There are three different time periods in pop (particularly music) culture that if I had a time machine I would like to be transported back to for a visit. One is Los Angeles in the late 1960’s; to live in Laurel Canyon, catch a young Doors play at the Whiskey, or a young Led Zeppelin play the Troubadour. Another is New York City circa 1977-1980; to watch the rise of American punk and hang out at clubs such as CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City and witness bands like the Talking Heads, the Ramones and Television fill in the buffer between glam rock and new wave. And the third time period is Olympia/Seattle around 1988-1991.
Do we really understand or even know what we are experiencing as it’s actually happening or does actual realization only come in the form of retrospect or nostalgia? Time seems to fill in the cracks and “eras” aren't officially formed until they've had a chance to gather all the data, reconcile and digest themselves into society’s psyche.
The people participating in, witnessing, or even just living in the Pacific Northwest in the late 80’s/early 90’s had no idea what they were experiencing at the time I’m sure. But that’s what makes these certain periods special. Music just was. There was no game plan, there were no bullet points drawn up in a marketing board room, there was no agenda. There was no internet, no itunes, no Protools, no mp3's. There were just kids with nothing else to do but practice their broken down instruments and who weren't afraid to suck until, well, they didn't. These moments and the music that came out of them were like spontaneous combustion, or when a star is formed - they just happened, and seemingly came out of nowhere.
I have to admit I was a bit late to the Seattle party at that time. I was 13 years old and had just started 8th grade in September of 1991 when Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album came out. I bought the cassette, not really knowing why, only because everyone else was buying it. It wasn’t until about a year later that I started appreciating not only Nirvana but all the other bands that were allowed to come flying out of the gigantic popular music smoke stack that Nirvana had just blown the top off of.
By 1994 I was fully hooked. Not just by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains but by the overlooked bands that had paved their way. Bands like Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, the Meat Puppets, Screaming Trees and other “Alternative” bands (back when “alternative” meant “alternative to the crappy top 40 music being played on every commercial radio station”). My eyes, (or rather ears), were also opened to college radio bands like Husker Du, the Pixies, the Replacements, and R.E.M. Realizing that there was all this music that the radio wasn't “feeding” me, I learned to dig in record stores, read music magazines (before the internet) and found the infinite spiderweb that is still being exponentially spun now. I looked around my own local scene (Boston) and discovered bands like the Throwing Muses, Mission of Burma, Buffalo Tom and Morphine. These bands morphed into bands like Pavement, Luscious Jackson, the Dandy Warhols, and Built to Spill. Solo artists like Jeff Buckley, Liz Phair and PJ Harvey opened the gates further, and across the pond the Brit Pop scene of Blur, the Stone Roses and Oasis offered it's own sound. The point is - you like one band, they introduce you to two more, and then they introduce you to four more and so on and so on. But it was Nirvana that pushed that ball rolling that has since turned into a perpetual non stop boulder.
So 20 years later I get a chance to go to the places where this all started. Try to step back in time, try to block out the over priced condos and other signs of Seattle gentrification and see if I can piece together a part of that experience that those people who didn’t realize what they were experiencing at the time, got to live through.
Although if I was living there then, I wouldn't have realized what was happening around me either.
I wouldn't have cared.
I started in Seattle in which I stayed in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. About a 10 minute walk down the street on 1820 E. Thomas St. are the Coryell Apartments, notable for being the location and centerpiece of one of the quintessential movies of the 1990's, Singles, which came the closest to imitating what it was like to be young, single and living in Seattle at the time.
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| The Coryell Apartments 6/21/14 |
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| Counterclockwise from top left: Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, Actor Matt Dillon, Director Cameron Crowe and Layne Staley of Alice in Chains sitting on the stoop circa 1991. |
Next was a music joint now called El Corazon located at 109 Eastlake Ave E. This was a music venue called the Off Ramp in which Pearl Jam played their very first show (under their original name Mookie Blaylock)
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| 6/21/14 |
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| 6/21/14 |
The next day I headed down to the Belltown section of town to the Moore Theater at 1932 Second Ave, which hosted all of the bands of the era once they got a tad bigger (it's still operating). This was the venue where Pearl Jam's Even Flow video was shot (where Eddie Vedder almost killed himself stage diving, not from the stage but from the ladder leading to the rafters).
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| 6/22/14 |
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| Concert on January 17th, 1992 |
The next spot was the Black Dog Forge at 2316 Second Ave. It's a blacksmith's shop located in an alley behind an art gallery where Soundgarden and Pearl Jam would rehearse in the basement and would frequently hang out.
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| 6/22/14 |
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| 6/22/14 |
Next was the site of the The Vogue at 2018 1st Avenue. This is now some store called Vain but when it was the Vogue it hosted numerous shows including early Nirvana and Alice in Chains.
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| 6/22/14 |
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| 6/22/14 - Interesting to note the latest condo developments on either side |
I left the Belltown area where most of these were located and after wading through the throngs of tourists at Pike's Place I found the Central Saloon at 2017 1st Ave S in Downtown. This was the venue where Mother Love Bone played their last show.
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| The Central Saloon 6/22/14 |
Next was probably the second most used location in the movie Singles. The OK Hotel and coffee shop at 212 Alaskan Way. It was once a premier music venue located under the freeway overpass. It no longer operates as either a music venue or a coffee shop but as a private artist's community. This also happened to be the venue where Nirvana first played "Smells Like Teen Spirit" live. (It was also hard to take a picture without getting hit by a car)
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| OK Hotel - 6/22/14 |
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| OK Hotel - 6/22/14 |
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| As scene in Singles circa 1991... |
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| ...as well as one of Pearl Jam's cameos |
On a side note, in between locating most of these Seattle landmarks, I would pop into independent coffee shops (which are everywhere in Seattle) for a little re-fueling. The first one I hit was in Capitol Hill and what do I hear? Oh, just a little Husker Du. Plus the baristas were totally cool, (one even complimented me on my Replacements t-shirt). Just not the type of thing you get in L.A.
On my way back to my flat I just happened to pass Linda's Bar on 707 E. Pine St. Supposedly the last place that Kurt Cobain was seen alive, sometime between April 1st 1994 when he escaped from rehab in L.A. and April 8th when his body was found.
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| Linda's Tavern 6/22/14 |
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Linda's Tavern 6/22/14
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A day later on my ride over to Ballard (northwest section of town), as I pulled out of a side street onto the Fremont Bridge, I looked across the street and realized that I had inadvertently stumbled upon the seedy Marco Polo Motel on 4114 Aurora Ave. This was the place that Kurt was also seen shortly before his death and where he purchased probably his last batch of heroin before his demise...specifically Room 226.
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| Marco Polo 6/23/14 |
On Monday morning after picking up my rental car, I headed up to the Denny-Blaine area of town, specifically to find Kurt's final residence. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning and this area of town, I believe, is the most exclusive and wealthiest part of the city.
I could see why. In what I can only describe as part Beverly Hills, part Greenwich Ct., and part Nantucket, the area sits right on Lake Washington, east of downtown. The area has winding roads, with the giant majestic homes mostly hidden behind subtle gates or immensely thick and high greens. Kurt and Courtney's house was located specifically at 171 Lake Washington Blvd.
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| 171 Lake Washington |
The house was built in 1902, and although it's one of the largest and most expensive properties, it also happens to sit next to a public park, which ironically does not make it the most private piece of property. The adjacent park (named Viretta Park) is small and quite unremarkable and could be a public park in almost any city in America, except for one lone bench.
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| Viretta Park 6/23/14 |
Fans have gathered over the years to leave inscriptions, letters, and other mementos.
From this park you can get remarkably close to the house. There actually happens to be a path uphill that gives a good overlook. The empty spot to the side of the house is where the garage and greenhouse were located where Kurt's body was found. Courtney Love had this structure demolished before she sold the house in 1997. Also prior to her selling the house she buried a portion of Kurt's ashes under a willow tree that she planted in the front of the house. She had it written into the sales agreement that she can return anytime she wants to take the willow tree.
I took a seat on the bench and looked out over Lake Washington. What amazed me was how tony this neighborhood was. So un-Kurt. People were out for their mid-morning walks on a Monday which indicated that this neighborhood was filled with independently wealthy people since apparently no one had a job that they needed to be at. (Interestingly enough, Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks lives next door. That tells you all you need to know about the neighborhood). People were just going about their day as usual. It was almost like no one knew what took place here twenty years ago. It goes without saying that the area residents are well aware of the home's significance, but what I saw as a landmark, they saw as just a house next to a public park on a beautiful morning.
I could close my eyes, and almost hear the misty early morning silence so violently, albeit quickly, broken by the echo of one singular shotgun blast.
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Viretta Park 6/23/14 (Kurt's house adjacent)
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Down and across the street there happens to be another small public park right on the lake. It was an absolutely stunning morning, with rare views of the mountain range across the water.
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| Private dock off of Denny Blaine Park 6/23/14 |
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| Denny Blaine Park 6/23/14 |
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| Denny Blaine Park 6/23/14 |
The next day I headed over to the Fremont and Ballard neighborhoods of Seattle. Just like the rest of the city - super cool neighborhoods. I took in the Fremont Troll under the Fremont bridge...
...and took a tour of the Chittenden locks which separates the Puget Sound (salt water) from Lake Union and Lake Washington (fresh water) as well as allowing the salmon to come back from the ocean and spawn in the freshwater streams of the mountains.
Later that night I went to the Tractor Tavern to see my friend Louise's band Veruca Salt perform only their second show back together since 1997. I actually happened to be at their last show in 1997 at Mama Kin's Music Hall in Boston.
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| Veruca Salt, live at the Tractor Tavern, Ballard, Seattle 6/23/14 |
It was great to see at least one live show while in Seattle, and it was made even more special by the fact that it was Veruca Salt in particular. It was a completely surreal experience as I was a huge fan of them beginning in 1994 with the release of their first album American Thighs, and 20 years later, here I was backstage chatting with Louise and meeting Nina for the first time. Life is funny like that sometimes.
Before I left Seattle I was reminded of a scene from one of my favorite TV shows of all time, Six Feet Under. In season 2, episode 4, Nate goes to visit his ex-girlfriend Lisa in Seattle. The establishing shot as Nate and Claire pull up to Lisa's house is such an encapsulating view of Seattle. The house where Lisa lived was on 700 W. Kinnear Place in the Queen Anne section of Seattle. The house has since been moved a few feet, renovated and completely stripped of it's bohemian charm. I found a great blog about the house and it's history that can be read here.
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| Screenshot from Six Feet Under |
The house on the left in the foreground is the renovated house from the show. What hasn't changed much is the house in the background. Notice the large corner windows from the screenshot above and the current shot below.
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| View from 700 West Kinnear Place |
As I pulled up to the house I had to play Yo La Tengo's "Our Way to Fall" which was also the song used in the show as the characters pull up. "This is it" says Nate. "Sweet" says Claire.
In a really weird way, this scene from 2002 always stuck with me. Maybe it was the combination of watching a scene from one of my favorite shows put to the music of one of my favorite bands that made it so memorable? Whatever it was it worked, and gave me more of a reason to make sure I visited Seattle someday.
On Tuesday June 24 I left Seattle and headed south towards Olympia and Aberdeen.
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| WA state capitol building 6/24/14 |
Olympia was an interesting little town, and the reason for my pit stop in it was to find Kurt's Olympia apartment at 114 Pear St. This is the apartment where he lived with his first serious girlfriend Traci. After they broke up, Dave Grohl moved in with Kurt shortly after he joined the band.
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| 114 Pear St., Olympia, WA 6/24/14 |
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| 114 Pear St., Olympia, WA 6/24/14 |
Directly across the street was the Washington state lottery building that Kurt would shoot at with his pellet gun. I looked up at the facade and wondered if the little chips in the concrete I noticed were from Kurt's high jinks.
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| WA state lottery building 6/24/14 |
After hitting a coffee shop and a record store (the underlying theme of my entire trip), I left Olympia on my way to Aberdeen. I stopped into the city of Montesano first to find Kurt's teenage home at 413 Fleet St. A few years after his parents divorced, he moved into this house with his father and new step mother. He only lived here a few years from ages 11-15, but those years were probably the most formidable. The years he learned to play the guitar.
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| 413 Fleet St., Montesano, WA 6/24/14 |
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| One of Kurt's high schools, 6/24/14. |
Off to Aberdeen. On the ride in, it started to rain. Quite heavily. Aberdeen is a small, gritty, timber town at the mouth of Gray's Harbor. At one time in the early part of the 20th century, it was known for having the most brothels on the West Coast. Much like Seattle and Portland at the time, this was very much the wild west - full of sailors, loggers, merchant mariners and any other wandering young men from the East Coast or Mid-West who were out looking for a new start.
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| 6/24/14 |
For several years after Kurt's death in 1994, the town of Aberdeen wanted nothing to do with his legacy. It didn't want to be known only as the home to a "drug addict". However, after seeing scores of people coming from far and wide to make the pilgrimage (including yours truly), they finally realized that embracing that legacy rather than fighting it was a way to bring much needed tourist dollars into their drab little town. Hence the "Come As You Are" on the entrance sign.
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6/24/14
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Below is Kurt's childhood home at 1210 E. First St in Aberdeen. His parents bought it in 1969 when he was 2. He lived here until his parents divorced when he was 9, but then moved back in with his mother later on in his teenage years. A great article about the recent sale of the house can be read here.
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| 1210 E. First St, Aberdeen, WA 6/24/14 |
Here's a picture of Kurt at the First St. house. Notice the pitched ceiling.
Next was Kurt's first ever apartment at 404 N. Michigan St in Aberdeen. It was a studio apartment...that he shared with a friend...about 1/4 mile from his childhood home on First St.
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| 404 N. Michigan St., Aberdeen, WA 6/24/14 |
The third house that I went to (all three were in the same neighborhood) was at 1000 1/2 E. Second St. in Aberdeen. This was Kurt's final home in Aberdeen - an apartment he shared with a few of the members from the band The Melvins.
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| 1000 1/2 E. Second St., Aberdeen, WA 6/24/14 |
Down around the corner was Aberdeen Thrift City at 306 N. B St. where Kurt would buy his clothes. I found it interesting that it was quite possibly this shabby thrift store where the flannel/grunge look was born. Kurt shopped here not with the idea to create an international fashion movement but because he was poor....and probably cold.
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| Aberdeen Thrift City. 6/24/14 |
Further on down the road on the banks of the Wishkah River is the Young Street bridge and the commemorative Kurt Cobain waterfront park. This spot served as the inspiration for the Nirvana song "Something in the Way", as well as the title of their posthumously released live album "From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah". As a teenager, Kurt spent a lot of time under this bridge, and even claimed to have lived under the bridge during his teenage truancy. This later turned out to be just one of the stories that Kurt liked to embellish but was nonetheless a notable place.
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| "...UNDERNEATH THE BRIDGE..." |
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| K.U.R.T. |
The Young Street bridge is no thoroughfare. The whole time I was there, maybe two cars passed over. The park sits directly adjacent to dilapidated but lived-in homes. I was there on a Tuesday at midday, and even though there was a light rain, there were NO other people around. I sat under the bridge and the only sounds I could hear were the "drippings from the ceiling".
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| "...DRIPPINGS FROM THE CEILING..." |
I have to note that I could not have found these places without the help of 2 books in particular. The first was "Heavier than Heaven" by Charles Cross, which is the definitive biography of Kurt Cobain. Absolutely astounding the level of detail it contains. The other book was called "Grunge Seattle" by Justin Henderson which pointed out all of the defunct and still operating music joints in Seattle.
Stay tuned. Off to Oregon in part 2 (Astoria, Cannon Beach and Portland)...
