I write poems for myself and I write poetry that gets torn apart and becomes songs. I have a lot of respect for words, the power of words.
--Kurt Cobain
Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana!!
To the thousands already inside San Francisco's Warfield Theatre, not to mention the hundreds outside pleading, begging and paying up to ten times the official ticket price of $13.00 from "scalpers" to get the chance to experience Nirvana the band, the concept means rock. Hard rock. And serious fun.
Greater and louder than the sum of its three parts, guitarist/ vocalist Kurt Cobain, bassist Chris Novoselic and drummer David Grohl, this rock'n'roll trinity of noise, melody and anti-apathetic lyricism brought their Sub Pop-based ethic to the big stage, the big label and the big crowd. All in a very big way.
Nirvana is punk. Arising—like Pearl Jam, Queensryche, Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone, and Mudhoney—from the fecund grounds of the rain-soaked Northwest (Seattle, Washington, to be exact). Nirvana has a sound and sensibility that matches the punk movement of the depressed north of England and lowlands of Scotland. Indeed, "Punk is musical freedom," proclaims guitarist-singer Kurt Cobain. "It's saying, doing and playing what you want. In (dictionary) terms 'nirvana' means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that's close to my definition of punk rock." The following interview was conducted informally with Kurt Cobain, the poet/ singer/ guitarist at a private party set up by the band's friends.
