Aberdeen · Olympia · Seattle · 1988–1994
Side A: 6 rooms, oldest first. Pick a track.
A concrete guitar by a muddy river, a triangle studio in Ballard, a club where the support band was a fake name, a field in Reading. Write the dates on the wall and go and stand in the rooms.
Olympia · August 1990
In August 1990 Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill wrote Kurt smells like Teen Spirit on his bedroom wall. Teen Spirit was a deodorant she and Tobi Vail had laughed at in a shop earlier that night. About six months later he used the line as a song title. Uncap the marker: scrub across the plaster, or press the button, and write the band’s rooms up in order.
Line 1 of 12: Reciprocal Recording.
23 January 1988 · 4230 Leary Way NW, Ballard, Seattle
Jack Endino records and mixes ten songs in an afternoon for $152.44.
On 23 January 1988 Jack Endino recorded and mixed ten songs with the band in one afternoon. They paid him $152.44.
Two songs from that session ended up on Bleach in 1989.
Still a working studio, not open to visitors: see the little triangle from the pavement.
The old sign is due for replacement. Do the words go too?
The words Come as you are were added to the Welcome to Aberdeen sign in 2005, after the tenth anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death.
The Young Street Bridge · North Aberdeen
Lora and Kim Malakoff of Clallam Bay made its 8½-foot guitar: Lora formed the concrete and Kim welded the steel.
An empty plinth by the river.
The guitar is a left-handed Fender, modelled on his own, with a steel ribbon engraved with words from a Nirvana song.
A small riverside park by the Young Street Bridge, open to walk into.
4230 Leary Way NW · 23 January 1988
Fader 1 to Fader 10: push each song up.
On 23 January 1988 Jack Endino recorded and mixed ten songs with the band in one afternoon. They paid him $152.44. Two songs from that session ended up on Bleach in 1989.
The triangular building was a corner grocery before it was a studio. Reciprocal worked here from 1986 to 1991. After Reciprocal closed in August 1991 it became Word of Mouth, then John and Stu’s, then Chris Walla’s Hall of Justice.
Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman set up Sub Pop in Seattle in 1988; early releases by Nirvana, Mudhoney, Soundgarden and TAD made its name.
Still a working studio, not open to visitors: see the little triangle from the pavement.
The Crocodile Cafe, Belltown · 4 October 1992
Sunday · 4 Oct 1992 · Crocodile Cafe
Mudhoney
with
$3 · 2200 2nd Ave
A $3 bill and a band nobody has heard of. Peel the sticker.
On 4 October 1992 the bill said Mudhoney and a band called Pen Cap Chew. Tickets were $3. Pen Cap Chew was Nirvana.
The first Crocodile Cafe opened at 2200 2nd Avenue on 30 April 1991; Seattle lawyer Stephanie Dorgan was among its founders. The club shut on 15 December 2007 and reopened under new management on 21 March 2009.
It moved about a block, into the old El Gaucho steakhouse building, with a bigger main room and a small hotel.
A working club with a hotel upstairs: book a show to go in.
All ages · 17 April 1991 · OK Hotel
On 17 April 1991, at this all-ages club, Nirvana played Smells Like Teen Spirit live for the first time.
Bikini Kill and Fits of Depression were on the bill. The band needed petrol money to drive to Los Angeles to record. A three-camera crew filmed the night; the footage turned up in Doug Pray’s 1996 film Hype!
After the 2001 Nisqually earthquake the building became the OK Hotel Apartments, with 42 homes and art studios.
Now apartments: see the building from the street by the waterfront.
2505 1st Avenue, Seattle
Seventeen individually designed rooms above The Crocodile in Belltown, at the corner of 1st Avenue and Wall Street, with a lobby lounge where music plays all day. The Paramount and MoPOP are a short walk.
Check roomsSeattle
Live marketplace results for Seattle music and grunge history tours. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursThe Paramount Theatre · 911 Pine Street
On 31 October 1991 Nirvana played here, a month after Nevermind came out. The 19-song show was filmed on 16mm.
The theatre opened on 1 March 1928 as the Seattle Theatre, and was restored in 1995. Tours take about 90 minutes and go backstage, to the dressing rooms and the green room.
A working theatre. Public tours run on the first Saturday of each month.
Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses ran here for 14 years and closed on 7 September 2025. A new Northwest music exhibition follows from autumn 2026, with Nirvana alongside Jimi Hendrix, Heart and Sir Mix-a-Lot.
A ticketed museum at Seattle Center, by the Space Needle.
911 Pine Street, Seattle · First Saturday of each month · book through STG
Public tours of the 1928 theatre on the first Saturday of each month; weekday group tours for eight or more run about 90 minutes and go backstage to the dressing rooms and green room. Children must be at least eight.
See tour datesRichfield Avenue, Reading · August 1992
In the wings, in a hospital gown. Push the chair on.
Kurt Cobain was pushed on stage in a wheelchair and a hospital gown by the music writer Everett True.
Nirvana headlined the Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend in 1992, amid rumours they would not turn up. They had rehearsed once, badly, the night before. The band later said the show healed them for a while.
The set came out as Live at Reading in 2009.
Riverside fields most of the year: you need a festival ticket to stand in front of the stage. Reading Festival 2027 runs from 26 to 29 August on Richfield Avenue.
Sony Music Studios, New York · 18 November 1993
Kurt Cobain chose the stage: lilies, candles and a chandelier.
Light candle 1, then the rest.
Nirvana recorded MTV Unplugged at Sony Music Studios in New York on 18 November 1993. They covered David Bowie, Lead Belly, the Vaselines and three Meat Puppets songs, with Cris and Curt Kirkwood on stage.
Torn down: the site is flats now. The building was sold in 2007 for $44 million and razed for luxury flats.
Nevermind was made at Sound City in Van Nuys, which ran for 40 years before closing in 2011. The band recorded Smells Like Teen Spirit in May 1991 with Butch Vig.
Dave Grohl bought its Neve desk, put it in his own Studio 606 and made the 2013 film Sound City.
On 25 September 1990 Kurt Cobain played solo, live on KAOS, the radio station at The Evergreen State College. On air he said Dave Grohl would be the band’s new drummer, and that he had not yet told Bruce Pavitt at Sub Pop.
A public college campus west of downtown Olympia; KAOS is its radio station.
The park sits near the house where Kurt Cobain died in April 1994. People leave flowers, candles and handwritten notes of thanks on its benches. Each 5 April, the anniversary, dozens come to the park.
A small public park on Lake Washington Boulevard. Neighbours live all around it: come quietly.
9 places you can visit. The Welcome to Aberdeen sign is on Highway 12. The childhood home in Aberdeen and his Olympia apartment are private and not on the map; Sound City and Sony Music Studios are gone.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A small riverside park by the Young Street Bridge, open to walk into.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public college campus west of downtown Olympia; KAOS is its radio station.
Beside the Young Street Bridge, North Aberdeen
Lora and Kim Malakoff of Clallam Bay made its 8½-foot guitar: Lora formed the concrete and Kim welded the steel.
A small riverside park by the Young Street Bridge, open to walk into.
2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Olympia
On 25 September 1990 Kurt Cobain played solo, live on KAOS, the radio station at The Evergreen State College.
A public college campus west of downtown Olympia; KAOS is its radio station.
Stay
Seventeen rooms over the club in Belltown.
2505 1st Avenue, Seattle
Seventeen individually designed rooms above The Crocodile in Belltown, at the corner of 1st Avenue and Wall Street, with a lobby lounge where music plays all day. The Paramount and MoPOP are a short walk.
Check roomsGo there
The Paramount’s own tours, and Seattle music walks on the marketplace.
911 Pine Street, Seattle · First Saturday of each month · book through STG
Public tours of the 1928 theatre on the first Saturday of each month; weekday group tours for eight or more run about 90 minutes and go backstage to the dressing rooms and green room. Children must be at least eight.
See tour datesSeattle
Live marketplace results for Seattle music and grunge history tours. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursWhat’s on
Reading Festival returns to Richfield Avenue in August 2027; a Seattle tribute band plays Tacoma in November.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
An original 1994 Unplugged poster from our store, two books and three records tied to these rooms.
An original 1994 poster for the album recorded at Sony Music Studios, with Frank Micelotta’s photograph. 24 × 24 inches, rolled, mint.
In stock · available framed
View posterMichael Azerrad
The band’s story, written with their help and published in 1993.
Find the bookCharles R. Cross
The biography of Kurt Cobain by a Seattle music writer.
Find the bookNirvana · LP, Sub Pop SP 34, 1989
The Sub Pop debut, made at Reciprocal in Ballard.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyNirvana · LP, DGC 24425, 1991
Recorded at Sound City in Van Nuys in May 1991.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyNirvana · CD, Geffen B0013503-02, 2009
The 1992 Reading headline set, wheelchair and all.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
14 of 14 places · 12 of 12 Moments
Highway 12, Aberdeen, Washington
Aberdeen adds the words to its welcome sign.
Beside the Young Street Bridge, North Aberdeen
A concrete guitar is unveiled beside the Young Street Bridge.
North Aberdeen
His childhood home joins the state Heritage Register.
Olympia, Washington
Kathleen Hanna writes Kurt smells like Teen Spirit on his bedroom wall in Olympia.
2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Olympia
Alone on KAOS, he names Dave Grohl as the new drummer.
4230 Leary Way NW, Ballard, Seattle
Jack Endino records and mixes ten songs in an afternoon for $152.44.
2505 1st Avenue, Belltown, Seattle
A $3 support band called Pen Cap Chew turns out to be Nirvana.
212 Alaskan Way S, Pioneer Square, Seattle
Smells Like Teen Spirit is played live for the first time.
911 Pine Street, Seattle
A 19-song show is filmed on 16mm, a month after Nevermind.
325 5th Avenue N, Seattle Center
151 Lake Washington Blvd E, Denny-Blaine, Seattle
Van Nuys, Los Angeles
Smells Like Teen Spirit is recorded with Butch Vig.
Richfield Avenue, Reading, England
He is wheeled on in a hospital gown, then the band headline.
Manhattan, New York
MTV Unplugged is recorded on a stage he dressed himself.
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