Here we are now. Entertain us. Grunge tribute set for Canton, featuring Nirvana, '90s rock

(This story was updated to add a photo and video.)

CANTON − Urban Honey guitarist Hunter Schwenk recalled exploring his dad's music collection when he was 8 or 9 years old.

Hundreds of CDs filled a drawer − Barenaked Ladies, Johnny Cash, The Doors and many others.

"And I was standing on a chair so I could reach the stereo," Schwenk said. "And it had a six-disc changer, and I was just flipping through them to see what it was, and it must have landed on 'Nevermind' by Nirvana. And my dad must have had the stereo cranked because as soon as I turned it on, my mom ran downstairs."

She scolded the youngster in a panic: "What are you doing?"

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was blasting from the speakers. "It was shaking the house," the 27-year-old Schwenk remembered with a laugh.

This was in the aughts, about 10 years after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain had taken his own life. Schwenk wasn't even born in 1991 when "Nevermind" was released, the seminal album that almost instantly reshaped the mainstream music landscape for the kids of Generation X.

Although Schwenk would go on to become a much bigger fan of Pacific Northwest counterpart Soundgarden, he's among the local musicians who were profoundly impacted by grunge − a fusion of metal, rock, punk and pop.

Urban Honey, Beach City Postal Service and Anya Van Rose will co-headline A Tribute to Grunge concert at 8 p.m. Friday at The Auricle Venue & Bar in downtown Canton.

Tickets , $13 in advance and $18 day of show, can be purchased at https://theauricle.net/ . The concert is open to all ages.

Grunge revolution When Nirvana rocked Akron: 'The Barney Concert'

Tribute show promises 'wildly rocking music.'

Presented by retired Canton Repository entertainment editor Dan Kane, the show will feature the music of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains, while also tossing in a few songs by Stone Temple Pilots.

"The thing with grunge music is, a lot of younger people who love it now weren't even around when those records were released," Kane said. "The vocalists of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots are tragically dead.

"Consequently, all the musicians in this grunge show are super excited for the opportunity to play this wildly rocking music. And what I've heard in the band rehearsals is going to blow people's socks off."

Born to play Soundgarden

Beach City Postal Service will play Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam songs. Anya Van Rose and her bandmates will honor Nirvana. Urban Honey will crank out fiery versions of Soundgarden, as well as a few Stone Temple Pilots songs. Evan Rutledge and singer-songwriter Cody J. Martin will be guest vocalists backed by Van Rose's band.

"When Dan asked us to do this, I was almost like, 'Man, if we're not doing Soundgarden, I don't really know if I want to do it,'" Schwenk said. "It would be really hard to sit in the crowd and watch somebody else play those songs."

Schwenk is a hardcore fan of the Seattle band, first introduced to deep cuts like "Mailman" through his father's iTunes catalog.

One might even call Schwenk a grungeologist. He recites the lyrics of "Rusty Cage" by Soundgarden as if they're grunge poetry. And he eagerly and knowingly discusses the nuances of the genre and doesn't hesitate to offer strong opinions, including his contention that Nirvana's impact and legacy have been overblown due to Cobain's death at age 27.

"I think that song is the epitome of Chris Cornell's writing as a guitar player and a vocalist," he said "Mailman." "He's got this soft touch on this down-tuned deep guitar, but at the same time his voice is slipping into these falsettos that are just mesmerizing."

Schwenk said fans shouldn't expect a carbon copy of Soundgarden. The band's lead singer Christine Reichard, however, is known for her versatile vocal range and emotive delivery. The band also features bass player Blake Oaks and drummer Josh Campian.

Their set list will include "Outshined" and "Spoonman," as well as a medley with snippets of "Black Hole Sun" and "Rusty Cage." Two Stone Temple Pilots songs are planned, including, "Vasoline."

"I think when it comes to music and when it comes to originality, we pay our tributes in the way that we sound," Schwenk said. "And we respect the music and the way we devoted time to put into it."

The chemistry of Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell

Members of Beach City Postal Service are old souls.

Back in high school, the classic rock enthusiasts jammed on Alice In Chains songs.

"It was Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley and they had such a unique chemistry," said Russell Jones, 28. "They were just so good at writing together, and I think that was a big thing for (Beach City Postal Service guitarist) Jake (Buckridge) and I. When we started playing music in high school, we really gravitated toward Alice In Chains because we felt that sort of similar chemistry that we were writing off each other rather than separately."

Beach City Postal Service faithfully replicates both the sludgy guitars and moody vocal harmonies of the grunge luminaries. Jones also nails the lead vocals, capturing Staley's haunting yowl with authenticity.

"I feel we're really trying to capture that energy," he said. "Not only vocally but instrumentally as well."

"I think that grunge was more about a feeling than a sound," Jones added. "These bands wanted to portray something that was a little more genuine than the hairspray (metal) that was coming out of the '80s."

Journalists and cultural observers of the time said the music also embodied the attitude and ethos of disaffected, directionless youth.

"I think it was like a rejection of everything that was popular in mainstream rock," said Buckridge, 28. "People were tired of the sound that they had for the last decade. It was just a raw, more genuine kind of music."

Van Rose agreed.

"When I think of grunge, I think of music that takes a risk in a lot of ways," Van Rose said. "I think grunge abandoned a lot of what was widely followed and accepted in music theory and leaned into angular progressions. And I think there was just so much energy and something so emotive about grunge − there's just a lot of energy that comes with it."

Grunge quickly became a cultural phenomenon beyond music, representing a minimalistic, unglamorous take on fashion − flannel shirts, combat boots, torn jeans and thrift store attire.

"That's just how we dress in general," Jones said unassumingly. "Ever since we were kids, we sort of imitated that style. (Drummer) T.J. (Gang) was laughing at practice … because (band member) Dustin (Mayle) was dressed like that and T.J. said to Dustin: 'You look like you should be in Pearl Jam. That's exactly how they dressed.'"

Tribute songs will include "Man in the Box," "Nutshell," "Them Bones" and "Rooster."

Gang, will handle the vocals of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, including for "Alive," "Even Flow," "Not for You" and "Yellow Ledbetter."

"He has a killer voice," Buckridge said. "He's a big Pearl Jam fan ... and he has a similar baritone range voice (to Vedder). He really loves the songs, so he'll do a good job with them."

Nirvana 'holds a special place in my heart.'

Van Rose, 34, was an infant when "Smells Like Teen Spirt" dominated MTV and mainstream radio while becoming the anthem of Generation X.

And the singer-songwriter wasn't even in kindergarten yet when Cobain died following his unlikely rise to rock stardom amid depression and drug abuse. She's connected with Cobain's music ever since she was a teenager playing Nirvana guitar riffs in her bedroom.

"I just had some early transformative musical memories playing and learning Nirvana," Van Rose said. "It just holds a special place in my heart for that reason."

"There's something just so real about him as a person, but also with his music," she said of Cobain. "There's something so raw and so authentic in everything about him."

Jones of Beach City Postal Service echoed those sentiments.

"I think for Kurt, it's truly just genuine feeling," he said. "When he wrote a song, it was him bleeding onto a page. There was no science, there was no mathematics behind why I'm writing this or why I'm trying to make it sound like this. It was just genuinely him, and I think that was his entire thing. I think he was leaving this big fingerprint on the page of music."

During recent rehearsals, Van Rose and bandmates paid homage to Nirvana classics while adding their own stylings to the masterpieces without becoming a caricature and mere tribute act. Unaltered is the sheer ferocity of the music.

Songs in their set include "Love Buzz," "Breed," "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "In Bloom" and "Lithium." Martin will sing "Heart-Shaped Box" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" from Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged in New York" performance.

"Representing Kurt as the lead singer and paying tribute to him and Nirvana as a whole feels like such a huge honor," Van Rose said humbly. "And I almost don't know how to pay tribute the way I feel it needs to be done.

"I've really been trying to embrace my own voice and not sound raspy or do what Kurt did. I think I would better serve the songs being me and being as authentic to myself as best I can. I want to preserve the music."

If you go

WHAT − A Tribute to Grunge, featuring the music of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots

WHO − Beach City Postal Service, Urban Honey, Anya Van Rose, Evan Rutledge and Cody J. Martin

WHEN − 8 p.m. Friday. Doors open at 7 p.m.

WHERE − The Auricle Venue & Bar, 201 Cleveland Ave. NW in downtown Canton

TICKETS − $13 in advance and $18 day of show (plus fees), available at https://theauricle.net/ . $3 surcharge for under 21.

Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com . On X (formerly Twitter) @ebalintREP and Instagram at ed_balint

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Here we are now. Entertain us. Grunge tribute set for Canton, featuring Nirvana, '90s rock