Twenty three years ago—on July 18th, 1989—Nirvana was in New York City for the New Music Seminar, where they performed for about thirty minutes at the Pyramid Club. The band, which didn't include Dave Grohl yet, had just embarked on its first national tour following the release of their debut album, Bleach—their set that day included "Dive," "Love Buzz," and "Polly." This was the band's last show with second guitarist Jason Everman.

And now, "please welcome, Sub Pop artists Nirvana..."

A few days prior to that show, on July 13th, the band played Maxwell's in New Jersey—here's twenty minutes of that set, which included "School," "Floyd The Barber," and "About A Girl.":

This was an early and transformative time for the band, they would go on to reform with new band members, and drop Sub Pop for DGC Records; in a late 1989 interview, Kurt Cobain noted that their music was going in a slightly different direction: "The early songs were really angry... But as time goes on the songs are getting poppier and poppier as I get happier and happier. The songs are now about conflicts in relationships, emotional things with other human beings. Most of the lyrics on the Bleach album are about life in Aberdeen." The following year the band began working with producer Butch Vig, and Krist Novoselic and Cobain auditioned Grohl, knowing "in two minutes that he was the right drummer."

Following Bleach, the band only released two more studio albums (not including their compilation album, Incesticide). In 1991 they released Nevermind as their first DGC release, it was produced by Vig and was (mostly) recorded in California. In 1993 they released In Utero, which was produced by Steve Albini, and recorded at Pachyderm Studios—which we visited a few years back.

Make yourself a cup of Albini's own "fluffy coffee" and check out more sets for their 1989 tour:

Rhino Records, Los Angeles



Cabaret Metro, Chicago



Green River Community College, Auburn, WA



The Garage, Denver



Footage from the band during the Bleach tour

