by Nick Soulsby
However, armed with their new songs Nirvana was making a genuine impact.
DON FLEMING: I do remember being on tour in Europe at that time and going to places Nirvana had played and listening to [people] talk about having seen them. And the thing that was very distinct to me at the time was that the people who were mostly raving about them were women, girls—they loved the band and that was something I didn’t usually see. It was usually guys—“Hey, did you check Tad? He’s so fucking amazing!” Or Dinosaur Jr. or … It was very unusual to me, striking, to hear women raving about the band. That was something that was different and did give them more mass appeal. Kurt was a James Dean to a lot of females—he had that dark look, songs, bad-boy-but-take-care-of-me thing. Appealing. And the crowds that I saw that were really talking about them, it was one of the things that was really apparent to me. Usually you didn’t hear girls talking as much, especially with punk or grunge sort of bands, it was more a guys’ game, but this opened it up and that seems key to their mainstream success.
LISA SMITH: What always stood out was Kurt! Krist was fun to watch because he had so much energy, but all eyes were usually on Kurt. All of us girls would joke about not ever having babies with the exception of having his!
JOHN LEAMY: We met some girls in Sweden who were annoyingly obsessed with Bleach. That was the real rumblings in the distance for me. I was trying to get laid, and these girls wouldn’t stop talking about that record. So, I listened to it. Ad nauseam for a long weekend.
Nirvana now had a timely first taste of festival crowds—just as the fruits of their summer labors were starting to leak, they were to be seen by tens of thousands.
ERIC “DANNO” JEEVERS, Paradogs: Paradogs were one of the very few Dutch bands on the Ein Abend In Wien showcase festival, we were very much the critics’ sweethearts—fair is fair, we weren’t too bad, either!… In most of the publicity, I think Paradogs had a big color photo and Nirvana a small black-and-white one. That doesn’t mean we were superstars though—hell no—but Nirvana was an up-and-coming band like many others. By the time the festival was on, there was a buzz that they were the band you should go and see, because “Teen Spirit” was getting a lot of airplay and all that. I think by then we realized they should have had the color photo!
JB MEIJERS, Charmin’ Children: I clearly remembered that those were the guys from the Bleach album and wondered where the fourth guy was. I have never told this to anyone. I really dug that record. I was a member of the Sub Pop singles club and therefore received every single Sub Pop release … I thought of them as the best thing ever, but I saw Dinosaur Jr. as the band that should’ve knocked Michael Jackson from the throne … Who would have guessed … Nirvana? Really?
With the Rotterdam festival marking the tour’s end, Nirvana celebrated by making drunken fools of themselves.
JB MEIJERS: They wrecked the backline, including my Marshall. I was not cool with that … We shared a dressing room—we were an obnoxious bunch but I remember them pushing that a bit further … There was an accordion door that split the room right in two. After someone in the Nirvana camp threw a banana to us, John, our singer, closed that door.
ERIC JEEVERS: I missed the whole equipment-smashing bit, although backstage the security’s portophones were buzzing and we heard what was going on. Personally, I don’t get a kick from seeing someone wrecking guitars, so I went to see some other band—and later on ran into Mr. Grohl … Dave tried to nick our six-packs of beer. He was dead drunk, and we told him to cut it out. Like, “If you want a beer, here, you have one, but don’t take a whole six-pack OK?” Then he started making masturbation gestures with the beer, and I put a friendly arm around him [and said], “Know what, let’s see if there’s any cool bands to check out.” He agreed, but in the corridor, he slipped over some spilled beer, thought I had pushed him or whatever, and he attacked me. It was pretty easy to dodge his blows and I didn’t feel like hitting him back—I mean, he had trouble standing up as it was! So, anyway, security saw what happened [and were like] “Ah, another of those Nirvana guys…” and they had a little chat I think …
September 23, 1991—Boston. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had been out for two weeks. But local pride had muted the release of Nevermind; it was just one more good album at the time.
LEX LIANOS, Cliffs of Dooneen: Boston had its own thing going on and the feeling was that Seattle was trying to take over Boston’s mantle as a cool music town. Honestly, at the time I wasn’t a big Nirvana fan. I liked “Smells Like Teen Spirit” a bit but didn’t really get it until much later … The bigger deal was that the local station had chosen us to open this night that the entire industry was buzzing about. The guy that essentially discovered us and gave us a shot on the radio was Kurt St. Thomas. He was the program director of WFNX and this was their show. He was probably Nirvana’s biggest supporter at the time and was among the first to play their record … they were fine. Nothing earth-shattering. Kind of garage-bandy. Our stage and light show was much more big-venue-oriented. Probably overshooting where we were at in our career (medium clubs), but we wanted to be playing arenas and approached it that way. They just kind of got up there and played. I got zero feeling they were the next big thing and that everyone would flip out … Eric Sean Murphy and I were most interested in meeting the Pumpkins. But when we introduced ourselves to Billy Corgan, who I think was chatting with their drummer Jimmy Chamberlain (who I think is incredible), they were so rude it was a bummer. We said hi, that we were playing before them and we thought their band was amazing. Billy says, “Yeah, we know” and turned his back on us. Probably one of the biggest arses I’ve met in the industry.
FLYNN, Cliffs of Dooneen: We were so focused on what we were doing in Boston at the time. We were very aware of Nirvana and the Seattle sound but felt we had our own “sound” brewing in our hometown … outside the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, sitting in the band van and one of our songs had just played on WFNX 101.7, then “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came on shortly after. I remember thinking, This will be huge … Cliffs were on the rise in Boston. We were so into what we were doing that we did not pay too much attention to everything else. At least, I didn’t. We won an award that night as well, I believe … like a people’s choice award that was presented after we played. I remember MTV interviewing us and all the bands that night. It was one fantastic night that went by way too quickly! I also remember Smashing Pumpkins on the bill and there was a great buzz about them also. I don’t remember a media frenzy about Nirvana that night …
The impact of MTV was immeasurable to bands at the time. Nirvana had the right video, sound, and song.
GILLY ANN HANNER: When I first heard “Teen Spirit” we were in Seattle putting together artwork for our album. We went into Kinko’s to copy the artwork and lay it out—it was on the radio. Everyone thought, This is awesome, what is this? It sounded so different to how they played it live. All of a sudden all of us collectively went, “Oh my God, it’s Nirvana! This is their new record? They’re going to be huge!” Goosebumps, that moment when we could just tell that. From then we saw their video on MTV and it was all surreal.
LINDSEY THRASHER: One weekend we went to San Francisco to play a show and somewhere I heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Then on the way home, we stopped at a gas station and heard it again. It seemed like we heard it five times that day and it didn’t let up …
ALAN BISHOP: I was at work in an office that always had MTV going on the TV with the volume turned off, and I looked up and saw this band playing. They looked familiar but I couldn’t place them … I watched the rest of the video and when the band name and song title appeared at the bottom of the screen … it became crystal clear: it was those Nirvana guys …
JOHN PURKEY: It’s when I went into the shop and I’m looking at all the magazines and they’re on the cover of almost every single magazine, not just the music magazines, and I just thought: Wow … that’s when I really knew something was happening to my friends.
DON FLEMING: The label thought it was cool, but they didn’t see it coming at all. There was only one guy there who was really working it personally to really push it, which was John Rosenfelder; he was the college music rep, so he would push records to college radio … the rest of the label didn’t even realize the record was out and were caught happily surprised when the record did break. There could have been other people pushing it, but John is the one I knew and with him it was like once things started rolling it gave him even more to work with. But he was in from the get-go, before it took off.
GLEN LOGAN: My impression of Nirvana pre-Nevermind was that they were a cool band among the so many other incredible and cool bands in the area. They did not, however, stick out head and shoulders above other bands in the area to me. That is not taking anything away from them; it is more a statement of how strong so many other bands were. From my perspective I think they found a bit of a new voice on Nevermind in a way that positively did separate them from everyone else. I know some folks who perceive Nevermind as a sell-out. I, however, think it was the opposite and actually a braver thing to do.
RICK SIMS, The Didjits: Nirvana was just another band from Seattle until Nevermind in terms of popularity. I know they were well liked and drew bigger crowds than us, but they weren’t massive. There were certainly other bands that were “bigger,” like Fugazi, but they operated on a different plane. There was an atmosphere of promotion and commercialism that revolved around Nirvana. Fugazi had an anti-promotion vibe and more of a cultlike grassroots following … My personal opinion is that it wasn’t how well they played live that got them so wildly popular. They exuded a cool in songwriting that hit just at the right time. Couple that with a bazillion-dollar PR budget and the bubbling up of the so-called grunge movement and they hit at just the right time.
KEVIN ROSE: There was a strong current of anticommercial “alternative” feeling at the time just before Nirvana became worldwide; college radio seemed to favor SST bands with leanings toward Jane’s Addiction and reverence for the Bad Brains.
MIKE HARD: The industry did not know what to do with bands like us, and of course wanted nothing to do with some of us. Rock ’n’ roll reached entropy and the music of the ’80s was a backlash. And of course we had Ronald Reagan saying there is a definite need for greed. There was still a need from the music industry to exploit this, minus the politics, but they could not figure it out, of course. So they tried using their past formula for success on the alternative scene. Alas, a cute, young, highly photogenic, twenty-four-year-old with blond hair and blue eyes becomes a poster child for grunge. Kurt Cobain fit the “Johnny Bravo” suit … I am sure the industry thought Nirvana seemed very safe and exploitable at first. Unintelligible lyrics, familiar chord progressions ripped from the best classic rock tunes, blond and blue-eyed front man. No apparent political motivations. Just another recycling job for the industry.
The rest of October vanished as the band romped around the Northeast then plowed a path home, gig-by-gig, across the United States.
GARY FLOYD, Sister Double Happiness: Nevermind hit heavy rotation in the middle of our time with them … I remember their road manager telling everyone backstage one night the CD had hit one million sales that day. They seemed almost embarrassed … All the rest of us were so happy for them and they were low-key and, as I said, really humble-acting … Kurt was a super-respectful and sweet, beautiful man. Punk-rock gentle kind person. After a big show one night I was headed into their room planning to say, “Congratulations on all this … you deserve it, so happy for you…” When I walked in, he said, “Hey, good show.” I said thanks. Before I could go on he said, “I’m so sick of people telling me congratulations and how they are happy for me—it’s all so funny and weird that this is happening.” I swallowed and said, “I bet, can I get a beer?” … I remember being in the middle of nowhere one night in the van—dark and nothing around—some crackling radio station was on and they had a recorded intro saying in a big rock voice “the sound of the ’90s” and “Teen Spirit” came on … We all just looked at each other and said, “Damn!” … The tour had been booked before it all happened so most of the clubs were too small for what was happening! It was chaotic every night … It was so much fun to see and hear them just rip down the walls every time they played. You could taste the energy!
LYNN TRUELL, Sister Double Happiness: We were asked to do some West Coast shows with them … I heard later that Krist was a fan and got us on the bill. Krist came to our backstage in Houston and introduced himself and hung out awhile and we talked about music … I introduced myself to Kurt in Phoenix during sound-check time. I walked up to a table where he was standing and eating his Taco Bell meal. We shook hands and had only a few words—he was eating, after all … I remember listening to KUSF in San Francisco and DJ Terror Bull Ted played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on his show and he introduced it saying something like, “Nirvana may be on a major label now”—a real catchphrase coming out at that time—“but they still got their sound and it is rad!” Something like that. The seven shows we played with them were totally insane and one couldn’t help feeling that something big was breaking out.
ERIC MOORE: Krist and Dave were really funny, outgoing, and well … like most of us, drunk. Kurt was very reclusive and surrounded by a coterie of people who had dyed hair and looked smacked-out … We opened for them the day (I think) Nevermind went gold in the US. And hanging out backstage with Mudhoney, watching Nirvana at their fucking peak … fucking amazing. I tell people all the time. That night, Nirvana was the best rock ’n’ roll band in the world. The best rock set (and drummer) I’ve ever seen to this day … I wasn’t nervous at all, but with all of the lights and cigarette smoke I couldn’t really see the crowd. Oh yeah, and I made a point of stealing beer from Nirvana’s dressing room. Because no one was downstairs in the dressing rooms, they were all up top watching Nirvana!
STEVE BIRCH, Sprinkler: That night is a bit blurry for me, as I was sick as a dog, running a 101-degree temperature and sweating like a pig … they did seem kind of dazed by the rocket ride of adulation that was hitting them. What I remember most is standing in their dressing room right after meeting them and having their manager come in and excitedly tell them that their record had just gone gold. Kurt just looked at him and said something like, “What does that mean?” … When Nirvana hit the stage, there was definitely a shift in the air or something, and it got special. That was probably the best show I ever saw them play, and they seemed happy and on the top of their game, and while Kurt was, in hindsight, using, there were no symptoms of that in this performance.
GARY FLOYD: Dallas, we played our set—people were happy—this was one of those clubs that it should have been bigger, packed!… All at once the crowd noise level went up double and we tried to see what was happening. All hell broke out. Later I’m hearing about the [Hells] Angels chasing the band … Kurt hit a big bad bouncer with tattoos on his face in the head with his guitar—oh, well!
LYNN TRUELL: All I can truly remember is that the band had to “escape” out the side door and into a cab to flee the club.
ANNE EICKELBERG: The audience was very young and acted like they were seeing and hearing God. The kids had overrun the area from well before sound-check time. We were shocked to see big lines and masses of kids as we pulled up to the club in the late afternoon. After Nirvana’s set, when people were leaving, a young man grabbed my arms and looked at me with the wild eyes of the newly converted and kept repeating, “Did you hear that? Did you hear that?” … I know a monitor board was smashed and there was a fight and Kurt had to be snuck out of the club after their set because people wanted to beat him up … Nirvana had an agent or road manager who carried a briefcase full of cash to pay for stuff they broke. But mostly I remember that we had to wait for what seemed like two hours to get paid at the end of the night because of all the drama … Kurt was under the protection of his handlers from the label (I assumed that’s who, anyway). He was nev
er by himself, and not really with his band—he was with a guy who looked like a suit. He looked remote, unapproachable, and unhappy.
MARK DAVIES: Kurt was crowd-surfing … the security guy jumped in and ended up getting smashed over the head with the guitar. Chaos set in and I recall Novoselic jumping up onto a really high monitor tower and crouching there so as not to hit the ceiling. Then at some point all the band was off the side of the stage and disappeared for a while. At some point there was also a confrontation outside of the club … there was definitely someone bleeding from a guitar over the head, and the show was paused for many minutes. Definitely an apocalyptic sort of feel that night … Kurt did seem like a bit of a wild card, like he might unhinge at any point.
LYNN TRUELL: In Tijuana, Dave was not feeling well and wanted to nap in their van, so he asked me to do sound check for Nirvana that day. Pretty cool for me. I think we played “Love Buzz,” and another one or two songs … One of the nuttiest things I have ever seen was in the Tijuana club: it was three levels, and people were jumping into the pit from the second—even third—level. It was horrible, scary, and amazing, surely people were hurt! But the energy of the band and crowd was uncontrollable.