--- title: Nirvana: Teen Tweets Never Seen Photos From Kurt Cobain's First Gig description: She had no idea she was sharing such a historic musical moment canonical: https://time.com/3967312/teen-first-nirvana-photos/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-22T10:54:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:24.587Z og:title: Nirvana: Teen Tweets Never Seen Photos From Kurt Cobain's First Gig og:description: She had no idea she was sharing such a historic musical moment og:url: https://time.com/3967312/teen-first-nirvana-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Nirvana: Teen Tweets Never Seen Photos From Kurt Cobain's First Gig twitter:description: She had no idea she was sharing such a historic musical moment twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Teen Tweets Never-Before-Seen Photos of Nirvana's First Ever Show by [Drew Mackie / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Drew Mackie / People Contributor Jul 22, 2015 10:54 AM UTC by [Drew Mackie / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Drew Mackie / People Contributor Jul 22, 2015 10:54 AM UTC When 19-year-old Maggie Poukkula posted some photos of her dad’s old days as a rocker, playing alongside Kurt Cobain before he became famous, she didn’t realize she was sharing photos of Nirvana’s first-ever show. The teen’s father, Tony Poukkula, was friends with Cobain in high school, and according to the [blog Alternative Nation](http://www.alternativenation.net/new-photos-from-nirvanas-first-ever-show-from-1987-surface/), the event pictured just happened to be Nirvana’s debut gig – played in March 1987 at Poukkula’s Redmond, Washington, home. > [](https://twitter.com/mjpoukkula/status/621491873601843200) Tony Poukkula played second guitar alongside Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard. Since realizing what pop culture gold she’d accidentally stumbled upon, Maggie has said she’d look for more photos of the party. > [](https://twitter.com/mjpoukkula/status/621737693223895040) The incomplete set list, according to Alternative Nation, included “Aero Zeppelin,” “If You Must,” “Heartbreaker,” “How Many More Times,” “Mexican Seafood,” “Pen Cap Chew,” “Spank Thru” and “Hairspray Queen.” That list would seem to prove that Cobain was joking when he made the frequent claim that Nirvana’s first gig had the band playing a cover of Flipper’s “Sex Bomb” for an hour straight. The elder Poukkula is cited in [Nick Soulsby’s _I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana_](http://www.alternativenation.net/remembering-nirvana-iconic-concerts-raymond-reading/) as one of the sources for information about the band’s early days. “I enjoyed recounting the story of Nirvana’s first show entirely through their then manager Ryan Aigner plus Tony Poukkula and Duke Harner from the band Black Ice, who lived in the house in Redmond where it took place,” Soulsby said. “They made it really personal – this sense of Nirvana having to be railroaded into playing, then being jumpy and nervous performing.” [_This article originally appeared on People.com_](http://www.people.com/article/teen-tweets-photo-nirvana-first-show) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3967312/teen-first-nirvana-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3967312/teen-first-nirvana-photos/"},"headline":"Teen Tweets Never-Before-Seen Photos of Nirvana's First Ever Show","datePublished":"2015-07-22T10:54:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:24.587Z","description":"She had no idea she was sharing such a historic musical moment","url":"https://time.com/3967312/teen-first-nirvana-photos/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Drew Mackie / People"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3967312/teen-first-nirvana-photos/","name":"Teen Tweets Never-Before-Seen Photos of Nirvana's First Ever Show"}}]}] ```