Kurt Cobain's deadpan greeting kicks off an extended YouTube video of an early set by Nirvana at Phoenix's The Mason Jar, the venue that previously occupied the current home of The Rebel Lounge.
The show, which was recorded on Feb. 19, 1990, features the pre-Dave Grohl version of the band doing a West Coast tour with fellow Seattle rockers TAD.
Nineteen months before the release of "Nevermind," the 14-song set was a mix of songs from "Bleach," the "Blew" EP, and even one from the forthcoming album (“Polly”).
As we wrote in 2008, "according to Everett True’s voluminous tome 'Nirvana: The Biography,' the band had kind of a rough time when it played the equally bygone Sun Club (which used to be located in Tempe near Arizona State University) a few months prior in June 1989 (having just released 'Bleach')."
True wrote, "This gig (which also featured legendary Valley experimental rockers the Sun City Girls) came during the salad days for Kurt Cobain and company, when they were touring the Southwest in support of the then-just-released 'Bleach' and were virtually unknown outside of Seattle. The tour continued on through Long Beach, California, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and on into Texas, where the heat became so overwhelming the band would pull over onto garage forecourts and wait until the day had cooled down. The attendances weren’t very high – maybe a couple dozen people, often musicians connected with Sub Pop there to check out the new guys – but Nirvana was beginning to make an impression.
True continued, "'Usually Nirvana ended up opening the shows,' recalls tour booker Danny Bland. 'Being from Arizona, I begged them to put this band on. I said you’ll love them; they ended up playing second of four bands. Their guarantee was $50 and a case of beer and the club didn’t event give them the $50. It was a place called the Sun Club in Tempe, Arizona. I remember going back years later and they had a framed picture of Nirvana. Fuck you: You didn’t even give them 50 bucks. Probably made them pay for the beer, too. That was what the deals were in a lot of places. People hadn’t heard of them.'"
Nirvana returned to the Valley a number of times before their final Phoenix show at the Arizona State Fair in 1993, but the YouTube clip is a priceless artifact of the band performing at a legendary Phoenix venue.
Here's the video, and you can check out individual songs at the following time stamps:
2:18 "School"True wrote, "This gig (which also featured legendary Valley experimental rockers the Sun City Girls) came during the salad days for Kurt Cobain and company, when they were touring the Southwest in support of the then-just-released 'Bleach' and were virtually unknown outside of Seattle. The tour continued on through Long Beach, California, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and on into Texas, where the heat became so overwhelming the band would pull over onto garage forecourts and wait until the day had cooled down. The attendances weren’t very high – maybe a couple dozen people, often musicians connected with Sub Pop there to check out the new guys – but Nirvana was beginning to make an impression.
True continued, "'Usually Nirvana ended up opening the shows,' recalls tour booker Danny Bland. 'Being from Arizona, I begged them to put this band on. I said you’ll love them; they ended up playing second of four bands. Their guarantee was $50 and a case of beer and the club didn’t event give them the $50. It was a place called the Sun Club in Tempe, Arizona. I remember going back years later and they had a framed picture of Nirvana. Fuck you: You didn’t even give them 50 bucks. Probably made them pay for the beer, too. That was what the deals were in a lot of places. People hadn’t heard of them.'"
Nirvana returned to the Valley a number of times before their final Phoenix show at the Arizona State Fair in 1993, but the YouTube clip is a priceless artifact of the band performing at a legendary Phoenix venue.
Here's the video, and you can check out individual songs at the following time stamps:
5:30 "Floyd The Barber"
8:08 "Scoff"
12:34 "Dive"
16:53 "Polly"
19:21 "Spank Thru"
22:56 "Breed"
26:00 "About a Girl"
29:33 "Been a Son"
31:33 "Stain"
34:21 "Negative Creep"
40:33 "Blew"
47:33 "Molly's Lips"
49:49 "Love Buzz"
