In a new Stereogum interview, legendary Husker Du frontman Bob Mould discussed Chris Cornell and Soundgarden opening for Husker Du at one of their first shows, playing under the name ‘Sound Garden’ as two separate words, and how Kurt Cobain was in attendance.
“Kurt was a big fan, coming to early shows in ’85. Probably that HUB Ballroom show. It was a Sunday afternoon. Melvins were support and then there was a new band called ‘Sound Garden’ playing their second show.”
“That’s when they were two words. Sound Garden. And it was their second show. This was February of ’85. [Nirvana] were fans, of course. You can hear it. In summer of ’91, all that The Year Punk Broke stuff, I played a lot of the same festivals as those guys. I would be in a tiny room with a high school divider and they’d be in a room three times that size trashing it. And I was like ‘Eh, I don’t need to go deal with that.’
I played a lot of shows alongside them that summer, and then when I came back in the fall of ’91 I was doing more solo acoustic touring and I remember going through Texas the day after they played the exact same clubs. Without fail, I’d get to Dallas and I’d be like, ‘What’s wrong? Why isn’t someone running monitors?’ ‘Oh, Nirvana was here last night. Fucking guitarist put his guitar through the monitor board, so we’ve gotta do it from front of house.’ ‘OK. The party continues.'”
