Robert Wilonski over at Unfair Park reminds us that the famous Nirvana show at Trees happened 15 years ago yesterday. He was there and says he only knows of one other person who can claim the same (though many, many do). Add to the list the dearly departed Brian D. Sweany. (Not dead, just left us to go work at Texas Monthly. Bastard.) Brian wrote a little ditty on the fight for us back in December 2004. Because we can:
FIGHT CLUB
One of Deep Ellum’s most (in)famous moments, relived.
If you’re of a certain age, then you know what happened October 19, 1991, at the venerable Deep Ellum club Trees. That’s the night an unknown band named Nirvana roared into town–and Kurt Cobain got his butt kicked onstage.
A few grainy snippets of the fight popped up on the web, but rumors of a full-length tape of the show were just that. “I’d never seen the video,” says Brady Wood, a co-owner of Trees, “but I’d always heard that it existed.” So this fall, when a stranger showed up at Wood’s door, he was shocked at what he heard. “You don’t know me,” the man said, “but I want you to have this.” It was a DVD of the entire performance, fisticuffs and all.
The stranger was Paul Pierson, a local collector who designs gardens for a living. Years ago, Pierson had landed a VHS cassette of the show, but you know how that goes: he loaned it to a friend, the friend’s brother accidentally tossed it out, and the tape was lost. But last year, Pierson stumbled across a collector who had some Nirvana DVDs. The two traded, and Pierson landed his prize, even if the credits say the show was filmed at “Tress.”
So what exactly happened that evening? Well, things soured after Cobain, fueled by the spirit of rock ’n’ roll and perhaps a few controlled substances, smashed a soundboard. “This was right after we had bought Trees,” Wood recalls, “and we were thinking, ‘Who is this punk from Seattle who came into our club and destroyed our soundboard?’” Cobain later dived into the crowd and started kicking some speakers at the front of the stage. A bouncer named Turner Scott Van Blarcum put his hand in Cobain’s face, and Cobain responded by smashing him over the head with his guitar. Van Blarcum, dazed and bloodied, nailed Cobain with a right hook, then kicked him for good measure. Chaos ensued. In no time, Nirvana would be the most famous band in the world.
As for Wood and Pierson, the story ended well enough. Wood has his DVD, and Pierson landed some work on Wood’s home. “I just love turning people on to things,” Pierson says, “and that show was like the pinnacle of everything.” –Brian D. Sweany
