(Credits: Far Out / Nirvana)
Wed 31 December 2025 1:00, UK
Oh, to have been one of the lucky souls at one of the early Nirvana shows. You often wonder if people witnessing history are actually aware of it, but surely those rock lovers had an inkling.
Stuart Braithwaite wrote in his book about the magic that was seeing Nirvana live for the first time, and this is before they released Nevermind, and were just trying out the songs on the festival circuit as they toured around the world, because when Braithwaite caught the band at Reading Festival, he was able to witness what are now considered classics before they were even released, and their impact was just as strong then as it is now.
In fact, the band Mogwai might have never happened were it not for the majesty of Nirvana. A little after seeing the band play at Reading, Braithwaite found out that frontman Kurt Cobain was a big fan of Scottish bands, and that encouraged him to stay local when making music rather than pack up his things and head to the capital.
“It really was quite important,” said Braithwaite in an interview with The Guardian. “Because there were two camps. There was the ‘move to London and try to sell millions of records’ camp, and then there was the Pastels, Teenage Fanclub camp, and it was the ‘stay in Glasgow and be like the Pastels’ worldview that won.”
He continued, “I think representation really matters. When I did start making my own music, I wasn’t thinking: ‘Oh, I can never do this’, because I’d seen people like me already do it.”
You might not be able to go back in time and see any of those early Nirvana gigs; however, you can begin to appreciate just how good the live shows were, given an indirect endorsement from the lead singer after one show was enough to influence a major life choice. And people still try to say that music is a waste of time, can you believe it?
Given Nirvana packed such a punch as a live band, it’s somewhat ironic that one of their final gigs was an acoustic set they filmed for MTV, and while that might sound like a pretty disastrous combination, the whole thing went by incredibly smoothly and is still considered one of the band’s greatest performances, because the show’s success wasn’t just a surprise to the fans, but to the band as well, as they were expecting an absolute disaster.
“That show was supposed to be a disaster,” said Dave Grohl when reflecting on the iconic show. “We hadn’t rehearsed. We weren’t used to playing acoustic. We did a few rehearsals, and they were terrible. Everyone thought it was horrible. Even the people from MTV thought it was horrible. Then we sat down, and the cameras started rolling, and something clicked. It became one of the band’s most memorable performances.”
You’ll struggle to find a record store in the modern age that isn’t holding a copy of Nirvana’s iconic acoustic performance. There is something deeply moving about this hour of music, not only because it generally just sounds good, but also because of how closely it was filmed towards the end of Kurt Cobain’s life. The emotions in his voice are as raw as they come, and while we may never understand what was going on in the frontman’s head when he decided to take his own life, we come close to some form of idea through his music.
Related Topics