A Tennis Ball in Adelaide
Both notes say the stage crew tossed a tennis ball over the band's heads through several mid-set songs, and that Eddie sang a short, halting a cappella version of Split Enz's "I Got You."
On Wednesday, March 8, 1995, Pearl Jam played in Adelaide, at the venue that the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology heads as Memorial Drive Park and Five Horizons as Memorial Drive Tennis Centre. Five Horizons lists an attendance of 9,000, and the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's entry carries no attendance line; both name The Meanies, the chronology as opening act and Five Horizons as support act. The chronology lists twenty set entries from "Release" to "Blood," a first encore of six from "Sonic Reducer" to "Porch," and a second encore of one, "Indifference," twenty-seven entries in all. Five Horizons gives the same songs in the same order in twenty-five entries. Both notes say Eddie sang "I Got You" a cappella and haltingly, and they give the song to Split Enz. Both also tell of the stage crew tossing a tennis ball above the band as it played.
The show
Park or Tennis Centre
The two chronologies differ on the venue's name: the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology writes Memorial Drive Park and Five Horizons Memorial Drive Tennis Centre, and both place it in Adelaide, Australia. Five Horizons brackets 125m after its heading without stating what it measures, and the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's heading carries no figure. Neither chronology's entry prints a capacity, a door or stage time, a ticket price, or a promoter.
The Performance
The chronology's setlist runs twenty entries: "Release," "Last Exit," "Spin The Black Circle," "Tremor Christ," "Animal," "Corduroy," "Not For You," "Lukin," "Even Flow," "Glorified G," "Daughter," joined by slashes to three labels, then "State Of Love And Trust," "Alive," "Whipping," "I Got Id," "Rearviewmirror," "Why Go," "Jeremy," "Go," and "Blood." The chronology's first encore holds "Sonic Reducer," "Once," "I Got You" in parentheses, "Better Man," "Immortality," and "Porch," and its second "Indifference," twenty-seven entries in all. In Five Horizons, the set line and the two encore lines hold the same songs in the same order, twenty-five entries in all. Both notes say that Eddie, whom Five Horizons calls Ed, sang "I Got You" a cappella and haltingly, and they give the song to Split Enz, a band from New Zealand. Both call the version short, and both say he admitted he knew no more of it. Both notes also say that through several songs in the middle of the set, the stage crew threw a tennis ball to and fro above the band while it played.
The Next Step
Perth, two days earlier, is told in Behind an Amplifier in Perth. Both chronologies head March 10, two days later, in Sydney; it is told in A Birthday Cake for Jeff in Sydney.
Recording & sound
What the Record Preserves
The chronology closes its entry with a remaster series line that names the band, the date, and Adelaide, with an info-file link. Eight objects hang with the night's entry on the chronology's page: six images and two untitled links into the remaster series. The markup titles of the first two images read Setlist and Encores. The third image's title names Jeff Ament, Eddie Vedder, and Jack Irons; the fourth's, Eddie Vedder and Jack Irons; and the fifth's and sixth's, Eddie Vedder. The house holds five text files for the night: the remaster series' information file and its fingerprint list in each of two folders, the second pair a copy of the first, and a one-line text file. The information file's first three lines give the band, the date, and the venue in Five Horizons' form, with Adelaide and Australia. Its source line lists a boot CD, and its lineage starts from CD and ends in FLAC files. Its notes report a sound problem throughout the show and put it down, as likely, to the taper moving; they say EQ settings were varied to even out the sound. They add that the very start of "Release" and of "Indifference" is cut and fades in. Its twenty-eight numbered labels fall in three groups: twenty that follow the chronology's setlist in its order, with nothing joined to "Daughter," then an encore break and six labels from "Sonic Reducer" to "Porch," and last "Indifference." Its fingerprint list gives each of twenty-eight FLAC file names, numbered 01 to 28, a checksum, the names following the information file's labels word for word. No house file for the night gives the recording's length. Adelaide on March 8 comes down to a venue named two ways, 125m that Five Horizons brackets without saying what it measures, an attendance of 9,000 in Five Horizons and none in the chronology's entry, The Meanies on both bill lines, twenty-seven entries against twenty-five for the same songs in one order, notes that share an "I Got You" sung haltingly and a tennis ball above the band, eight objects under the date, and a house information file of twenty-eight labels.
Other Media (3)
Other accounts
No further accounts of this show have been added.
Sources & thanks (5)
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1995 page
- Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1995, entries for 03/06/95, 03/08/95 and 03/10/95
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1995 page, the entry for the date
- The house archive — Information file and fingerprint file (remaster series) in the 1995-03-08 folders
- The house archive — Text file in a 1995-03-08 folder