Nirvana live at Axis (YouTube)
Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan was also a commanding presence. The Pumpkins played so loud their set had a hurricane-like force. But there was a deep emotional resonance embedded in that wall of sound — an annex of what Jimi Hendrix called “the electric church.” The headliners were local outfit Bullet LaVolta, one of the greatest Boston bands of the ’80s. RCA released two of their albums that year, and they seemed poised to be, well, maybe what Nirvana became. Leader Yukki Gipe lived up to the first part of the band’s name at Axis, firing off the stage into the fans at the blisteringly hard, fast, loud set began. Even if LaVolta’s raw blend of hardcore and pop eventually couldn’t compete in the hookier world of alt-rock grunge, that night anything seemed possible. |
Located
a few short doors down from Manny Ramirez' favorite
launching pad, Bill's Bar is the unofficial Dirty Rock
Club of 
