Kurt Cobain died 25 years ago today. A fan remembers seeing Nirvana play at the threshold of glory

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"Who the hell is Nirvana?" Asked Wilder.

The show was held two days before Wilder's 24th birthday and two weeks after the release of "Nevermind", the band's flagship album. She was "hypnotized".

"I remember that it was not music I'd heard before," says Wilder, "but you feel that it's something special."

Her friend knew the group manager and Wilder had to go behind the scenes. She did not speak to singer Kurt Cobain, but "I remember him sitting on a couch very well and looking very socially uncomfortable." She remembered a woman who was trying to flirt with the shy rock star in the making, who seemed uncertain about himself.

"He was not comfortable as a center of attention," Wilder said.

A week later "Nevermind" has been certified gold and the group's hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", is constantly playing on MTV. Cobain – who died less than three years later, on April 5, 1994 – had become the reluctant voice of Generation X.

A shocking death

Cobain and Nirvana marked the beginning of the rock grunge era of the early 1990s, marking the beginning of an era dominated by the pop synth of the 80s, the New Wave and hair groups like Bon Jovi. Cobain avoided sliding, corporate rock, and his anguished lyrics and distorted riffs expressed both intimacy and rebellion.

"It was a good time to be alive in your twenties," Wilder said. Over the next few years, she has started going regularly to concerts of similar bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

But she added, when you're young, "you are in this bubble thinking that twenty-year-olds do not die".

Wilder recalls that Kurt Loder, of MTV, had announced the news that Cobain had been found dead, shot and wounded.

The rocker joined Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison in the so-called Club 27, a group of famous musicians who all died suddenly at age 27.

At this point, Wilder had only known two dead people. "It was shocking for my generation," she said.

The lasting influence of Nirvana

A quarter of a century later, Cobain's career continues to fascinate and inspire. Rolling Stone named him Nirvana and he ranked 30th on the list of "100 greatest artists of all time".

And of course, "Nevermind" tops the list of Rolling Stone's most influential grunge albums.

Spencer Elden, who was swimming naked like a baby on the cover of "Nevermind," told CNN in 2011 that his father, who worked in the Hollywood special effects editing, had had the concert with a friend to photograph the famous cover of the album. He put his son in the water and took some pictures that went into the history of rock.

In 2015, a 19-year-old girl in Washington discovered rare photos of her father playing with Cobain at his very first concert in Raymond, Washington, in the spring of 1987.

And the same year, salivated fans listened to unreleased musical recordings of the alt-rock icon, asleep for 21 years, which surfaced before director Brett Morgen's film biography "Montage of Heck".

Danny Goldberg, Nirvana's manager, published this week a memoir about his time with Cobain and the band, titled "Serving the Servant".

Nirvana was not the first grunge group or alt-rock, but this decisive moment of autumn 1991 remains perhaps their most important contribution to music. They helped create a rock genre and helped other Seattle bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden reach fans around the world.

"Even though people were not famous, 1992-1996 was also a good time to listen to local bands," said Wilder, who now lives in New York. After Nirvana's show, she focused on checking out new music. But she never saw them again or Cobain.

"I miss this time," she says. "It was one of the happiest moments of my life."

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