A Rumor Comes True at the Crocodile Cafe

The Night Cheap Trick's Stand Ended

The two headings give the night as October 10, 1998, at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle, WA, USA, in the Pearl Jam Concert Chronology, and as 10/10/98, at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle, in Five Horizons. Five Horizons brackets 39m after its heading without stating what it measures. Five Horizons' capacity line reads 341, and the chronology's attendance line prints 341 and marks the show sold out. Both notes say a rumor that had all Seattle buzzing came true that night, when the three-night stand of Cheap Trick ended. Both notes say the band looked very rested and relaxed as it took the club's tiny stage. The chronology's note says Mike McCready was newly raven-haired.

The Performance

Both soundcheck lines include, in order, "Naked Eye," "Angie," "Corduroy," "Not For You," "Spin The Black Circle," "Leaving Here," "Leatherman," and "MFC." The chronology's setlist gives ten entries, in order: "MFC," "Habit," "Corduroy," "Immortality," "Spin The Black Circle," "All Those Yesterdays," "Leatherman," "Leaving Here," "Do The Evolution," and "Soldier Of Love," and Five Horizons' set line gives the same ten in the same order.

Both notes say the set stood out for having no radio hits and for Eddie playing guitar on nearly every song, and they call it the most adventurous set in years. Both notes call "Immortality" nothing less than tremendous and credit Matt Cameron, who, they say, owned the song. After the set, both notes say, Cheap Trick fans in the audience picked out the song and asked which record it was on. Before "Spin The Black Circle," both notes say, Eddie kept his eyes shut and made no eye contact. Then he took off his guitar and broke into the shuffle-dance that was his trademark, making the most of so small a space, since the band was set up in front of the Cheap Trick equipment. In the same song, both notes say, Mike ran up onto the guitar platform of Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen, to much amusement. Both notes call the night's "All Those Yesterdays" super, with Matt singing backup alongside Stone and Jeff. On "Corduroy," both notes say, Jeff played one of the 12-string basses of Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson. Both notes say "Leaving Here" stood out for the order of its solos, which ran Stone, Jeff, Eddie, and then Mike, and that Mike added to the song by running over to Rick Nielsen's guitar picks, grabbing a handful, and throwing them at the audience, as Rick does. Both notes say the band added "Soldier Of Love," which was not on the setlist they mention, at the last minute, after conferring in a hurry. Both notes end by judging the set tight, razor-sharp, and perfect; it kept, they say, within its 40-minute slot. The chronology's note says the slot was the one set aside for the opening bands.

The Next Step

September 23, seventeen days earlier, is told in A Ping Pong Table at Coral Sky.