35 years ago today: Nirvana plays in Edmonton for the first and last time

Back on March 5, 1991, Nirvana played a show in Edmonton to a crowd of around 100 people before they became famous.

March 5, 1991, was a frigid day in Edmonton. But that didn’t stop some 50-odd people from braving -30 C to see a then-little-known grunge band from Seattle.

Nirvana played for the first, and last, time in Edmonton 35 years ago today at Bronx, now known as the Starlite Room.

“Nirvana was such a short, fast flash in the pan of a career, so there aren’t many spaces that exist that you could honestly say Nirvana played at,” said Starlite owner-operator Tyson Boyd. “There’s not a lot of documentation, even of shows, so the pictures we have are actually quite special in the whole story of it all.”

Boyd said he came across photos from the gig about five years ago when the photographer, Ping Brunet, made a post to a local Facebook group.

“I wrote her instantly, and then I had to really do a lot of convincing, because she’s fairly introverted, but I managed to convince her to allow us to expose these photos,” said Boyd. “Otherwise, they hadn’t seen the light of day for 30 years.”

The photos depict the three-piece of frontman Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl – who had just joined the band – taking the stage.

You can also see a handful of crowd members, one being Shaun Cowan, who had the privilege of interviewing Nirvana after the show for Slur Magazine.

“When we did the interview, we talked a lot about the Seattle sound, and at that point, Kurt was already frustrated with it,” said Cowan. “I don’t believe it was announced that they had signed to Geffen Records, so I remember we were talking about Sub Pop, and that’s when they were like ‘Nah, our next record’s coming out on Geffen.’

“That was the first time I’d ever heard about it, so it was kind of exciting to get that little piece of information.”

Nirvana signed with Geffen the following month and released Nevermind in September after leaving Sub Pop, an indie label on which they released Bleach in 1989.

Cowan said that after the interview, they told him to take the rest of the rider of beers in the fridge as they were driving back that night to Calgary.

He was 17 years old at the time and working at CJSR, the University of Alberta’s campus radio station. Cowan also helped secure an opening slot for local band Zero Tolerance.

“I feel like a lot of the people who were there were in the back playing pool,” he recalled. “All these different people from CJSR were there, so we all knew the band from the first record.”

There was a moment during the set where Cobain either fell or jumped off the stage, remembers Cowan, who says his friend was struck in the head by the headstock of Cobain’s Fender Stratocaster guitar.

“When he hit Josh, he started rubbing Josh’s head to make sure he was OK, and then just kept playing,” said Cowan. “I feel like they did a Velvet Underground cover during that particular moment.

“I remember the band was really loud, and it just felt really punk rock … they sounded great.”

‘Inspiring’

While the show predates Boyd, he said Nirvana had been a big influence on him in his younger years.

“As a music fan that grew up in northern Alberta, a lot of these things seem so far away at the time,” said Boyd. “To have a venue and a space that hosted events like the Nirvana show is really inspiring.”

Today, Starlite has a bit of a reputation for hosting bands earlier in their career before they break out into larger venues and tours. Boyd recalled Green Day playing within a couple of months of Nirvana, NOFX and Great Big Sea, to name a few.

Playing the venue is also a pretty big deal for local musicians.

“It’s not an easy venue to fill, so there’s a little bit of a (milestone) there, where when you do make the big stage, you’ve kind of made it to the point where you have an audience that’s more than just your friends and family,” said Boyd.

The 101-year-old building was originally home to the Salvation Army before being converted to a theatre under the Citadel Theatre company.

In 1978, the venue was converted into concert hall and bar, the BRONX, although the slanted floor – now a trademark – still remains.

The Bronx changed to the Rev Cabaret and Lush until closing in 2003. The venue reopened in 2004 as the Starlite Room.

“It’s very rare that a venue can survive (more than) 35 years, let alone one that’s in a more isolated city in northern Canada,” said Boyd. “There is a kind of influence and magic.”