One Baby To Another

Part 1

September 21st 1990, Seattle

*WRRRUUEENNGGGGGG* my guitar screeched in pain as I swung it into the speaker for the 10th time. It was a tradition to end every gig by wrecking the stage. The crowd cheered and screamed while we stomped off backstage high on adrenaline. A tiny room with a "Baby Coma" sign pinned to the door met us at the end of a corridor. We drifted in and I sunk into a battered mould-green couch, sweaty and out of breath.

"Woah, what a show" said Tiger perching beside me, she pulled out a pack of candy cigarettes and offered me one.

I chuckled, "You're so...you", I declined her offer and lit a real one instead.

Polly, sat on the floor in front of us, signing her drumsticks for some fans hovering outside. We sat in silence for a moment, my ears still ringing from the night's performance. Polly handed over her sticks to the now hysterical fans as they cried and beg to come into our makeshift "dressing room".

Don't get me wrong, I'd probably be just the same if I saw Joan Jett sitting in her dressing room. But I wasn't Joan Jett, and I was tired of people feeling like they could just come up to me and touch me and that was ok because I was famous. We weren't even that famous, not outside of Washington. We were just three girls in a man's world who liked punk rock and wanted to fuck shit up.

"Ok, c'mon", I said walking to the door, "it's really nice of you to come and say hello- "

"Hello", Tiger echoed, waving behind me.

"And we are really grateful for you coming tonight, but the shows over" I hug the two clearly disappointed fans goodbye and sit back on the couch. I know I should feel bad about not being more inviting, but someone had to draw the line somewhere.

*knock knock*

"Really, again? Did they not get the message?" Polly said, going to open the door.

But it wasn't the same fans this time. In fact, they didn't look like our usual fans of teenage girls, they were... men?

"Can I help you?" Polly asked

"So you're the band! You're Baby Coma!" One of the guys said, he was insanely tall and strode into our room, holding out a hand to me, "Hi, I'm Krist, I play bass."

"Hi, I'm Tiger I also play bass", she said shaking Krist's hand instead, "you're really tall."

"Uh, thanks." Said Krist, "We saw you play tonight, you're great, so powerful! Really, it was awesome."

"I'm sorry, we?" I asked

"Yeah, this is my buddy Kurt", he said motioning to the door. There in the doorway hid a man, tiny in comparison to his friend, and his baggy clothes. He kept his head down, his blond hair in his eyes, but glanced up briefly, giving me a slight smile and raised his hand to say hi. And then it clicked.

"Woah, wait a minute, you're Kurt and Krist, you're Nirvana!"

"Well, minus a drummer, but we're working on it," Krist said.

"I have your record, Bleach, aw man, you guys are awesome", I said, now who was the annoying fan.

"Well what a coincidence, Kurt plays your records on repeat, he's a mega-fan" Krist joked.

Kurt just hung back in the doorway, I'd never seen him perform, but I always imagined such a loud voice would have a loud personality when I listened to him sing. But then again, I scream a lot and I'm not the master of conversation.

"Shoot, it's 9:40, we gotta get going", Tiger said panicked, she jumped up and grabbed our things.

"What's the rush, is it past your curfew or something?" Krist joked.

"Hey, we're not kids", I say slightly offended.

"No, no, Twin Peaks season 2 starts in.... 18 minutes" Tiger says, panicked.

"Yeah, we should get going", Polly said, "It was nice meeting you guys".

"Oh well, we're playing here tomorrow, if you want come and watch", said Krist.

"Sure thing", I finally shook his hand and gestured a goodbye to Kurt on the way out, he still didn't make eye contact, maybe he was on something, maybe it was nerves who was I to judge.

Tiger hurried us all into her truck, crammed in with all our equipment. "I swear to god if I miss the opening..." she mumbled to herself.

I'm still buzzing from the whole night, not only was it an awesome show, but we met Nirvana, and they liked us! They liked us! Today has been a day, I thought, lighting another cigarette. I turned on the radio and thought, it must be fate, as Love Buzz played us home.