Nirvana in 1989. When driving to work Thursday I heard a Ned’s Atomic Dustbin song on the radio. Odds are, unless you’re David Gill or Tony Hicks, you’ve either never heard of or can’t remember ever hearing of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and even those two aren’t a sure thing.…

When the houselights went down Saturday night, the Masonic was almost pitch-black in the moments before Bauhaus took the stage. The crowd, mostly in black, disappeared in the oppressive gloom. Stage lights soon illuminated the quartet, also dressed in black but with guitarist Daniel Ash resplendent in a pirate…

Since at least the time when an angsty adolescent Hamlet was hanging out in cemeteries talking to skulls, teens have been into death. In the late ’80s, I dyed my hair black and listened to all kinds of morose music, probably to freak my parents out, or maybe it…