Kurt Cobain Days has a new format and a new name going into its third year, but it remains solidly rooted in its original spirit.
The event’s new name, Pay to Play, was the working title of the song “Stay Away” on Nirvana’s second album, “Nevermind” — the one that catapulted the band to fame in 1991.
Event organizer and promoter Ed Stanaway said the name was a tongue-in-cheek way to keep the event connected to Aberdeen’s own Cobain.
“There’s actually no fee for the bands to play. We wanted to keep with the spirit of Kurt Cobain Days and keep Kurt’s ethics front and center to the event,” said Stanaway. “But we could not directly call the event itself Kurt Cobain Days anymore, nor could we use any trademarked song title to reference the event. All the bands get paid to play in the event, and no tickets are sold, so it really is the antithesis of what the actual pay-to-play concept is about.”
Bands from up and down the West Coast will be performing at what has become a three-day festival. It’s been expanded this year to include Thursday, when an acoustic show will start at 8 p.m. at Mac’s Cigar Tavern, 210 E. Heron St. in Aberdeen. Admission is free, as it is to all performances during the event, but attendees must be 21 or older.
Performing in the acoustic set will be Carrion Crows, a “dark folk, outlaw country flailgrass” band out of Tacoma; Draw Down; Lux VanHouten; Victoria Willow, a singer/songwriter from Olympia; Jasey Kay of the Tacoma Band Ain’t Got Time to Bleed; and Stanaway himself.
On Friday, bands will plug in starting at 8 p.m. at the 101 Bar and Grill, 322 Lincoln St. in Hoquiam. Acts include “heavy groove rock” band Reverent Circle from Aberdeen; Luck, formerly known as Fuzz Bomb, a “blues punk” group out of Montesano; Thompson Gunners, an Aberdeen band in the oi punk genre, a style that originated in the late 1970s in England; and Little Tipsy out of Olympia, described as a skate rock band.
On Saturday, the music starts at 11 a.m. on the outdoor main stage at 202 Heron St. in downtown Aberdeen. Bands include:
• Hocus, a guitar driven rock/punk band from San Diego, California.
• Clinton Dogger Mullins of Olympia, guitar player for the video band Green Jelly (formerly Green Jello) and bass player for local band Gebular.
• Electric General, out of Olympia.
• Rebel Skum, an Aberdeen progressive/industrial metal band.
• Yesterday’s Enemas, another local Aberdeen band.
• Stiff Upper Lip, from Olympia.
• Neutralboy, a punk band out of Bremerton.
• Axis Salvation, a “melodic, grunge alternative” rock band out of Eugene, Oregon.
• Under Sin, an alternative rock band out of Tacoma featuring original Nirvana drummer Aaron Burckhard.
• And a 10-year-old punk band from Oakland, California, whose name we can’t print.
Some of last year’s attendees to the celebration describe it as sparsely attended. That’s fine with Stanaway.
He noted that many other music festivals draw people in by advertising a national headline act, which drains most of the available funds.
“Our approach is different,” he said. “We have local acts coming in from as far away as San Diego, everyone is paid equally, and our event is free. We understand it will take time to grow organically.”
