On this page you will find information that has been published about mysterious this show.
In 1993, Nirvana began to return to business as usual.
In January, the band played two huge shows with their old friends L7 in Brazil early in the year, the first on the sixteenth at Morumbi stadium in Sao Paulo and another show a week later at the seventy-thousand-seat Apoetose Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
The band was in peak form. The Sao Paulo show, according to Alex Macleod, was "punk rock heaven, baby." Just for the occasion, they played "Rio" by Duran Duran, with Dave on bass and vocals, Chris playing guitar, and Kurt behind the drums. Later, they played a seemingly endless version of Terry Jacks's insipid 1974 bubblegum hit "Seasons In The Sun". Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers played the "Teen Spirit" solo on trumpet.
'I clearly remember the shows in Brazil. In Sao Paulo, there was a gift store at the hotel (Maksoud Plaze) where we were told they sold Valium. When we had to go to the stadium, I had to search for Kurt and I found him in there, taking one after the other, I now know how many, I was horrified. When we entered the stage, the atmosphere was like nothing I'd ever seen - 80,000 people. The first song we played was 'School', and it started like (Grohl makes the sound of the guitar with his mouth, and reproduces the drums in his legs). Then Kurt started singing in an absurd microvoice, and started playing it differently (Grohl makes the sound of a new guitar, only in a much more slow rhythm). It was in a different tempo. I looked over at Krist, we were terrified. Krist came over to my ear and said 'Speed it up, speed it up, for the love of God!' *(can't dicipher this bit, something about how the crowd were so high on the music I think)*. It was incredible. The next day a periodical said 'Nirvana makes jam session for 100,000 people.' It was madness. We played until Rio by Duran Duran. Another hour we changed instruments, I played bass, Krist played guitar and Kurt played drums. He was insane.
'Right before Nirvana came onstage, Brazilian rocker Joao Gordo read a message from Nirvana's bass player Chris Novoselic stating that he was misinterpreted in a Veja magazine. There, he was quoted saying that 80% of his fans were idiots and he'd like to say that was not true. In between songs like "In Bloom" and "Lithium," Cobain had the fans screaming for more. Standing still as he strummed the guitar, Cobain seemed to pour the lyrics out of his soul with every word he sang. It was quite intense to hear him sing every song of his. The amazing thing about Cobain was that you could really sense the emotion of his lyrics as he performed. In the middle of the show, drummer Dave Grohl switched over to play bass, Novoselic played guitar, and Cobain went over to play drums. For 10 minutes, the band did nothing but jam, play instrumental music. During "Smells Like Teen Spirit," when the majority of the audience got trapped into a massive mosh pit in the general admission area, Cobain stopped the song and talked to speak into the microphone. "Excuse me, I don't look good in blue," he said as he asked the technician to change the lighting on him. Towards the end of the show, Cobain did his ritual of breaking his guitar. He walked over to pick up a piece of his guitar and handed it over to a fan in the front row. In a rage, his wife, Hole lead singer Courtney Love, stepped onstage and grabbed the remaining pieces of the guitar he had in his hand. He turned around and started arguing with her as she followed him around and apparently yelled back. He raised his hands in the air while looking at the audience (perhaps it was his way of saying goodbye) and left the stage. Love followed behind him. Show was over. Quite entertaining finale. News sources later said that Love had given Cobain the guitar he smashed as a Christmas present and disliked seeing him smashing it against the floor. During the few days that the band stayed in Brazil, there was a lot of conflict going around. Apparently both of them fought constantly, but fans did not care about that. All they wanted was to see Nirvana. Cobain was sure to give them the best show he could. To this date, many will be sure he did.'
Nirvana screwed up a concert that had everything to be a great concert... Until today the Nirvana fans are still waiting to see the real Nirvana. They stopped between the songs to trade their instruments. They were not the real Nirvana at all. A depressing Cobain only making noise with his guitar was what we could see. Destroying the guitar and throwing the pieces to the audience. After that, Kurt took the drums, Dave taking the vocals and the bass, and Chris taking the guitar. It was a horror!... playing "We Will Rock You", changing the lyrics to "We will fuck you"... the Clash's song "Should I Stay or Should I Go"... Duran Duran's "Rio"... the indroduction of "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden and "Tony Two Tony" by the female singer Janet. They played so bad that part of the audience started to go away. After that, Kurt tried to wake up the audience with no results playing "Territorial Pissings" with a completely untuned guitar and soon after destroying everything on the stage... the guitar, the drums and those expensive amps. That was when the "dirty" Courtney Love appears, trying to save that night from a completely ruin, but it was too late, because the night that was to be called "Nirvana's night".. ended right before they came to the stage when L7 left it.
In October of 1993 Nirvana launched their tour in support of what was to be their last studio album, 'In Utero', playing the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. MTV News flew out to catch the show and speak with the band afterwards; here we are presenting extended excerpts from the interview and the concert.
MTV NEWS: So how was the first show? I thought it was really good. What's it like to start a tour now today?
KRIST: Today with all the lighters out there it felt like we were doing Aerosmith "Dream On" or something. I felt like Tom Hamilton... the bass player from Aerosmith.
MTV NEWS: Have you done stadiums before?
KRIST: We did a stadium, it was like 110,000 people in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And we had a mental breakdown on the stage and played "Seasons in the Sun" and "Her Name is Rio" and we played "She Dances in the Sand" by Duran Duran. Remember that time we did that thing?
DAVE: That was a mess.
KRIST: It was a lot of fun.
KURT: That was great.
MTV NEWS: Kurt, you sang "Seasons in the Sun?"
KURT: Did I sing? Yes, I did. I don't know the words. One of the only singles I can remember from my childhood that I used to cry to.
KRIST: What's the best lyric in there?
KURT: It's such an emotional song.
KRIST: There's like the best lyric...
KURT: (sings) Good-bye papa it's hard to die.
KRIST: The stars on the beach were... I forget how it goes
KURT: (sings) The stars on the beach...no, the starfish on the beach where the star's out of reach.
KRIST: Wow.
DAVE: What do you mean?
PAT: The wow really made it...
KRIST: Don't you get it?
KURT: I don't know. I don't know... All I know I know is there's a better song on the B-side of that single. "Put the Bone In It."
DAVE: Put the bone in it... (laughs) It's about a guy's dog gets hit by a car and they ask him to put the bone in the grave with the dog.