Something Fairly Local in Canberra
By Five Horizons' account, the Vitalogy songs took on a punk edge live, the band loosened up on its Hunters and Collectors cover, and Eddie got the words wrong. Both attendance lines give the same number, and the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's twenty-seven entries stand against Five Horizons' twenty-six, which have no Improv between "Animal" and "Corduroy."
On Tuesday, March 14, 1995, Pearl Jam played Exhibition Park in Canberra, Australia, which both chronologies name alike. The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's attendance line reads 18 000, and Five Horizons' reads 18,000, and both name the same two acts, The Meanies and Cosmic Psychos, the chronology on its opening acts line and Five Horizons, in the other order, on its support act line. The chronology lists twenty-seven entries in a setlist and an encore, and Five Horizons lists twenty-six on a single set line. Five Horizons' note praises the night as around two hours of the band at its best and calls the three songs that closed it unexpected.
The show
Exhibition Park
Both chronologies head the night at Exhibition Park in Canberra, and Five Horizons brackets 120m after its heading without stating what it measures. The two attendance lines give the same number, 18 000 in the chronology and 18,000 in Five Horizons, and neither line marks the night sold out. The chronology's opening acts line lists The Meanies and then Cosmic Psychos, and Five Horizons' support act line lists The Cosmic Psychos and then The Meanies; neither line gives an order of play. Neither chronology's entry prints a capacity, a door or stage time, a ticket price, or a promoter.
The Performance
The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's setlist runs twenty-one entries: "Even Flow," "Last Exit," "Spin The Black Circle," "Tremor Christ," "Animal," an Improv, "Corduroy," "Not For You," "Lukin," "Why Go," "Jeremy," "Dissident," "State of Love and Trust," "Go," "Whipping," "I Got Id," "Rearviewmirror," "Better Man," "Alive," another Improv, and "Blood." Its encore runs six entries: "Throw Your Arms Around Me," which it marks as Eddie solo, then "Sonic Reducer," "Garden," "Leash," "Porch," and "Yellow Ledbetter," twenty-seven entries in all. Five Horizons prints no encore line; its single set line runs twenty-six entries, from "Even Flow" to "Yellow Ledbetter," and it has no Improv between "Animal" and "Corduroy," where the chronology has one. Five Horizons' note says that Canberrans were given around two hours of the band at its best. It says the Vitalogy songs, "Corduroy" and "Not For You" above all, took on a punk edge live that the studio recordings lack, and that committed fans came in numbers and already knew "Better Man" and "Spin the Black Circle." It credits Jeff Ament and Jack Irons, as the rhythm section, with driving "Animal," "Jeremy," and "Alive." It says that the band loosened up on its Hunters and Collectors cover, perhaps because the song wasn't the band's own, that Eddie got the words wrong, which the note shrugs off, and that he had at least played something fairly local. It calls "Porch," "Leash," and "Yellow Ledbetter" unexpected closing songs that still ended the evening well, adds that the band had apparently not played "Leash" live in a long while, and praises the band's melodies and players while calling the singer abrasive.
The Next Step
Sydney, three days earlier, is told in Hot Tea at Eastern Creek. Both chronologies head March 16, two days later, at the Flinders Park Tennis Centre in Melbourne, Australia; it is told in Jeff's Water Bottle in Melbourne.
Recording & sound
What the Record Preserves
Two objects hang with the night's entry on the chronology's page, both untitled: a link to a PDF file and an image file of the same name. The house holds no text file for the night, and neither chronology's entry names a recording of it. Canberra comes down to one park named alike, the same attendance in two forms, the same two acts listed in two orders, twenty-seven entries against twenty-six, Five Horizons' praise for around two hours of the band at its best and its unexpected closing songs, two untitled objects under the date, and no house file.
Other Media (5)
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 03/11/95, 03/14/95 and 03/16/95
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1995 page, the entry for the date
- The house archive — Text files for 1995, none dated to this night