You may or may not be familiar with the term “Xennial,” which is a label for people born at the tail end of GenX and the oldest of Millennials (so born between 1977 and 1983). I’m familiar with it primarily because little bro and I were born in 83 and 77 respectively.
Anyway… one of the things most articles that list the characteristics of the so-called Xennial micro-generation include is the fact that you may have loved Nirvana, but were too young to see them live before Kurt died. This fits me pretty well - I didn’t really get into music until I was in 9th grade and Nirvana and The Red Hot Chili Peppers were my first favorite bands, but given the fact that my parents weren’t about to waste time or money taking me to concerts, I didn’t see Nirvana live I mean, he died just four months after I got my license, so convincing my parents to let me drive out of state was never going to happen before the band was abruptly over.
If you did get to see Nirvana live, how old are you? If you’re under 42 did a parent or older sibling tag along?
My brother was born in 77 and he saw them the Halloween before Kurt died. He went with an older neighborhood friend (who took me to my first Pearl Jam).
I didn’t get to go because tickets sold out super quick and no one thought of me. I was only 14. Still very salty about it!!
My parents did let me go to concerts very liberally. By the time I was 16 I was going to shows in downtown Cleveland by myself.
I was born in 1980 Nirvana was very popular as I got into middle school, but I was probably 5-10 years too young if I’d have wanted to see them. He died when I was in 8th grade. At that age no one was going to concerts on their own, a few may have gone with their parents and with moshing becoming popular in the news with pictures of people coming out broken and bloody, parents weren’t going to be keen on taking their 12 year old to a Nirvana concert.
I’d guess that the youngest average age group to have seen Nirvana in concert is going to be in the [currently] 40-45 range.
I saw them in 1989 in Seattle at the UW campus, I was 20. I didn’t know who they were at the time, my girlfriend dragged me to see them because Bleach had just released and was getting local buzz.
I mean, he died just four months after I got my license, so convincing my parents to let me drive out of state was never going to happen before the band was abruptly over.