I listened to an FM recording today from a radio show back in the early 90's that had a program in which they would play two live shows from different bands back to back. This one consisted of a really odd pairing that shocked me as the DJ introduces it: Roxy Blue, followed by Nirvana who had just arrived on the scene. This must have been one of the final cultural moments before these two genres became arch enemies.

Yeah, there was a cool time when it was all kinda happening at once. I think it's really interesting that Guns 'n' Roses shared the stage with both Soundgarden and Soul Asylum (at different times). I saw Alice In Chains open for KISS in '96 (the opening show of the reunion tour in Detroit).

I remember in high school having albums like Motley Crue (MC94), Nirvana: From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, Skid Row: Subhuman Race, Alice In Chains: Dirt, & Slash's Snakepit: It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, and loving them all at the same time. The division seemed to come later, and it's really all about image if you ask me.

The "metal only" crowd always say the grunge guys couldn't play. And while Kurt Cobain was not much of a guitar player, Jerry Cantrell (Alice In Chains), the DeLeo brothers (Stone Temple Pilots), Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), etc. were all great guitarists!

Those are some interesting touring combos!


(hey if a mod could move this over to the metal forum, that would be appreciated)

I remember that transitional period between grunge and hair bands.....I remember really digging Nirvana when they first came out. I didn't mind hearing them alongside Guns N Roses on the rock stations or the bars I hung out at. That transitional period didn't last long at all, though...the shift from hair bands/metal to grunge came incredibly fast. One minute, it was all metal. Next thing, the radio stations that played metal were adding more alternative/grunge bands to the play list and then just changed thier format to alternative; all the metal clubs around here either closed and all the other clubs that had "metal night" quit having it. The only clubs in town that has truly remained metal throughout all this in L.A. was the Rainbow Bar and Grill and the F.M. Station; the Cathouse, Gazzri's, all those places shut down. Everyone suddenly got depressed, and it wasn't just because the metal scene died....the whole fricken grunge scene brought a lot of meloncholia to the music scene. Ick.

Interesting thread.

Some could play ok but there was a big emphasis on not playing solos and really mastering the guitar was frowned upon. It was more about how you tuned and that fuzzed out grunge sound.

I saw Guns and Roses with Soundgarden. At the time I didn't think it was strange at all.


A lot of the "can't really play" guys came along later, they were not a part of the early grunge movement. I remember hearing a song on the radio that sounded a lot like these Creed clones that are so rampant, but the guitar player had some really good licks going on. It took me until the chorus to figure out that it was a Pearl Jam song from "Ten".

I didn't like grunge from the get-go. I always thought the two styles were completely divergent. But I'll bet that was an interesting listen!

The best overlap came during the 1992 MTV video awards when Guns n Roses nearly came to fist-to-cuffs with Nirvana.

you gotta love Kurt Loder "So Axl shows up at their trailer with a film crew and a GUN?" What a pot stirr-er.

I say long live hair metal!!
I haven't heard much grunge that I actually like.

I like how grunge brought in the, Hour Of Glower. Had to look severe.

The ironic thing was that grunge had far more in common with the originators of heavy metal (Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, etc) than hair metal ever did. My friends and I were into thrash and death metal at the time, and we instantly recognized that bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains were more metal in sound AND spirit than Poison, Cinderella, Warrant, Slaughter, and the like. It was easy for us to appreciate both grunge and extreme metal as authentic metal music with something to say, whereas hair metal at the time was mostly just vapid pop music created to get chicks and sell tons of records.

Towards 1986 and on...everyone was just trying to be the next Mötley Crüe, Poison, Bon Jovi, etc. so it kind of turned to this overly-pop type stuff.