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(Courtesy of pearljam.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- On April 7, Pearl Jam will take its place among rock's official royalty when the band is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Brooklyn. But 25 years ago this weekend, it was playing an altogether different sort of gig: A small club show to a few hundred very lucky fans in Cleveland.

The April 2, 1992, Pearl Jam concert at Peabody's DownUnder in The Flats remains one of the fabled shows in Cleveland rock history, mostly because it probably never should have happened.

Eddie Vedder & Co. were already big stars by then, with a debut album, "Ten," rocketing up the Billboard album charts and a single, "Alive," in heavy rotation on radio and MTV. They should have been playing arenas, amphitheaters, maybe even stadiums. And in a few months, they would be, including a co-headlining spot on the 1992 Lollapalooza festival.

But the Peabody's gig was booked for 1991, before fame and fortune had hit the boys from Seattle. Pearl Jam had to reschedule the gig when it landed an opening slot along with the Smashing Pumpkins on the Red Hot Chili Peppers tour. That triple bill played Cleveland's Music Hall on Oct. 26 of that year.

Larry Collins, the longtime Cleveland concert promoter who now owns City Buddha in Cleveland Heights, booked Pearl Jam at Peabody's. Collins says he half expected them to cancel, given their newfound stardom. "But the band promised to do the show and they honored the commitment," he says. "They were Mensches!"

I was the newly hired rock critic at The Plain Dealer in April of 1992.

Actually, Jane Scott was the real rock critic at the newspaper, at least as far as readers and the music business were concerned. She was the legend. I was just some unknown guy the paper put on the music beat to help out.

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder performs at Blossom Music Center in July of 1992 as part of that year's Lollapalooza festival. A few months earlier, the band played a fabled small club gig at Peabody's DownUnder in the Flats.

Jane took pity on me, and showed me the ropes. One of her first lessons was to give me a polite kick in the butt when it came to Pearl Jam. I wasn't going to go to the Peabody's show. I was tired that day. I don't remember why. I was probably all worn out from writing some boring CD review nobody would ever read.

Jane was just shy of her 73rd birthday at the time. But she had the energy -- and more importantly the insatiable curiosity -- of an 18-year-old. She had seen Pearl Jam at the Chili Peppers show. (You can read her review HERE) And she insisted that I had to go with her to Peabody's.

"You can't write about rock 'n' roll from your desk, Norm!," she scolded.

She always called me Norm. At first I hated it. Then, I came to love it -- and her.

"Let's go!"

And so we did. It is, to this day, one of the most memorable concerts I've ever witnessed.

Part of the magic was Peabody's. The club wasn't much to look at -- dark and dingy and literally underground. It was freezing in the winter, sweltering in the summer, had balky plumbing and frequently smelled like fish when it rained.

But put a band and a crowd together in that club and Peabody's became a rock 'n' roll palace. There was something about the room - the layout, the acoustics or maybe just the seen-it-all grit on the walls - that made it the perfect space to see a great rock band in full glory.

Pearl Jam was a young band in 1992, but it was already capable of greatness. The lineup that night featured vocalist Eddie Vedder, guitarist Stone Gossard, bassist Jeff Ament, guitarist Mike McCready, and newly hired drummer Dave Abbruzzese.

They blew that little room away with a passion and fury that left the crowd frenzied and spent.

Collins remembers Vedder crawling on the bar's overhead pipes during one particularly crazy segment, which freaked him out a bit because the pipes were old, full of raw sewage and not really made for that sort of thing.

The band played 9 of the 11 songs on "Ten," leaving out "Oceans" and the long, slow jam, "Release." They tossed in "State of Love and Trust," from the "Singles" movie soundtrack, and road tested "Leash," a track that would eventually make it on to the group's second album, "Vs."

Most memorably, they unleashed a glorious cataclysm with a take on Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," a rebel anthem so perfect and so beautiful that it compels the listener to sing-along and rage against the machine.

Young will induct Pearl Jam in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next week. I am sure it will be a wonderful night, and that Young will team up with the band for an epic jam on "Rockin' in the Free World," along with other Pearl Jam classics.

But I cannot imagine it being better than that night at Peabody's.

I saw Pearl Jam in concert many times after 1992. They were always good, great even. But never as good, or as great -- at least to me -- as that night in Flats.

The greatest shows are always a mystery like that.

Talent is important. Great songs are important.

But it takes more than that to conjure the magic.

A special time. A special place. A special spirit in the night.

Pearl Jam -- grunge kids who would become Rock and Roll Hall of Famers -- had it all that April evening at Peabody's.

SETLIST

Pearl Jam at Peabody's DownUnder

April 2, 1992

1. "Once"

2. "Even Flow"

3. "State of Love and Trust"

4. "Alive"

5. "Black"

6. "Deep"

7. "Jeremy"

8. "Why Go"

9. "Rockin' in the Free World"

10. "Porch"

11. "Garden"

12. "Leash"