Watch Nirvana's 1989 Show Where Kurt Cobain Asked J Mascis to Join the Band

A treasure trove of vintage Nirvana live video footage has surfaced online, Gothamist points out. The clips date to 1989, when Dave Grohl hadn’t yet joined on drums and the band was still being introduced as “Sub Pop artists Nirvana.” One highlight on first glance is a 20-minute snippet of Kurt Cobain and crew’s still-stunningly ferocious July 13, 1989, set at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey.

As SPIN’s David Bevan recently reported, this was the show where Cobain asked Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis to join Nirvana. “Nirvana was playing Maxwell’s and after the show I was talking to Kurt and [Sonic Youth’s] Thurston Moore,” Mascis told SPIN. “Kurt said, ‘you should join my band.’ I think he was sick of the guy Jason [Everman] who was in the band at the time, and thought I should play guitar. I didn’t think much about it. Later, there was also talk of playing drums on a single [1990’s ‘Sliver’] they were doing, but it ended up being [Mudhoney drummer] Dan Peters.”

Nirvana’s July 18, 1989, set at New York City’s Pyramid has also surfaced. Watch that and other 1989 footage below:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_-OII5qEJ7A%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded