Clearly, I never was a huge fan of Nirvana, as I once ended a conversation with Dave Grohl (before Nirvana hit it big) by telling him not to quit his day job because I didn’t think they’d make it in the music business.
I guess that’s not as bad as a woman I know that used to date and live with Eddie Vedder, who dumped him because he wasn’t contributing anything to their bills (and laughed at him when he said he was joining a band as their singer).
Wow, so much going on in these three lines.
Here are more Nirvana details. Back in the day (college and just after), a friend of a friend had a nightclub that hosted live bands. In exchange for free snacks and drinks, I would help out as their sound engineer if I was around and would help bands with equipment set up, breakdown, and sound checks. Most bands were local bands or wannabees, and few amounted to much of anything. However, there were some other acts I remember that went on to bigger things: Spin Doctors, Smashing Pumpkins, Live, and the Mighty Mighty Boss Tones.
On Thursday
1991-09-26 in New Haven (2 days after Nevermind was released), Nirvana played there (right before they exploded almost overnight). It was the first week of the Nevermind tour. No one really knew them. The Smells Like Teen Spirit video would debut on MTV that weekend. They had a following on the West Coast, but hardly anyone had ever heard of them on the East Coast. I was a college DJ, and I had never played them.
I was already there when they arrived in a station wagon late that afternoon from a gig in Providence. I did the usual set up and sound check stuff and got to hang out with the 3 band members and Courtney Love (pre- and post-show). Kurt and Courtney were busy being into each other, and she tried shocking people by suggesting all the things she wanted to do to Kurt (they had just started dating). I remember Krist was pretty quiet and kept to himself. That left Grohl as the one left over to talk to and accessible to hang out with. So we sat at the bar drinking and shooting the breeze. He told me his backstory (I am a couple years older) and went over different bands that we were into. He was a pretty cool guy.
The problem was, to me, Nirvana just seemed to be loud to be loud and used heavy distortion just because they could. Remember, at that time, grunge wasn't a thing yet. Dance, R&B, boy bands, and pop rock were all popular then, and the popular acts were Bryan Adams, R.E.M., Damn Yankees, and big hair / glam metal. Nirvana was nowhere near those. From the moment they started their soundcheck, I wasn't a big fan. I'm not anti-noisy bands . . . they just didn't sound all that musical to me. (Plus I didn't know any of their songs.) By the end of the night, we all had a bit too much to drink (and in Kurt's case, who knows what else), but as the band was getting ready to leave, I mentioned to Dave that it was cool hanging out, but just in case, don't quit the day job in case the music thing didn't work out. I may have been wrong on that one, but at least I didn't just father a newborn.
I wish I knew who they were, had been a big fan, and was into them when this all went down. But to me, they were just a bunch of scrubs hanging out at a seedy club just like all the other bands and guys I met at the same club. I remember my friends at the time asking what I had done that weekend (we all counted Thursday as part of the weekend). I distinctly remember telling them I hung out at the bar with some band I never heard off called Urbana. That's how little I knew them and little attention I paid them during their set. It's a great story now, but live as it happened, it really wasn't that special or exciting.
Mike McCready and would listen to Eddie sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
