Vintage Promotional Posters and Handbills

Before there was ever a band called Pearl Jam, there were several bands that Jeff Ament and Stone were in, that many view as a precursor to Pearl Jam. These bands include Green River, Lords of the Wasteland, and Mother Love Bone. This section is an attempt to display all known posters and handbills from this era. Also displayed are some from Jeff's first band, Deranged Diction, and from Eddie's previous band, Bad Radio. We also did some research and added some little historical notes to help maybe bring a little insight behind some of these posters and handbills. Some of these are also designed and drawn by Jeff (he also acted as the band's manager in the early days).

Also, check out this scan from the "12 x 88 Seattle Underground Rock Calendar".
Jack Endino describes this on his website: "In 1987 my friend Reyza Sageb, a graphic designer and photographer (You've seen his design work on Soundgarden's "Superunknown" and on the Hater CD) and his promoter friend Sue Rhomberg decided, hey, let's make a calendar with photos of our favorite Seattle bands. (The scene here was small enough that you could actually do this.) They made several hundred and basically lost lots of money on 'em. These things are semi-gloss black-and-white, 11 x 17 inches, bound with a thin cardboard backing. Each month/page is laid out with several black/white photos of one band, with a tiny little strip of dates along the bottom 2 inches so you could still call it a "calendar". Photographers included Reyza, Cam Garrett, Charles Peterson, Tim Freccia, others. The bands included were: Jan: Melvins, Feb: Malfunkshun, Mar: Vexed, Apr: Girl Trouble, May: Green River, Jun: H-Hour (Tad drummed for 'em), July: Skin Yard, Aug: Bundle of Hiss, Sept: U-Men, Oct: Crisis Party, Nov: Feast, Dec: Soundgarden. These actually were most of the important Seattle "heavy rock" bands circa 1987. (Fastbacks had been on "hiatus" for a few years then; Nirvana had not yet recorded their first demo.) By the time this came out in January '88, Melvins, Feast, Green River, Malfunkshun and H-Hour had either broken up or were about to do so, and everything was about to change drastically..."


We also have displayed some vintage stuff from bands not directly related to Pearl Jam. You can see them here.

Last Updated: February 28th, 2002

Metropolis: Seattle, WA 9/15/83† Free the Five Benefit (Deranged Diction)	Behind the Greydoor: Seattle, WA 5/20/84 (Deranged Diction) {misspelled}
Moore Theatre: Seattle, WA 10/19/84†† (Green River)	UCT Hall: Seattle, WA 1/11/86 (Green River)	UCT Hall: Seattle, WA 3/21-22/86 Deep Six Release Party (Green River)
Deep Six Promo released 4/1/86††† (Green River)	Rainbow Tavern: Seattle, WA 6/2/86¤ (Green River)	Rainbow Tavern: Seattle, WA 6/2/86¤ (Green River) (Ronald Reagan illustration)
Vogue Theater: Seattle, WA 9/10/86¤¤ (Green River)	Cresent Ballroom: Tacoma, WA 5/23/87 (Green River)
Cresent Ballroom: Tacoma, WA 5/23/87 (Green River)	Vogue Theater: Seattle, WA 12/16/87 (The Lords of the Wasteland)	Graceland: Seattle, WA 4/28/88¤¤¤ (Mother Love Bone)
Vogue Theater: Seattle, WA 7/4/88 (Mother Love Bone) (designed by Jeff Ament)	The Central Tavern: Seattle, WA 8/17/88 & Natasha's: Bremerton, WA 8/19/88 (Mother Love Bone) (designed by Jeff Ament)	Oz: Seattle, WA 5/4/89* (Mother Love Bone)
(front; Eddie pictured) (back; Dave George pictured) "Have You Seen Me?" Handbill (Bad Radio)**		San Diego Tower Records EP handbill (Bad Radio)

SOME HISTORICAL NOTES:
† One of the very first shows that Deranged Diction played after moving from Missoula to Seattle.

†† Reportably the second Green River show with Stone Gossard playing as the second guitarist, some of the crowd was not impressed, throwing ice, popcorn, shoes, etc. at the band (apparently due mainly to Jeff's flashy appearance).

††† This Gozilla image was also used on other Soundgarden posters around this time.

¤ This was one of Matt Cameron's last shows (if not the last) playing with Skin Yard before joining with Soundgarden two months later.

¤¤ This one is really humorous. That is Jeff in the middle posing and Stone on the far right shirtless. Also, 800 green vinyl copies of "Together We'll Never"/"Ain't Nothin' To Do" single were given away (the scarcest Green River release ever).

¤¤¤ One of the very first Mother Love Bone shows (maybe even the first).

* One of the few times Mother Love Bone headlined a show with Alice in Chains opening (usually it was the other way around), and the last stop on their first mini-tour. Artwork is also found on the Alice in Chains box set.

** This handbill was custom-made by Eddie for a radio contest in San Diego on August 10th, 1989. Here is a quote from Dave Silva (the Bad Radio bassist): ""We made a ton of these, one with each of us on it, and put them all over cars and what not. You had to call in and request a song by one of the top local bands and by the end of the week they tally up the votes and pick the winner....we won ..of course!" (thanks to Randall Haskin and his Bad Radio website for this information!).



Special thanks to the following contributors: Cinamon-Gurl (thanks for saving all those old fliers!), Randall Haskin, Dave Silva