New Kurt Cobain Photos Emerge Online


Kurt Cobain, the legendary frontman of the grunge rock act Nirvana, died 12 years before Twitter ever existed, but a user of the social media site has given fans the opportunity to travel back in time and see previously unreleased photos of the Seattle-based band’s first concert.

Billboard reports that Seattle teen Maggie Poukkula unearthed the photos, which were taken in 1987, about five years before Kurt Cobain and Nirvana would be launched into the international spotlight with the release of their album “Nevermind.” Poukkula’s father, Tony Poukkula, was a friend of Kurt Cobain and would occasionally play guitar with him and his bandmates.

The photos show Tony Poukkula, Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and others. While Tony Poukkula plays a “flying V” guitar (popular with arena rockers of the 1980s), Kurt Cobain is playing a Fender Jaguar, something that would become a trademark in later years.

While photos from a band’s early days are always welcomed by fans, these photos are especially significant because they show the first ever performance by Kurt Cobain and the band Nirvana. In those days, the band consisted of Kurt Cobain on guitars and vocals, Krist Novoselic on bass, and Aaron Burckhard on drums. Like most struggling musicians, Kurt Cobain and friends were happy to play any paying gig, even if it was in Tony Poukkula’s basement.

Maggie Poukkula, who wasn’t even born when the photos were taken, said she found the images of Kurt Cobain tucked inside one of her father’s books. She said she thought they were cool, but didn’t realize what they depicted.

“I had no idea that those were during Nirvana’s first concert,” Poukkula said. “My dad showed me them a while back, but he never mentioned that’s what was going on in the photos. I found out because of all the articles. I didn’t realize it was such a historical thing. I thought they were just cool pictures of my dad and Kurt jamming together.”

People reports that the set list for the first show included the songs “Aero Zeppelin,” “If You Must,” “Heartbreaker,” “How Many More Times,” “Mexican Seafood,” “Pen Cap Chew,” “Spank Thru,” and “Hairspray Queen.” Tony Poukkula reportedly joined the band for a few Led Zeppelin covers. Kurt Cobain had said in interviews that for Nirvana’s first show the band had played one song continuously for an hour, but this may have been a story made up for the media.

Author Nick Soulsby, who wrote one of the definitive guides to Nirvana’s history, has spoken about Kurt Cobain’s first show with Nirvana in an interview with Alternative Nation.

“I enjoyed recounting the story of Nirvana’s first show entirely through their then manager Ryan Aigner plus Tony Poukkula and Duke Harner from the band Black Ice who lived in the house in Raymond where it took place. They made it really personal, this sense of Nirvana having to be railroaded into playing, then being jumpy and nervous performing,” he said.

[Image by Maggie Poukkula via Twitter]

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