Cobain may have requested a funereal stage set decorated with stargazer lilies, black candles, and a crystal chandelier, but his performance was never less than life-affirming.Ĭlick to load video “They hint at where Nirvana could have gone next”Īugmented by touring alumni Pat Smear (guitar) and Lori Goldston (cello), Nirvana eased into a consummate version of Bleach stand-out “About A Girl” and never looked back. However, all the tensions were swept away when Nirvana hit the MTV stage for real on November 18, 1993, filming a performance that would be broadcast a month later, on December 16. “Therefore, everyone was more than a little concerned about the performance.” “There was no joking, no smiles, no fun coming from him,” MTV production manager Jeff Mason recalled in Charles R Cross’ biography, Heavier Than Heaven. MTV was concerned about the lack of hit songs Nirvana proposed to play in their set, while Cobain – who was wracked with nerves and suffering from a recurring stomach complaint – appeared less than enamored during two days of tense, pre-show rehearsals at New York’s Sony Music Studios. Nirvana finally acquiesced when MTV agreed to them bringing their In Utero touring partners, Arizona alt-rockers The Meat Puppets, along to appear as their special guests. However, the band began to warm to the idea when they recalled that one of their favorite albums – Screaming Trees’ frontman Mark Lanegan’s debut solo album, The Winding Sheet – made a virtue of a similarly intimate approach. Kurt Cobain and his team also had reservations over how well their visceral rock’n’roll would translate in such a stripped-back, low-watt setting. “Most bands would treat them like rock shows – play their hits like it was Madison Square Garden – except with acoustic guitars!” “We’d seen other Unplugged shows and didn’t like many of them,” drummer Dave Grohl later told Rolling Stone. Initially, the Seattle grungestars were in two minds over whether they should even accept their invitation to appear on MTV Unplugged, not least because they felt the program’s format simply wasn’t for them.

“We’d seen other Unplugged shows and didn’t like them”

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