Krist Novoselic has been guesting with a Nirvana tribute band.
The ex-Nirvana bassist joined FooVana, a Portland-based tribute act who play – you guess it – Nirvana and Foo Fighters songs, on stage at Geordie’s Garage in Vancouver last week. He played on versions of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Lithium and Blew, from their 1989 debut album Bleach. It had been the first time Novoselic had played the latter in more than three decades.
FooVana had teased the performance on social media, writing on Facebook: “Get down here to Georgie’s Garage and Grill! Show’s about to start! Oh yeah that’s right… Somebody else is here!!!”
It’s not the first time Novoselic has played Nirvana material recently. When his new band The Bona Fide Band played Cobain’s hometown of Aberdeen, Washington in June they added Love Buzz, a Shocking Blue cover that his old band covered to their setlist.
The Bona Fide Band are part of Novoselic’s campaign for US president. Sounds bizarre, but it’s true. The bassist is part of the Cascade Party, an organisation whose goal is to “build a political organisation which merges with social media.” To get on the presidential ticket in Washington State, the Cascade Party would need to establish themselves as a ‘bona fide’ party by hosting a convention. To publicise this, Novoselic has launched the Bona Fide Band, which are playing a heap of shows around the state – they have dates pencilled in for Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane this week alone.
Unlike Dave Grohl, who has now spent nearly three decades ploughing the same field with Foo Fighters, Novoselic has dipped in and out of music in the 30 years since Nirvana ended. He’s released albums as part of short-lived projects such as Sweet 75 and Eyes Adrift and even joined original Californian punk band Flipper for a while. He’s always been politically engaged though and published a book, Of Grunge And Government: Let’s Fix The Broken Democracy in 2004.
Last year in an NME interview Novoselic revealed that he, Grohl and the other suviving Nirvana member, Pat Smear, occasionally meet up, jam and record the results. “There was a time after Kurt died when I said to myself, ‘I’m never going to play these songs again’, “ he said. “That was part of the grief I went through. We don’t want to overdo it, we try to make it special and be grateful.”
