From the vault: Remembering Nirvana 10 years later

National media, ranging from CNN to MTV, swarmed to Seattle earlier this week to put their spin on the 10-year anniversary of the day Kurt Cobain injected one last dose of heroin into his system and ended his life with a single shotgun blast. If April 5, 1994, is considered the day the music died for generation X, today could be thought of as the 10-year anniversary of the day Cobain’s music was put to rest.

April 8, 1994 was the date Cobain’s lifeless body was discovered in a shed on his property. This discovery not only marked the death of grunge, but the death of a one of the most revolutionary figures in rock.

The band made history with its music which expressed feelings of rage, angst and frustration through Cobain’s introspective lyrics.

Fifteen years ago the UW campus hosted a small part of that history.

At 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 25, 1989, the second of ASUW’s “Four Bands for Four Bucks” series graced the HUB Ballroom for a night of slam-dancing, stage-diving rock ‘n’ roll goodness — a night that will likely be forever remembered by those who were there.

More than 600 students filled the Ballroom for a physical and emotional release provided by big amplifiers, loud guitars and lots of distortion. The evening’s bill was headlined by Tacoma garage-punks Girl Trouble, the first band to release a record on famed indie label Sub Pop. Two local bands, Skin Yard and the Fluid, performed before Girl Trouble, but it was the band that opened the show, an up-and-coming group from Aberdeen, Wash., that made the biggest impact.

A preview of the show written by Phil West printed in The Daily read: “The show starts at 8:30 p.m., and if you’re going, don’t be late — Nirvana is opening for everybody and this Aberdeen group is the most important one you will ever see in your life.”

After hearing a demo tape of what would become Nirvana’s debut album Bleach West went on to proclaim it would “change the course of history” in the same article.

“There was a distinct punk-rock energy,” said West, remembering the show. “It was an incongruous bill. Each band had a different approach to it (punk rock). It worked because there was this enthusiasm and energy that brought things together.”

Jeff Gilbert, who was also at the show, recalled breathing room was at a premium. “I remember walking into this wall of people. It was so cram-packed,” said GIlbert.

“It was a lot of smelly, sweaty people. Because in the Northwest people don’t bathe that much in the winter.”

That night the band performed in front of the largest crowd of its career to date.

“I remember that Nirvana was very excited to play it (the HUB show). It was a big deal to them,” said Tracy Marander, one of Cobain’s former girlfriends.

Nirvana played in front of a large banner that had a portrait of Elvis Presley with “Nirvana” written over Presley’s face. The banner was fitting for a band that would later go on to dethrone a different king, Michael Jackson, the king of pop, at the top of the record charts with its second album, 1991’s monumental Nevermind.

During the band’s set, fans got on stage and began to leap into the crowd one-by-one, like jet fighters taking off from a aircraft carrier. All the while, Cobain screamed his lyrics in an environment of controlled chaos.

Nirvana was as well known for its volatile live shows it was for its dark and heavy punk-inspired songs. This on stage explosiveness was on display at the HUB.

“I remember Krist (Novoselic, Nirvana’s bassist) saying to me once, ‘It’s not a good show unless Kurt breaks something,'” said West.

It must have been a good show, because at the set’s finale Novoselic performed one of his patented bass tosses, throwing his guitar in the air and catching it and as an exclamation mark, Cobain crashed into drummer Chad Channing’s bass drum to end the show.

“It was like seeing Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival or The Beatles in 1964. There was this sense of something historical happening,” West said of Nirvana’s set.

The first time West met Nirvana, the band members were sitting on a set of stairs listening to Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void.”

“They were three good, kind of goofy kids,” said West. “Their music had this real power and dark heat to it. But at the same time ,there was a pop sensibility to it. To me Nirvana seemed like a pop band through this really dark filter.”

That pop sensibility caught the attention of the world and shortly after the release of Nevermind the group was propelled to superstardom. But the level of stardom the band achieved became one of the many contributing factors to Cobain’s eventual suicide.

“He was ill-prepared to be a rock star,” said Cobain biographer Charles Cross. “Becoming famous was something Kurt was not prepared for. He was good at being a musician but bad at being a rock star.”

Cobain’s songs strayed from the radio-friendly verse-chorus-verse formula that was being played on the airwaves at the time. His emotionally powerful lyrics expressed themes of love, joy, anger and hatred, and the meanings of his songs were often as difficult to interpret, as they were to understand.

“The reason why I think they have so much power and still take a hold of people today is because he wrote his songs from his subconscious,” said Seattle Times pop music critic Patrick MacDonald.

“In some way they are all trying to explain the mystery, troubles and problems we all face. They aren’t songs that are easy to understand and every time you listen to them you can find new ideas to explore,” said MacDonald.

Many fans think Cobain’s death left a void in the world of music; a void that has yet to be filled by a group of musicians with the ability to speak to audiences the way Nirvana did, the band moved a generation of teens labeled slackers by the baby boomers.

While Cobain ended his career early, fans are left with four studio albums and an upcoming box set that is said to include a disc with B-sides and rarities.

“There has been no one in rock who has overshadowed him,” said Cross. “Kurt’s legacy is the music he left behind.”

“His celebrity status and the grizzly details of his death are not the reasons we talk about Nirvana. The songs he wrote were so powerful, which is why he has made such a lasting impact.”