Anyone here ever see Nirvana live?
Ledbetterman10
Posts: 16,839
Just wondering if some of the "older" people on this board ever had the opportunity to see Nirvana. i'm just curious to know what their shows were like.
2000: Camden 1, 2003: Philly, State College, Camden 1, MSG 2, Hershey, 2004: Reading, 2005: Philly, 2006: Camden 1, 2, East Rutherford 1, 2007: Lollapalooza, 2008: Camden 1, Washington D.C., MSG 1, 2, 2009: Philly 1, 2, 3, 4, 2010: Bristol, MSG 2, 2011: PJ20 1, 2, 2012: Made In America, 2013: Brooklyn 2, Philly 2, 2014: Denver, 2015: Global Citizen Festival, 2016: Philly 2, Fenway 1, 2018: Fenway 1, 2, 2021: Sea. Hear. Now. 2022: Camden, 2024: Philly 2
Pearl Jam bootlegs:
http://wegotshit.blogspot.com
Pearl Jam bootlegs:
http://wegotshit.blogspot.com
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Part of the fun (especially true with video) is wondering what will happen next. Something weird always happens. Kurt will either just insanely spear himself into the crowd, get into a fight with a bouncer, play guitar with a pineapple hanging from the neck that just seems to appear from no where, abuse dick heads in the crowd feeling girls up, or just fucking smash his guitar. Krist also makes the show interesting with his weird ramblings and what not. Anybody else seen him with his bass at the VMA's in 92. That just cracks me up.
I never saw them live but i would have loved to, you just never knew what was going to happen next.
Know that when they where here people from my highschool went to their show.
Wasn't into Nirvana that period.
And I know she's reached my heart,... in thin air
Performance -- Red Hot Chili Peppers / Pearl Jam / Nirvana
San Francisco, CA, The Cow Palace, December 31, 1991
by Gina Arnold
Every year for the past twenty years on December 31st, San Francisco's famed Haight Street has been overrun by a fluorescence of Deadheads, in town for the annual Grateful Dead show at the Oakland Coliseum. Their inescapable presence on that particular day has long been a frustrating symbol that for much of America, culturally speaking, time has continued to stand stock-still.
On the afternoon of December 31st, 1991, however, the Deadheads finally met their match. They were greeted on the streets by a healthy host of obsteperous young longhairs clad in cutoffs and combat boots, their thighs all bulging from a lifetime spent on skateboards. This new contingent of rock fans had invaded the city not for the Dead, but for the concert featuring Pearl Jam, Nirvana and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and even the most casual observer would have had no trouble deciding which side of youth culture would be more fun to belong to.
An atmosphere of jubilation pervaded the Cow Palace as the 16,000 fans who crowded the sold-out arena celebrated a mass victory for a new popular-rock aesthetic. The victory was articulated by all three bands, each of which dissed their cross-Bay rivals in very specific terms, beginning with opening act Pearl Jam, whose singer, Eddie Vedder, greeted the roaring throng with "Want to hear some songs by the Dead?" The audience booed with gleeful derision, as Vedder burst into an a cappella rendition of Fugazi's antirape song "Suggestion." "Don't go partying on other people's pussies unless they want you to," he said (referring to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' anthem "Party on Your Pussy").
The point was well taken, for despite the rampant Seventies-isms of much of the evening's music -- Nirvana's work is often compared to Blue Oyster Cult's, the Chili Peppers draw heavily on Seventies funksters like George Clinton, and Pearl Jam is equally rooted in other, more staid classic-rock-radio conventions -- there is clearly an entirely different sensibility at work here. One of the most visible differences is a reliance on athleticism to carry each show, and the ingenuity of each band is quite amusing, from Nirvana's impromptu baseball game -- which utilized guitars as bats and amplifiers as balls -- to Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis's long handstand during one of Flea's impressive bass solos. Pearl Jam's opening set was particularly energetic. Singer Vedder climbed up the lighting ladder and, at the set's close, leapt courageously into the audience's maw.
The crowd was impressed, but the night clearly belonged to the next band up, Nirvana, whose new album, Nevermind, hit number one on the Billboard charts that very week. In fact, the record sold so unexpectedly well in the months since the show was booked that its popularity had well outstripped the headlining Chili Peppers by a factor of four to one.
Thus, after the briefest of set changes, Nirvana played a taut forty-five minute set that completely wrecked what was left of the audience's composure. Members of the mosh pit, which stretched from the stage to the back of the arena, were being thrown in the air like clods of dirt caught up in a live minefield. By the time Nirvana threw in its hit "Smells like Teen Spirit" in midset, the crowd had risen up, rolling forward in a relentless wave of motion. The atmosphere was so infectious that even members of the band's own entourage, standing in the comparative safety of the stage wings, periodically lost their heads and leapt off the rim into the boiling crowd below.
Nirvana's set drew largely from its first album, Bleach, but the audience was as familiar with those songs -- "School," "Floyd the Barber," "About a Girl" -- as it was with the selections from Nevermind which included "Lithium," "Breed," and "Drain You." Singer Kurt Cobain, his hair dyed purple for the occasion, vacillated onstage between nearly cataleptic detachment and unnerving inner intensity. The instant the set finished, he and his band mates destroyed their instruments in a cheery display of wanton violence. They didn't just throw them around, either -- they lovingly unscrewed each piece, the better to batter them into little tiny shards, while the audience howled with glee. There was no encore.
When the lights came up, the exhausted audience attempted to marshal its resources to match the Chili Peppers' legendary live force. But when the Peppers appeared -- bassist Flea upside down, lowered to the stage by ropes tied to his ankles -- they seemed to have trouble finding their much-vaunted groove. Despite the two fire-eaters, numerous naked dancers painted in Day-Glo and huge sonic booms that were set off at midnight, the final twenty minutes of the set -- which included bits of Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and all of Hendrix's "Crosstown Traffic" -- were by far the best. Once again, the audience roiled. The final stage diver, Eddie Vedder, took the plunge during an encore version of "Yertle the Turtle."
The Chili Peppers ended up ruling the night out of sheer noisiness and force of character. But it was Nirvana that had already had the last word -- when bassist Chris Novoselic butchered the Youngbloods' "Get Together" as the band ended its set with the song "Territorial Pissings." "Gotta find a way, a better way," goes the manic chorus -- but it was an injunction that had just rendered itself entirely needless. Well before midnight the crowd already had.
And you're not leaving here without me, I don't wanna be without
My best... friend. Wake up, to see you could have it all
That was one of their last shows (they played just one more).
It was really great and energetic performance, audience was wild, loud and satisfied.
They did not play "Smells like a teen spirit" and I thought "Come as you are" was a highlight. It was really long time ago, I was very young and happy with the whole experience. Kurt did not speak much, but Chris Novoselic was talking a lot.
Only concerts that can be comparable with that one were one by U2 and Pearl Jam (maybe Depeche Mode as well).
Maaaaannn, that sucks! Sorry, dude.
old music: http://www.myspace.com/slowloader
Waited all weekend in the cold, rain and the mud, and they thought it was hilarious to play their songs deliberately wrong and fcuk them up. They were bored of being on the road and playing the same songs night after night and they chose to show that to the fans who had to endure some hardship to see them. Thanks for that.
2000/05/29 Wembley Arena, London, UK
2006/04/20 The Astoria, London, UK
2006/08/29 Gelredome, Arnhem, Netherlands
2007/06/18 Wembley Arena, London, UK
2009/08/18 O2 Arena, London, UK
2010/06/25 Hyde Park, London, UK
2012/06/20 MEN Arena, Manchester, UK
2012/07/30 Hammersmith Odeon, UK (Eddie Vedder solo show)
2013/02/10 O2 Academy Islington, UK (Brad)
2013/09/19 O2 Academy Brixton, UK (Soundgarden)
2014/07/08 first direct Arena, Leeds, UK
2014/07/11 MK Bowl, Milton Keynes, UK
2017/06/06 Hammersmith Odeon, UK (Eddie Vedder solo show)
2018/07/17 O2 Arena, London, UK
2022/07/08 Hyde Park, London, UK
2022/07/09 Hyde Park, London, UK
2024/06/25 Co-op Live, Manchester, UK
I still regret getting my money back for the tic. Would've been kinda cool to have it now.
Berlin 23-09-06
Copenhagen 26-06-07
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-
"This is not wine that I'm drinking tonight. This is Gatorade!" EV-Copenhagen 26-06-07
Radio Friendly Unit Shifter • Drain You • Breed •
Serve The Servants • Come As You Are • Smells Like
Teen Spirit • Sliver • Dumb • In Bloom • About A Girl •
Lithium • Pennyroyal Tea • School • Polly • Frances
Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle • Milk It •
Rape Me • Territorial Pissings • Jesus Wants Me For
A Sunbeam • The Man Who Sold The World • All Apologies •
Heart-Shaped Box • Blew • unknown
It was a good concert, but nowhere near what a PJ concert is.
* Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
* Drain You
* Breed
* Serve The Servants
* Come As You Are
* Smells Like Teen Spirit
* Sliver
* Dumb
* In Bloom
* About A Girl
* Lithium
* Pennyroyal Tea
* School
* Polly
* Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
* Milk It
* Rape Me
* Territorial Pissings
* Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam
* The Man Who Sold the World
* All Apologies
* On A Plain
* Scentless Apprentice
* Heart-Shaped Box
* Blew
* Endless, Nameless
Buddy of mine had a free ticket for me to the 12/27 show in LA on that same tour, but I had to move that night, and could not get out of it. He got me a cool-ass t-shirt (which I wore till the fuckin thing fell apart) but I never got even another sniff at a Nirvana show..
11.05.93- Indio, CA
07.13.98- Inglewood, CA
10.28.00- San Bernardino, CA
06.02.03- Irvine, CA
07.23.06- The Gorge
I saw them once and was worried something like this would happen. However, they were awesome. The only song they goofed up was Teen Spirit but it was sort of cool. Kurt was wandering around the stage...Krist was the talker, Kurt hardly said anything...and he was tuning his guitar sortof. Every fe second he'd play that Teen Spirit opening riff and the crowd would go nuts. This was the height of their popularity and it was in a stadium so there were a shitload of people there. Anyway finally they started Teen Spirit and the place looked like the ocean with people as waves...then they played the song really fast and it was over in like a minute. Like I say sortof cool but not a big deal as I wasn't really there ot see Teen Spirit anyway. They played everything else just fine and sounded great. Mudhoney opened and they rocked out so it was a cool show overall.
- Al Swearengen
http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com
You’re on the outside, never bound by such a spell.
Together in the darkness, alone in the light.
I took it upon me to be yours, Timmy,
I’ll lead your angels and demons at play tonight......»