{"id":343952,"date":"2025-12-31T03:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T03:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/343952\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T03:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T03:33:09","slug":"the-nirvana-show-everyone-thought-would-be-terrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/343952\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nirvana show everyone thought would be terrible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kurt<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Nirvana)<\/p>\n

Wed 31 December 2025 1:00, UK <\/p>\n

Oh, to have been one of the lucky souls at one of the early Nirvana<\/a> shows. You often wonder if people witnessing history are actually aware of it, but surely those rock lovers had an inkling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, the band Mogwai<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really was quite important,\u201d said Braithwaite in an interview with The Guardian. \u201cBecause there were two camps. There was the \u2018move to London and try to sell millions of records\u2019 camp, and then there was the Pastels, Teenage Fanclub camp, and it was the \u2018stay in Glasgow and be like the Pastels\u2019 worldview that won.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cI think representation really matters. When I did start making my own music, I wasn\u2019t thinking: \u2018Oh, I can never do this\u2019, because I\u2019d seen people like me already do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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? <\/p>\n

Given Nirvana packed such a punch as a live band, it\u2019s 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\u2019s greatest performances, because the show\u2019s success wasn\u2019t just a surprise to the fans, but to the band as well, as they were expecting an absolute disaster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat show was supposed to be a disaster,\u201d said Dave Grohl when reflecting on the iconic show. \u201cWe hadn\u2019t rehearsed. We weren\u2019t 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\u2019s most memorable performances.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll struggle to find a record store in the modern age that isn\u2019t holding a copy of Nirvana\u2019s iconic acoustic performance<\/a>. 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\u2019s 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\u2019s head when he decided to take his own life, we come close to some form of idea through his music.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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