In 1991 I was working in Lynnwood, living in the U-District, and thoroughly wrapped up in the local music comings and goings, or at least as much as I could be while playing in a band(s) that had - for the most part - missed the first train leaving Grunge Station headed up rock mountain.  I was in the scene enough to hear about things that weren't to be missed. At the time, most of this centered on the filming of Singles, the supposed "story of the Seattle scene."

The first few months of 1991 were a buzz with who was going to be in the movie as a performer, or an extra, or a featured extra. The talk was all about who was getting to be in the crowd during the Soundgarden footage, or who was in the bar when this scene or that scene was happening. About this time, KISW broadcasted that on Wednesday, the 17th of April, Alice in Chains would be filming their live performance for Singles. If you wanted to be in the crowd, you were to be at the Seattle Center parking lot at 5 p.m. for the selection process. I was there - or at least I tried to be. 

I got out of work an hour early and, still in my work clothes, made the crawl from Lynnwood all the way to Seattle. Right at 5 p.m., as I pulled into the lot, I saw four big Grey Hound type buses pulling out. The selection process was apparently over. The first person I saw was a good friend and fellow guy-in-the-know around town. As I rolled my window down he informed me that the whole thing was over a half hour ago - and that it was bullshit.

"But it's cool, dude," he told me. "Nirvana is doing a surprise show at the OK Hotel."

This made me feel a lot better. This was the first I'd ever heard of a "surprise show" - although the coming years the term would turn into a joke.

This was different, though. Even back before they "made it", Nirvana always seemed to be somebody's little brother giving the big kids the finger. Playing a surprise show, one of the last before the release of their major label debut - right across the street from where Alice in Chains was filming on one of the piers on the Seattle waterfront - seemed like a little bit of a punk rock "fuck you, sell out".  

After all, the "Man In The Box" video had been garnering airplay on MTV - making Alice in Chains the first Seattle band to be so blessed. They had gone out on the road with Van Halen and the Monsters of Rock tour. They were doing things no one thought possible of a Seattle band just a year earlier - and yet, somehow, it still came off as a little bit show boat-ish. It didn't seem artistically contrived by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly well thought out and with great hair.

For Nirvana, to play an all ages show right across the street from the mighty Chains triumphant filming for the big screen seemed to be an openly snickering condemnation of the whole process of becoming a "rawk star". 

I ran home and changed. There was no hurry to get down to the OK because it WAS a surprise show, after all. This was before the days of shitty bands "leaking" the possibility of a Pearl Jam sighting at their shows to entice lines down the block. This was before things went crazy-haywire. This was before any of these bands could fill the Paramount Theatre. Basically, this was before anyone heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit". 

I first heard of Nirvana a couple years earlier, when a kid in my first-year college English class wore one of the band's t-shirts.  He sat directly in front of me, and I'll never forget it. For an entire hour I sat there wondering what the hell kind of band sells a shirt that says (in big block letters): CRACK SMOKIN', FUDGE PACKIN', SATIN WORSHIPIN', MOTHERFUCKERS.

This was 1990 or so, and NO ONE put "fuck" in print. And they sure as shit weren't coupling it up with anal sex and references to devil worship and drug abuse. It just wasn't done.

I guess the times they were a changin'.

From that point on, I was on the team. I didn't care what they sounded like, or looked like for that matter. If anyone asked me if I'd heard of Nirvana, I was going to say I had and they RULED.  It was until a little while later that I heard their first album, Bleach. It didn't strike me as earth shattering, or even groundbreaking - just really heavy.  NOT polished. Bleach was like a dirty old wagon with rusty wheels going down a steep hill and threatening to yard sale at any moment. The recordings were rank with a "fuck you, I don't give a shit" attitude and a complete lack of sheen. There was not one millisecond of poser on the entire record. It was all from the gut. 

I saw Nirvana at the OK Hotel that night and got goose bumps all throughout the set. I was entirely sure I was witnessing history.  You can find the show on YouTube. Just Google Nirvana OK Hotel. If you want to see me, go to the video of the band playing "Love Buzz" and toggle between the 1.51 and 1.52 mark. You'll see my grinning mug with the side of my head shaved.

As you know, Nevermind came out a little while later. Nirvana went on tour. It all started to go crazy. By the time they made their way home, it was getting to be late October. The word came down that although the band's homecoming show had sold out almost instantly, there would be about 50 tickets released the day of show - Halloween 1991. I spent a beautiful Indian summer morning and afternoon waiting in line in front of the Paramount Theatre with, at first, just a few other folks. Eventually, the line grew to a point where we realized some of us were going to go home empty handed. Those of us who had showed early - however - were rewarded with prize seats on the floor, front and center.  There were about six of us, strangers when we arrived - but now somehow bonded. Looking down Pike Street, all the way to the Market and then to the Puget Sound, we hung around a bit and talked about how special this show was going to be. Then we went on our way to individually prepare for the ceremony.

I took a hit of acid an hour before I arrived. Happy Halloween. I started coming up while the crowd milled in, even more so during the support band.  

Then Nirvana came on and literally destroyed everything - musical boundaries, brain cells and equipment.

Nothing would ever be the same.

Drummer Geoff Reading - who writes a bi-weekly online column (Fridays) for the Weekly Volcano called "Holding Down the 253" in addition to his weekly Wednesday music column - has played music in tons of Northwest bands - Green Apple Quick Step, New American Shame, Top Heavy Crush and most recently Duff McKagan's LOADED - to name but a few. He's toured the world several times over, sharing stages with the likes of Slipknot, The Cult, Buckcherry, Korn, Journey, The Sex Pistols, Nine Inch Nails and on and on. He has called Tacoma home since 2005, and lives in the North End with his wife and son.