One of the perks about growing up in Seattle in the 90s was being in the right place at the right time, music-wise. I was a freshman in high school when I went to one particularly legendary rock show — Nirvana’s record release party for Nevermind, held at Beehive records (Peaches) in Seattle.
It was awesome – hundreds of fans jammed into this random record store for the all-ages show – we must have gotten there early because I don’t think I was even ten feet from the band. Things got pretty crazy considering it was in a fluorescent-lit record store at 7:30pm — a mosh pit started up and people were actually crowd surfing in the store.
After the show, the band hung out outside for a while. I got them to sign the flyer for the show, a full-page ad on the back of the Rocket or some other weekly. Krist and Dave were friendly and kidded around with me, Kurt stood back a bit. And then it was over, and time for homework and dinner with my mom. I skipped school a week or so later to go buy the album when it was officially released…and it was 1991, so yes I bought the TAPE.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” – Nirvana at Beehive Records in Seattle, September 16, 1991:
“School” – Nirvana at Beehive Records in Seattle, September 16, 1991:
The story of the show, from a book about Nirvana:
And for diehard grunge fans, footage of the entire concert:
[Possibly related posts]:
- Cheap but bombproof Recommended for Cool Tools fans: Great thread on AskMeFi recommending...
- DRM disappears, my money quickly follows I’ve been on a digital music buying spree this week...
- Gleaning PII from the space-time-travel trail IBM technologist Jeff Jonas thrives on big data sets and...
- Reader of a thousand books Inspired by this recount of famous shed-writers, I am putting...
3 Comments
I think it was a few months later that I went in to a record store, Rhino Records in Claremont, CA and was blown away by the music they were playing on the loudspeakers. Normally, the music in a record store is something you know or couldn't care less about. Not that day. A shy kid, I forced myself to go up to the counter and ask the hip college kid working there to tell me what this amazing music was. Turned out to be the Nevermind album which I bought on the spot. This was a few months before they broke big on MTV. For a suburban southern California youth the music was a jolt through the very core of my existence. That album and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger defined middle school for me. Took me somewhere safe from New Kids on the Block and the bubblegum pop that surrounded me. I always wished I'd lived in Seattle at that time. As you can guess, I'm jealous that you got to go to this show.
Thanks for bringing back the memories…although I don't remember it being as crazy as it sounds in the article. I remember a pretty intimate affair with moshing etc, but I don't remember the crowds in the parking lot that weren't allowed in, etc. I guess we did get there at the right time, cause we were right there in the heart of it while they rocked and we moshed.
Totally – I remember we were right up there near them when they played.