remembering live music no.5

Nirvana, live in 1991

Nirvana, Shonen Knife, Captain America / Eugenius - Rock City, Nottingham, 3 December 1991

It's been a while since I've posted one of these. And I don't think I'll be heading out for a gig anytime soon. This memory was prompted by an earworm, which in turn was prompted by Little Ms D's current musical obsession. She loves Nevermind (she's a little too young for In Utero - "Daddy, what does 'Rape Me' mean?") and plays it whenever she can. 

So yes. I am old enough to say that I saw Nirvana play live. It's the kind of thing that sometimes impresses people. But less so when I say, "They were alright."

An explanation.

I was listening to something on Radio 4 a few years ago and in a discussion about favourite music, a female panelist came up with the perfect description. I wish I could remember her name because I've been using this line ever since. 

She said that Nirvana didn't change her life. They were just the end of a musical line that she'd been following through the 1980s. And that sums up how I feel about them. When you've seen Pixies and Sonic Youth, and heard Hüsker Dü, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Killdozer, Mudhoney, etc… they weren't anything Earth shatteringly new. 

Now don't get me wrong, they were a great band, with great songs and a no-doubt charismatic lead singer.

Plus it was really exciting to hear "our music" being played on daytime Radio 1. I actually remember hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit being played in Nottingham's much-missed Selectadisc record shop and being blown away by how good bit sounded. 

And I'm not trying to say that I heard them first. As far as I'm concerned, that honour goes to my old friend Sally-Anne. We swapped tapes and she had all of those early Sub Pop releases and Dope, Guns & Fucking In The Streets compilations. 

So anyway I saw Nirvana. And they were pretty good. Tight and well rehearsed in the way of most American bands. But, because this was over THIRTY YEARS AGO, my memories are pretty scattered. 

1. I went to this gig on my own. I don't know why nobody else was around or could be arsed but there you go. I bumped into someone who was more a friend of-a-friend, gave him a lift home and he eventually became the singer in my last band. Strange. 
2. Captain America (the then-current band by Kurt Cobain's favourite musician, Eugene from The Vaselines) had changed their name to Eugenius by the time the gig happened. They didn't think that Marvel would mind. The past really is another country, yes?
3. Shonen Knife was very kawaii and buzzy and punk-pop-tastic. Too much sugar is bad for you. 
4. Setlist.FM has got this gig completely wrong, I think. I'm positive that the first song they played was Aneurysm. 
5. Kurt Cobain played a guitar solo while doing a forward roll. 
6. Krist Novoselic spent a good deal of the gig throwing his bass into the air. 
7. Nirvana had a dancer, who it turns out was the drummer in Derby band Bivouac. 
8. It felt like they tossed out …Teen Spirit early in the set. 

Weirdly in researching the date for this post (I threw away all my old gig tickets!!), I stumbled on this video report of the gig. I've no memory whatsoever of seeing a film crew there but some of these kids look like yr archetypal gormless Nottingham Rock City types. 

The interview with the band is the classic alternative scene, make-up-some-stuff-and-riff-on-it-to-confuse-the-interviewer situation. But interestingly, when asked about success, they seem to say their role is to point people to all the bands that came before them (from 4.29). 

A few years ago, I went to see Bob Dylan. I was lucky and got Good Bob that night so came into work afterwards saying that I'd never been in the same room as a living legend before. A colleague said, "Ah, but you were in the same room as Kurt Cobain."

To which I replied, "Yes, but he wasn't a living legend until he'd died."

Sad but true?