Lana arrives, nice to the entire staff, shes thrilled to see the store packed, line around the block. She sat in our green room/break room for a while, seeming fragile and nervous. I could sense that the crowd was excited and was going to shower her w love. We all knew what she had been through on SNL (unjustly criticized). She couldn’t start her first song, the crowd was screaming for her. She engaged with the crowd: “This means so much to me guys, you have no idea.” She owned the stage, owned the songs.
Once the performance ended, Lana walked off stage, the applause wouldn’t stop. Her band stayed on stage. Lana is in our back room/store room. She was sitting on the back of the stage, crying, the curtain was blocking her from being seen. I went up to her, I said, “Lana, this doesn’t happen much at record shop in-stores, but I can tell you, they aren’t going to stop, I know this crowd, they are here for you, they adore you, they want to hear another song. What do you think?” She stands up, she’s trembling, her lips are quivering. I didn’t know what to do, but to hug her. She’s still trembling. She looks at me and says, “Do you know why I wanted to play here and come to Seattle? Nirvana is my most favorite band ever. “Heart Shaped Box” is my favorite song, it’s the first song I ever learned. Should I?”
It looked like she was about ready to get back on stage. She turned to me and said, “You know what … can you turn the lights on? It’s been such a great day, I don’t want to mess it up. I wanna go meet the crowd, sign some autographs, take photos … and can you please crank Nirvana the rest of the night? Start with “Heart Shaped Box.” Loud, please. This was so fun, thank you so much.”
i want to show off my whole collection, at some point. like posting records i’ve had a while rather than just new ones coming in. so. anyway. here’s this one! :)