adds that the band, when the world expected it to focus on a tour for Vs., took time out for two benefit shows for the cause, and that it wrote to President Clinton in support of the Coalition.
The Next Step
Mesa, the night before, at the same venue, is told in Lightning at a Benefit in Mesa. Albuquerque, two nights later, at the chronology's Albuquerque Convention Center and Five Horizons' Convention Exhibition Hall, is told in Another Sold-Out Show in Albuquerque.
Recording & sound
What the Record Preserves
Five Horizons ends its entry with three lines reading 2/95 Guitar World, article and tour poster. The chronology's page links three objects under the night's heading: an image whose markup title is Ad and two images whose markup titles read Setlist, each before a credit. Mesa comes down to one venue spelled two ways, two attendances, the same two acts on two bill lines, the same twenty-one entries in the same order, one account in both notes of the proceeds, a request and a burned sweatshirt, a passage on the mountain that of the two chronologies only Five Horizons prints, and three objects under the night's heading.
Other Media (0)
Other accounts
No further accounts of this show have been added.
Sources & thanks (3)
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1993 page
- Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1993, entries for 11/06/93, 11/07/93 and 11/09/93
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1993 page, the entry for the date