A girl named MJ Poukkula – who is the daughter of Tony Poukkula – has uploaded some photographs from Nirvana’s first ever show at a house party in Washington state in March 1987. It took place at 17 Nussbaum Road in a small town called Raymond and featured the first ever lineup of Nirvana: Kurt Cobain, Krist Novselic and Aaron Burckhard.
Tony Poukkula and went to high school with Kurt and played with Nirvana a few times before they got absolutely huge. He actually lived in the house where this party went down and played in another band that also appeared the show, Black Ice. He also played rhythm guitar for Nirvana during his show as apparently they were pretty nervous about playing a show at this point and even had to be cajoled into playing it by Tony and his buddies.
Nirvana author Nick Soulsby gave some more details about the first show in an interview with Alternative Nation in April:
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.
Here are the pictures from Poukulla’s tweet – sure they’re a bit grainy, but what did you expect from some photographs that are almost thirty years old? There’s also a setlist below them – apparently Kurt sang a few line from Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘The Sound Of Silence’ before their last song too. Cool.
If you enjoyed these then check out these previously unreleased photographs from Nirvana’s 1989 European tour as well. It’s pretty sweet they were touring Europe two years after their first show eh?
Images VIA
Incomplete Setlist:
Aero Zeppelin
If You Must
Heartbreaker (jam)
How Many More Times (jam)
Mexican Seafood
Pen Cap Chew
Spank Thru
Hairspray Queen
