Nirvana at Murphy's Pub - October 6, 1989

This was a great night for a couple of reasons. I had been dating this hypocritical narcissistic cheating woman who shall remain nameless and dragging my feet on the world's longest most overdue and drawn out break up ever. We had no business being together in the first place. Why we stayed together for 18 months I will never know. Truth is we were both unfaithful. This woman was in the habit of throwing pissy tantrums in public places and storming out. And without fail I would follow after her every time like a pathetic puppy. On this night when she stormed out of Murphy's Pub, I started after her and then I stopped on a dime, thinking to myself, "Fuck it. Let her go. This is fucking Nirvana on stage right now. I'm not fucking running after her anymore. Never again." Nirvana wouldn't explode onto the international scene for another two years. But even in those early days before Dave Grohl joined the band it was clear that there was something special about them. So I stayed for their entire set and it turned out to be the only time I got to see them. She Who Shall Not Be Named and I more or less broke up that night. She stormed off and I never looked back. I will say she was an extremely talented artist with a good heart. I think we were both unhappy but didn't want the hassle of a confrontational break up. I was just a kid of 22 at the time, relatively inexperienced in the ways of the world and I'd only dated 2 or 3 other chicks by this time. The learning curve was steep for me. But this woman was in her 30s and should have known better. Even then I felt manipulated. Especially after literally seeing a silhouette in the window of her and a local rock star wannabe locked in a passionate embrace. A year later she was still making a petulant spectacle of herself, even throwing a drink in my face at the Joe Jackson concert at Bogart's in October of 1990.

For years I somehow failed to see a clear through line from 80s Punk to 90s Grunge. But this Nirvana performance took place less than 18 months after the Jockey Club closed down for good in May of 1988. History tends to paint a picture of Seattle's Grunge scene of the 1990s being an autonomous spark that sprung forth fully formed out of the clear blue sky. But it's obvious to me now in retrospect that the Indie Punk underground of the 1980s took root in the Pacific Northwest in a very unique setting that blossomed over a period of several years into what would become Grunge. They're not two separate things at all. Rather one (Grunge) grew out of the other (Punk).

Murphy's Pub is a tiny club, by the way. Still in business today just a couple blocks from the University of Cincinnati. If you're ever in the neighborhood and you decide to pop in for a drink, walk all the way to the back room where the dartboards are hanging on the wall atop a raised platform. That used to be the club's stage. This is the tiny room where I saw Nirvana. As I recall, they were still a 4-piece at the time and it was deafeningly loud.

Special thanks to Peter Aaron for booking the show and so many other greats back in the day!

Here is an audience recording of the show on YouTube:

Correction: Although I could have sworn I saw four people onstage on the night in question, apparently Nirvana was a trio in October 1989.