Watch Nirvana Rock an Aberdeen Radio Shack in 1988
New footage from a 1988 video shoot has been uncovered.
By Michael Rietmulder July 6, 2017
The world was a very different place 29 years ago. Nirvana was an unknown band and Radio Shack was a thriving company built on tube TVs and coin-eating robot banks.
Yet in 1988, fate and perhaps budgetary constraints brought the battery slingers and future rock gods together. On Jan. 23 of that year, bassist Krist Novoselic, then-drummer Dale Crover and a 20-year-old Kurt Cobain recorded Nirvana’s first demo tape at Seattle’s Reciprocal Recording Studios with producer Jack Endino. The next day the straggly-haired go-getters took over an Aberdeen Radio Shack after closing time to film a music video. Snippets of the in-store rock-out have emerged in the past. But on the Fourth of July, archivist and true American hero Mike Ziegler unearthed the full 17-minute video on (where else) YouTube.
As first reported by Spin, Cobain and Novoselic pick their unplugged instruments along to the demo tape, while Crover plays live behind them. According to Ziegler, the footage on the TVs in the background is from a concert the band played at Tacoma’s Community World Theater the night before.
Watch both videos below and long for a time when generational rock talents lurked in our retail stores.
Follow Us
Studio Sessions: Jo Cosme
The Seattle-based multimedia artist and 2026 Neddy Award winner challenges the postcard version of Puerto Rico and centers the persistence of its people.
Jo Cosme knows how seductive a postcard can be. The Seattle-based Boricua (Puerto Rican) multimedia artist works across photography, installation, video, sound, and interactive elements to examine and pull apart how Puerto Rico is seen, sold, and misunderstood from the outside. Trained in photojournalism, with a BFA in photography from Puerto Rico School of Fine…
Seattle’s Drag Brunch Has History
The city’s Sunday shows started long before the mimosas got bottomless.
There was a time not too long ago, when drag performances—now a mainstay of Seattle’s queer scene—were kept under wraps. And when brunches, complete with singing and dancing queens dressed in dazzling drag as you sipped mimosas, weren’t a Sunday staple. During the 1940s and ‘50s, an era largely shaped by restrictive laws and bias…
Studio Sessions: Sangram Majumdar
Working at the confluence of history, culture, and various painting traditions, UW associate professor Sangram Majumdar is one of this year’s Neddy Artist Award winners.
Discover the art of UW professor Sangram Majumdar, a 2026 Neddy Artist Award winner. Learn about his inspiration and upcoming Seattle exhibition at Cornish.
Rearview Mirror: A Georgian Dinner, Sidewalk Sips, and One-of-a-Kind Clothing
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
A new life for old clothes To celebrate one year in its current studio, the FXRY—a clothing repair service available via in-person appointments, home pickup, or mail-in drop off—is dropping its first collection. A small batch of reworked pieces, Second Mark will feature 13 vintage barn jackets, cropped, chain-stitched, and renewed into a completely unique, one-of-one…