A Birthday Cake for Jeff in Sydney
The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's note says Flea brought Jeff a cake on stage for his birthday as the second encore began, and Five Horizons' note tells of a chocolate cake and a fight with cake. Both notes then have Flea play a Neil Young song, and both say Eddie, troubled by his throat, turned to the crowd for vocal help after "Animal."

On Friday, March 10, 1995, Pearl Jam played in Sydney, at the venue that the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology heads as the Sydney Entertainment Centre and Five Horizons as the Entertainment Centre. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's attendance line reads 12 000 (sold out), and Five Horizons' reads 12,000, and both name The Meanies, the chronology as opening act and Five Horizons as support act. The chronology lists fifteen set entries from "Go" to "Porch" and three encores, the last of them "Indifference," twenty-one entries in all, and Five Horizons gives twenty in the chronology's order. Both notes say that after "Animal," Eddie asked the crowd for vocal help, his throat troubling him. Both also mention a cake Flea brought out for Jeff's birthday and a Neil Young song Flea then played.
The show
The Entertainment Centre
Both chronologies place the show in Sydney, Australia: the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology at the Sydney Entertainment Centre and Five Horizons at the Entertainment Centre. Five Horizons brackets 98m after its heading without stating what it measures, and the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's heading carries no figure. The two attendance figures are the same number; of the two chronologies, only the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology marks the night sold out. 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 fifteen entries: "Go," "Spin The Black Circle," "Last Exit," "Tremor Christ," "Animal," "Corduroy," "Not For You," "State Of Love And Trust," "Even Flow," "Daughter," joined by slashes to two labels, then "Whipping," "I Got Id," "Rearviewmirror," "Alive," and "Porch." The chronology's first encore holds "Black," "Better Man," and "Blood," and its second holds "Needle And The Damage Done," with a label in parentheses in the same entry, then "Let My Love Open The Door." Its third holds "Indifference," bringing the chronology's entries to twenty-one. Five Horizons' set line and three encore lines give twenty entries in the chronology's order. Both notes say that Eddie, whom Five Horizons calls Ed, asked the crowd for vocal help after "Animal," his throat troubling him. The chronology's note says that as the second encore began, Flea, whom it places in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, brought a cake on stage for Jeff, who it says was celebrating his birthday. It adds that a song was then sung for Jeff, with the crowd joining in. Five Horizons' note says that a song was sung for Jeff's birthday and that Flea carried out a chocolate cake, after which there was a fight with cake. Both notes then have Flea play a Neil Young song, on his own by the chronology's account and with Pearl Jam by Five Horizons', and both call the version very fine.
The Next Step
Adelaide, two days earlier, is told in A Tennis Ball in Adelaide. Both chronologies put the next show the following night, March 11, again in Sydney; it is told in Hot Tea at Eastern Creek.
Recording & sound
What the Record Preserves
Neither chronology's entry carries a recording or remaster series line for the night. Two objects hang with the night's entry on the chronology's page, an untitled PDF and an untitled image. The house holds two text files for the night, in one folder: two byte-identical copies of an information file of the Twenty-Ten series. The file's first line is Five Horizons' heading for the night, except that it brackets 110m where Five Horizons brackets 98m; neither says what its figure measures. Its note follows Five Horizons' note and is one source with it. Its twenty-one numbered labels follow the chronology's set and encores in their order, with nothing joined to "Daughter." The file calls the recording complete, measured against the setlist and information it refers to, a claim about the recording, not the concert. It names no source, lineage, or taper for the recording and gives no length. Sydney on March 10 comes down to a venue named two ways, 98m that Five Horizons brackets without saying what it measures, an attendance of 12 000 (sold out) in the chronology and 12,000 in Five Horizons, The Meanies on both bill lines, twenty-one entries against twenty in one order, notes that share Eddie's call for vocal help, Flea's cake and a Neil Young song, two untitled objects under the date, and one house information file that follows Five Horizons' heading and note.
Other Media (3)
Other accounts
No further accounts of this show have been added.
Sources & thanks (4)
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1995 page
- Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1995, entries for 03/08/95, 03/10/95 and 03/11/95
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1995 page, the entry for the date
- The house archive — Information file (Twenty-Ten series) in the 1995-03-10 folder