Calgary bar planning listening party for bootlegged Nirvana concert recording

A bootlegged tape from legendary grunge band Nirvana's first and only show in Calgary has surfaced 34 years later.

A Calgary bar is hosting a listening party for a recently unearthed, bootlegged tape from legendary grunge and punk rock band Nirvana’s first and only Calgary show.

The Ship and Anchor will be playing the recording for free at 9 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, Mike Bell of Sound Up YYC shared on his Substack blog.

The rare recording is from March 4, 1991, just months before the Seattle band exploded into the mainstream.

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Bell, a former music reviewer for the Calgary Herald and Calgary Sun, attended the small concert at the Westward Club—now the location of Hotel Arts downtown—before the band out of Seattle rose to fame.

“I think it’s great. It’s one of those legendary stories that everybody in the scene talks about. ‘Were you there? Were you there?’” Bell told CTV News on Monday.

“I was there. It was a great show.”

The event is being presented by Sound Up YYC and the Ship and Anchor along with CJAY92 and the Calgary Cassette Preservation Society.

Bell said more information about the event will be shared as it becomes available.

With files from CTV News Calgary’s Teri Fikowski