Simon Price reviews Mudhoney and Nirvana live at the Astoria, 9th December 1989
June 10, 2009
Simon Price reviews Mudhoney and Nirvana live at the Astoria, 9th December 1989. Photos by Stephen Sweet.
Excellent early review here of (third on the bill) Nirvana, Tad and Mudhoney. I particularly liked the Mr. Men shtick. And I think Price calls Nirvana (still waiting on the real tunes to turn up) with remarkable clarity, “The singer guitarist is pretty graceful in a long haired kinda way…but the frog legged bassist will have to go”
By the time Mudhoney take to the stage there are “…bodies apparently flying out of thin air. At one point they’re actually colliding mid-dive. It’s hard to believe that such a volatile, earth-eating, shit-kicking noise could emanate from these four bambi-like figures”
Archived Music Press 
June 16, 2009 at 11:39 am
So I did the introductions for Mudhoney at that show, did I? Damned if I can remember. Great review by Simon – I always loved his live stuff for Melody Maker.
June 16, 2009 at 11:40 am
Killer photos, too.
March 22, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Hah, cheers ET. I suppose, given what happened shortly afterwards, this review could be seen as my biggest “D’oh!”. But I stand by what I said: for me, Nirvana really didn’t stand out from the Sub Pop pack at first (although I liked “Sliver”). And I remained (mostly) unmoved even through the Nevermind era. It took In Utero (genius) to blow all my reservations away. Whatever happened to Tad? One fears the worst, if only for medical reasons…
September 26, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Remember this night well, being driven 90 miles through some of some of the thickest fog I could remember by a friend with a death-wish.
I have to be honest and say that I enjoyed Nirvana the most that night, Tad were a pleasure to see ‘cos I loved ‘God’s Balls’ at that time and Mudhoney were going through the motions it seemed; I’d seen Mudhoney before supporting Sonic Youth at Brixton Academy where they had blown me away (as did SY but that’s another story.
It all seems a long while ago now..