Jim Miller's music memoir Niceness in the '90s is so nice, it's almost devoid of anything unflattering about Courtney Love. Miller highlights the early local indie scene just before grunge became another word for serious and earnest punk. After moving from Chicago to L.A. in the mid-'80s and forming his own bands (the New Balladeers, Trash Can School, Black Angel's Death Song), the guitarist would go on to play with and befriend Jane's Addiction, L7 and Nirvana just as they were on the brink of alterna-rock stardom. The book is dotted with old L.A. haunts, including Raji's and Al's Bar (for which Miller was a promoter), as well as some of the scene's notable figures, from Jane's Addiction muse Jane Bainter to L7's Donita Sparks to ex–Leaving Trains singer and L.A. Weekly's own Falling James.

Sat., March 19, 6-9 p.m., 2011

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