On the day of Kurt Cobain’s death, local musicians brought life to the bridge of his honor.

Joe and Ripley Ty never knew Cobain personally. Joe once saw Cobain in the flesh — he now wishes he would’ve wailed for his grandmother to stop her cruising car when he spotted the pink-haired Nirvana frontman sauntering by Aberdeen City Hall.

Both born and raised in Aberdeen, the couple grew up in the generation after Cobain, and as aspiring musicians, they looked up to the “hometown hero.”

“Our families went to school with Kurt,” Ripley Ty said. “Kurt has always been a part of our awareness of music and everything we understood about rock and roll growing up.”

On Wednesday evening, tucked underneath the overpass where their hero used to hangout, with flowers adorning the plaque in his adjacent memorial park, the Ty’s band, called Juliet Tango, played a 90-minute impromptu concert amid a steady sprinkling before a crowd of about 20 people.

“It started out with just a little group and then it got bigger and bigger and bigger,” Joe Ty said, adding, “That many people doesn’t seem like that much, but underneath the bridge it is quite a bit.”

Earlier that afternoon, the group planned to play a few Nirvana songs at one of their homes — a casual “sit-in.” But Joe suggested they “play the Cobain bridge” — officially called the Young Street Bridge, which carries vehicles and pedestrians across the Wishkah River in north Aberdeen — an old tradition they hadn’t carried on since the pandemic started in 2020.

On April 5, 1994, Cobain died by suicide at his home in Seattle. Remembering that date, Ripley thought an under-the-bridge concert would be a “poignant moment.”

“There were a lot of people here earlier today that made pilgrimages down here from other cities, and all over,” Ripley said after the concert.

At around 5:30 p.m. they hopped into their black and red GMC Vandura “A-Team” tour van, drove to the park and unloaded three amps, a pair of guitars and a drum kit onto the dirt ledge below a backdrop of colorful graffiti art, much of which is dedicated to Cobain. They ran an extension cord back to the van for power, Joe grabbed his custom Jaguar Fender guitar, Ripley took the kit, and, with the young Johnny Danger on bass, the group began to play.

Ripley described the band’s style as grunge-influenced rock with a “pop sensibility.”

It wasn’t until Aaron Burckhard joined in that notes of Nirvana filled the space below the 66-year-old bridge.

Burckhard, who played as Nirvana’s original drummer for a brief period when the band formed in 1987, and who now plays occasionally with local musicians, took over the drum kit for several numbers on Wednesday, including his personal request, “Breed,” from Nirvana’s 1991 album, Nevermind.

“Whatever that man wants to play, I’m down for,” Joe said. “He’s fun to play with.”

While the spontaneous production acted as a tribute to the father of grunge music, it was also an act of cognizance and solidarity for a landmark that, in the next three-and-a-half years, is slated for demolition.

The city of Aberdeen last year received a $25 million grant from the Washington state Joint Transportation Committee for the complete replacement of the bridge, which has a scour on its supporting piers and received a low sufficiency rating from the Federal Highway Administration. The city has added load limit signs to both sides of the bridge.

The replacement plan sparked extended conversation at recent Aberdeen City Council meetings and a movement coined “Save Kurt’s Bridge” led by local musicians and advocates.

Joe and Ripley hope to continue playing music underneath the bridge.

“It’s a great venue to play, it raises awareness for the bridge,” Joe said. “Hopefully it will bring more foot traffic in here. If we can start getting more people from out of town to see concerts underneath the bridge, because it’s such a unique venue, it will bring money into this town. If the town sees that — that’s the problem, they can’t quantify the money that’s coming in because of this bridge and people wanting to see it. And there is a lot of people that come from out of town to see this bridge.”

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.

Clayton Franke / The Daily World Flowers adorn an honorary plaque at Kurt Cobain Under the Bridge Memorial Park in Aberdeen. Cobain, Nirvana co-founder and frontman, died April 5, 1994.