Wednesday, May. 28 2008 @ 6:53PM
By Benjamin Leatherman
A decade ago, I used to be big-time into collecting bootleg concert videos of my favorite bands. I’d habitually visit stores like East Side Records in Tempe or Shirts ‘n’ Things in Mesa to scope out their latest tapes, or log onto eBay to buy up shakily-shot VHS vids of groups like the Jesus Lizard, Scratch Acid, Dead Kennedys, Nine Inch Nails, and Rage Against the Machine.
These days, I generally don’t pick up bootlegs anymore (except for the occasional rare find on eBay) since my thirst for illicit footage of performances has been more than satisfied by YouTube.
As my friends and co-workers can attest, I’m kind of a whore for YouTube, constantly spending my free time digging through the online video powerhouse for music stuff, old TV shows, and various and sundry other clips. I’ve also occasionally come across shitloads of cool videos relating to music in Phoenix in some fashion or another, like weird interviews, third-generation copies of concert films, or other oddities.
To wit: I recently came across a bunch of clips of grunge vanguards Nirvana performing at now-defunct Valley rock club the Mason Jar way back in the day. The gig depicted went down on February 19, 1990, when the pre-Dave Grohl version of the band was doing a West Coast tour with fellow Seattle rockers TAD.
As evidenced by the clips (as well as “The Nirvana Video Guide”), the set 14-song set was a mix of songs from Bleach, the Blew EP, and even one from Nevermind (“Polly”). The video guide also mentions that bassist Krist Novoselic “opens the show by announcing ‘Hi, we're a Motley Crue cover band,’” and eventually stripped down to his underwear during the show.
Sadly, the footage shows neither of these moments, but check them out anyway.