A Technical Nightmare in Seattle
The Pearl Jam Concert Chronology's note, like Five Horizons', calls the night a technical nightmare in which microphones, guitars, and lights gave out again and again, and both credit Eddie with rescuing it. Both notes say that when the guitar Stone was playing gave out during "Mankind," he went on strumming and singing as if he had not noticed.
On Monday, September 16, 1996, Pearl Jam played in Seattle, at the arena that the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology heads as KeyArena and Five Horizons as Key Arena. The chronology gives an attendance of 13 500 and marks the show sold out, and Five Horizons gives 13,500 with no status. The chronology's opening act line names Fastbacks, and Five Horizons' support act line names The Fastbacks. Both chronologies print the same seven soundcheck entries, and the same twenty-six entries in one order across a set of twenty-one and encores of four and one.
The show
The Arena in Seattle
Both headings place the arena in Seattle, WA, the chronology's with USA after the state. Five Horizons brackets 135m after its heading without stating what it measures. The chronology's note begins with the way into the building: to stop counterfeit tickets, the venue passed each ticket under a bar-code reader at the turnstiles, so that getting all 13 500 people inside took hours. The same note says that the show had sold out in 6 minutes.
The Performance
Both chronologies give a soundcheck of seven entries: "Long Road," "Better Man," "Who You Are," "In My Tree," "Present Tense," "Red Mosquito," and "Corduroy." The chronology's setlist runs "Long Road," "Hail Hail," "Who You Are," "Animal," "Last Exit," "In My Tree," "Habit," "Not For You," "Daughter," "Dissident," "Even Flow," "Tremor Christ," "Go," "Lukin," "Whipping," "Corduroy," "Immortality," "Jeremy," "Black," "Red Mosquito," and "Alive." Its first encore holds "Off He Goes," "Mankind," "Rearviewmirror," and "Leaving Here," and its second holds "Yellow Ledbetter." Five Horizons' set and two encore lines give the same entries in the same order. Both notes call the night a technical nightmare: by their account the microphones, the guitars, and the lights gave out again and again. The two notes say that after "Who You Are" Eddie tried to steer the band toward what they call more familiar waters. Both notes say the guitar Stone was playing gave out during "Mankind," and that while a crew member, whom the chronology's note calls a guitar tech, struggled to swap the equipment, Stone went on strumming and singing as if he had not noticed. Both notes describe the band's mood: Stone enjoyed himself greatly, Jack had settled into his drumming with the band, and Jeff smiled and laughed for much of the night, as did Mike, who, they say, never reached his usual solos. In a parenthesis, each note says Mike threw in two riffs, one ahead of "In My Tree" and one ahead of "Daughter." Both notes credit Eddie with rescuing the night, keeping his bandmates and the techs going. The two notes say his singing was clean while the sound in the hall was poor, and that he played guitar more often, and with more skill, than in 1995.
The Next Step
The Showbox in Seattle, two days earlier, is told in A Warm-Up Show at the Showbox. Both chronologies put the next appearance four days later, September 20, at the Ed Sullivan Theater; it is told in Leaving Here Cut on the Late Show.
Recording & sound
What the Record Preserves
Five Horizons' entry closes with two short lines that read as link labels of its page: show poster, and reviews with photos. Under the night's heading the chronology's page hangs eleven objects: nine images and two links to PDF files. The house holds one text file for the night, a file whose one line gives a venue, a city, and a date. Seattle on September 16 comes down to one arena under two spellings, 135m that Five Horizons brackets without saying what it measures, an attendance of 13 500 in the chronology and 13,500 in Five Horizons, one act under two forms of its name, twenty-six entries in one order in both, a technical nightmare that both notes say Eddie rescued, eleven objects under the date, and one house file.
Other Media (0)
Other accounts
No further accounts of this show have been added.
Sources & thanks (4)
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1996 page
- Five Horizons — Concert chronology 1996, entries for 09/14/96, 09/16/96, and 09/20/96
- Pearl Jam Concert Chronology — 1996 page, the entry for the date
- The house archive — Text file in the 1996-09-16 folder