True enough, the Rocket was THE local music paper. The Stranger attempts to fill the void, but fail. Their most recent issue has three photos of Cornell, and 1.5 articles. So much for any tribute to the legacy.
I was never part of the scene, but was always around it somehow. The music was everywhere, especially downtown, even in the strip clubs.
I was at KCMU (the alternative college station at the UW) when all those bands had their first demos and singles played locally. Never saw a show, though. :-( Living in the suburbs, I never really was into seeing shows much.
I saw New American Shame play several times, though. They were a punkish version of AC/DC-style rockers that toured with The Cult, and they played numerous shows in the area -- Bumbershoot, Planet Hot Rod, Sit N Spin, the Crocodile. It was the closest I got to really feeling the scene as it played out later in the 1990's. I saw Truly play -- Hiro Yamamoto's band with Robert Roth. And a couple other local original bands from the latter part of the decade, at the Croc or the Off Ramp -- bands like the Shinola and Redneck Girlfriend that didn't make it big but their music was still pretty good.
By the time you got here, Seattle was still Seattle but things were already changing. The city just kept getting bigger and bigger. If you returned now, you would barely recognise anything, especially in Belltown where the grunge scene seemed to be centered when it was big. Belltown is all high-rises. Downtown reeks of big money now. Not that it's necessarily bad, but the character has changed.
Shit, everything's changed since the 90's. Never thought I'd miss that decade.