Nirvana Original Flyer Handbill Poster Cobain Mudhoney 1989 Pre-Bleach Era

Description

Here is an Original, 8.5x11, calendar flyer featuring Nirvana, Mudhoney, The Melvins, and other Seattle-area luminaries — such as Cat Butt, Skin Yard, Coffin Break, Blood Circus, and The Walkabouts — for a series of February 1989 shows at San Francisco’s Covered Wagon Saloon.  This is Nirvana’s first show outside of Washington State, with the exception of their 1/6/89 show in Portland, OR,where they opened for Mudhoney.
In the February 1989 edition of the San Francisco-based entertainment guide,
Calendar
, Gillian Gaar – a Seattle-area journalist, and author of
Entertain Us: The Rise of Nirvana
– wrote an article about the wave of Seattle-based bands descending on the Bay Area in the month of February of 1989, which is documented by this flyer.  The article is entitled “Screaming North:Seattle Bands Take Over the World” (see photos).
Gaar has subsequently said that the title of the article was just a joke, but it proved prescient.
The article proper does not mention Nirvana, but it does talk about Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Melvins, and others.
Nirvana is mentioned in the upcoming show section, which lists the 2/10 show at Covered Wagon, as well as their 2/17 show at SF’s Chatterbox, which was cancelled by Kurt.
It was on this short excursion to the Bay Area – which also included a Nirvana show in San Jose, where, according to Mudhoney’s Steve Turner, Kurt played spinning on his head – that Kurt saw signs around SF saying “Bleach Your Works” – an AIDS safety campaign – which was, according to legend, the inspiration beyond his decision to name their upcoming and first album, Bleach, which was released in June of 1989.
More than just a Nirvana artifact, this is a document of a place in time.  It is also a document of a pop culture phenomena on the precipice.  Even Greg Sage’s Wipers — a legendary Portland band that inspired Kurt, and many others in the NW scene — were in town, playing at SF’s I-Beam with Soudgarden and Mudhoney, with the latter two bands also playing in Berkeley at Berkeley Square on this trip.
I purchased this flyer from a long-time Nirvana collector about a decade ago.
Originally folded in fourths; but it has been stored flat the entire time with me.
It is a pale yellow.
There is a small paper-thinning-tear in the upper right corner area, by the “C” in Covered.
There is also a small tear in the bottom right corner.
On the back of the flyer, someone wrote 1989 SF in ink.
Amazing shape, though; and the only one I’ve ever seen in 15 + years of collecting Nirvana flyers.  I’ll send along a copy of the Gaar article as well…. Cool contextual read…  although the print is small…. SF Public Library or maybe it was the UC-Berkeley Library sent it along to me like that…
For reference, the February 1989 Chatterbox calendar flyer for the show that Nirvana did not play, sold for 3500.00 on Heritage Auctions in May of 2021.  Any questions?  Ask…