Concert poster collector Scott Mussell is seeking an original example of this poster promoting Nirvana's Sunday, May 6, 1990 show at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia. Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing played the date while touring in support of their first album, Bleach, released on Sub Pop in 1989, with Naked Truth and Insane Jane (unlisted) on the bill. The band played the venue's Heaven room, which held about 1,000 people, but only an estimated 150 to 200 turned out. The Masquerade had opened just eight months earlier inside the DuPre Excelsior Mill, a factory dating to the 1890s, and the Heaven rooms floorboards were known to flex and shake during shows. The club became a cornerstone of Atlanta's indie rock scene, hosting Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead and many more. "This room hosted a lot of great bands over the years, but you'd be hard pressed to find a more talked-about show from this stage than Nirvana's," Mussell said.
The venue printed the poster in black on white stock, with comedy and tragedy masks in the top corners, a domino mask over "the Masquerade" logo, "Sub Pop Sensations" above a large NIRVANA headline, "$6.00 Door" and "All Ages," and the club's address and phone number, 695 North Ave. N.E., 577-8178. It carries the date "Sunday May 6" but no year. The club distributed it in a limited area to promote the show. Collectors should note that a restored reproduction exists, Mussell is seeking an original printed before the show.
"I'm putting my money where my mouth is, offering $1,000 for an example of this poster," Mussell says. He will consider an original in any condition for his archive of more than 90 pre-1992 Nirvana concert posters. If you have one, contact him anytime at 515-707-7250 (call or text) or srmussell@me.com.
Two nights earlier, on May 4, 1990, Nirvana played a different club also called the Masquerade, in Ybor City, Florida. Mussell is also seeking posters and flyers from that Tampa-area show.
Nirvana returned to the Masquerade on Oct. 6, 1991, 12 days after Nevermind was released and the night after a show at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia. Mussell is also seeking the poster for that return show and material from the Athens gig.