‘The energy at this show was chaotic. This guy scrambled to the top of the amplifier and leaped. I thought he was going to break his neck’
In the late 1980s I was working at Sub Pop records in Seattle as a jack of all trades, and also doing in-house photography. One evening I went to see the label’s new signings, Nirvana, but I just didn’t get it. I didn’t even photograph them that night, as I wasn’t impressed. But that all changed very quickly. I heard their debut album, Bleach, and was blown away. And the next time I saw them I was like, “Oh my God, this is not the same band.” Kurt Cobain was doing Pete Townshend jumps and it was a crazy show. I photographed the band for years after that, taking thousands of pictures. They knew my work before I knew them as a band, so I think they trusted me from the get-go. It was the same with the other grunge bands I photographed – I was just another local dude, I wasn’t parachuting in from New York or London.
Seattle had a reputation for wild audiences. We were enthusiastic and physical without being violent. It seemed natural to me to include the audience in my photos, because it’s all part of that cathartic interaction between musicians and their fans.
