Nirvana

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the longest-lasting being Dave Grohl, who joined the band in 1990. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band))

Scheduled
Saturday, 1 September 1991, "Trabanthalle", 23:30 -

Line up
Kurdt Cobain - vocals, guitar; Krist Novocelic - bass; Dave Grohl - drums

Set list
01 Polly
02 Drain you
03 School
04 Floyd the barber
05 Smells like Teen Spirit
06 Come as you are
07 About a girl
08 Breed
09 Sliver
10 In bloom
11 Been a son
12 Negative creep

Recordings
Two separate complete audience video recordings exist (one shot from in front of the stage and one side shot) which is quite remarkable given the band's relative obscurity at the time. The titles in the set list above link directly to YouTube videos as uploaded by Curmodgeon. They are combinations of the front and side shot videos and have good sound.



The most notable bootleg CD with these recordings is Live Buzz, but without a doubt, many more exist. I have an mp3 copy of Live Buzz, it's and audience recording with good sound quality.


Front cover of Live Buzz.

Other info


Article from festival booklet.

The show has been widely earmarked as "the first Nirvana show in Holland." This is untrue: they played a number of shows in Holland on tour with Tad between 1 and 5 November 1989 (VPRO radio session Hilversum, Nighttown Rotterdam, Vera Groningen, Tivoli Utrecht, Gigant Apeldoorn, Melkweg Amsterdam) . (http://www.nirvanaguide.com/1989.php)

Zondag 1 september 1991 trad Nirvana op tijdens het Ein abend in Wien-festival in Rotterdam.
The Smashing Pumpkins waren toen de nieuwe sensatie, waar iedereen het over had. Nirvana was een onbekende band die op het laatste moment was toegevoegd (Nevermind zou pas een maand later verschijnen). Toen Sietse Meijer, journalist van NRC Handelsblad en OOR, voor het eerst een bandje van de plaat Nevermind hoorde, regelde hij direct dat Nirvana verschillende interviews kreeg. Hij had nog nooit zoiets goeds gehoord.
Op het festival in Rotterdam mocht Nirvana niet op het hoofdpodium optreden; The Smashing Pumpkins wel. Hierover waren ze zo boos dat ze de volledige gehuurde apparatuur aan gort hebben geslagen. Toen ze aan de grote geluidstoren wilden beginnen, werden ze door de politie afgevoerd. Het karige loon dat ze met hun optreden zouden verdienen, werd niet uitbetaald. (http://home.casema.nl/b.elzerman/KurtCobain/nirvana.html)

A journalist who spoke with Nirvana that day said:
"I mainly spoke with Cobain, the other two went to the Doelen to check it out. On their return they were moaning about the small hall they would have to play, while a band like the Smashing Pumpkins was on the main stage. This arose a wayward atmosphere."
It really did, Nirvana completely trashed the stage. Parts of this performance can be seen in the video for Lithium. (http://forums.netphoria.org/showthread.php?t=108337&referrerid=11388)

In the weekend of the 31st of August and the 1st of September 1991 takes place the heavily promoted Ein Abend In Wien. On the bill we find among others Nirvana, who are touring to support Sonic Youth, awaiting the release of their 2nd album NEVERMIND. The band has traded Sub Pop for major Geffen by now, that has given the group an intense and extensive tour schedule. According to Coos Zuijdwijk, press promoter for BMG/Ariola, the Dutch interest in Nirvana is almost nil at that moment. ‘In August I had some tapes from the album and no one wanted them.’ Willem Vennema from organizer Mojo Concerts confirms this; ‘At that moment no one was interested in the group, no matter what all the Dutch magazines said later on. We put them on the Ein Abend In Wien bill, under protest, because Sonic Youth insisted.’
The only one really interested in the group at that moment was Gutter Heijting from Opscene, who tried already a phone interview with Cobain beginning of August. ‘Because of the bad connection it did not last long and became unusable. A big pity, but after shouting for 10 minutes we called it quits. I have left only one now-remarkable quote about when he started playing guitar. He told me his father left his mother and she ditched all his guns in the river. Kurt fished them out and sold them to make money to buy guitars.'
Sunday the 1st of September the group is strolling through the city with new drummer Dave Grohl when they bump into an acquaintance. Lotto IJzermans; ‘They remembered exactly who I was, while I had troubles remembering who they were.’ Scheduled for that afternoon are interviews and photo sessions in the Hilton hotel. Sietse Mijers talks to them on behalf of OOR; ‘When I applied for the interview I was warned the group could be annoying, they were known for being difficult to deal with. With seemed pretty right, they were very restless. During the interview the other two were neatly at my table, but Kurt was hanging out of the window or leaving the room.’ After that it is the turn of Klaas-Jan Burema for the Brabant Pers. ‘I mainly spoke with Cobain, the other two went to the Doelen to check it out. On their return they were moaning about the small hall they would have to play, while a band like the Smashing Pumpkins was on the main stage. This arose a wayward atmosphere. Kurt was pretty clear and took all the time in the world, about half an hour. He told me for example that he thought Nevermind was produced too clean, and that the follow up would have to be more rough. The other two were pretty uninterested.’
After that photographer Niels van Iperen takes the band outside for a photo shoot; ‘They were pretty difficult kids, fooling around, especially Kurt didn’t feel like doing anything. Once outside Dave suggested as a joke to go into the fountain in front of the hotel. It seemed like a good idea to me, I praised it, but Kurt didn’t want. The other two did like they said after which Kurt had to join too. He sat down on the fountain and it turned out to be a nice session. Strange guy: not really unpleasant, but distant in some way. First moaning, then cooperating and finally enjoying it all.’
Roy Tee tried to shoot Nirvana after that. ‘I knew little about the group, looking at the name I expected spacey seventies music. It was one of many photo assignments I had for that weekend. I wanted to shoot them inside and had laid my eye on an empty dining room on the first floor. This room was full of tables, with clean white tablecloths. First thing Kurt did was walk on all those tables with his dirty shoes. When he finally finished freaking, I got him together with the other two for 10 minutes of posing. He was quickly bored and started making funny faces so I stopped there.’
That night at 23:30 Nirvana takes the stage of the Trabanthalle for what would to become a memorable performance. Encouraged by Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, who will watch the show from the balcony behind the stage, the group gives an immense energetic and intense show. According to Sietse Meijer, the hall was loaded ‘with dancing people while there was hardly no space for that.’ Also present Volkskrant-journalist Henrico Prins claims though that the hall ‘was not as full as is remembered now, people could simply not get in cause there was a big crowd in front of the only 2 entrance doors. The rest of the hall was semi-full.’ Willem Venema confirms that, he states around 200-300 people.
The show ends in chaos. In Come As You Are Michael Azzerad described the situation as following: ‘For the last show of the tour, in Rotterdam, the group got drunk. Near the end of the show Krist climbed on the PA tower with his trouser on his ankles and a bottle in his hand. Security runs on stage and pulls him down, while Kurt was smashing up everything around him. One of the security guys lashes out to Krist, which started a dispute. Krist got removed from the hall, but came back and started fighting the promoter.’
Willem Venema, that same promoter, tells another story. ‘I was warned before the show by my stage manager that they would start throwing with their amps and drum kit. They did that every night, part of the show. I decided to keep an eye open and I told their tour manager that I would intervene when they would take our stuff, PA and microphones, for the simple reason that there was another band after them. At the end of the show Krist gets up the PA and made a start throwing the speakers down the stage. Life threatening as there was people down there. I walked up to him and pulled him off the PA by his belt. On which Kurt started to interfere , telling me not to touch his buddy. They acted like they were very drunk.’
‘Ooch, I dealt with bigger rats then Nirvana… I have seen so many groups that decide to close a show by tearing everything down,’ Venema continues. ‘When you assume your record company will pay for the damages, you are just another spoiled American rich kid… That I fought with Krist is bullshit. The security that night was dressed as nurses so when they came to help me get Krist out of the PA, the whole stage was full of hospital personnel. You cannot call that a fight, cause when 4 security guys grabs you, you cannot move anymore. Neither were they evicted from the venue, they simply went back to their hotel. They also threw with fruits, on which Thurston Moore lectured them, kind of like: now piss off boys.’ (from Dutch pop magazine OOR Nr.23 – 19 Nov. 1994 by Wim Niehaus & Pieter van Adrichem) (http://taononstop.free.fr/www/taononstop.com/old/OOR_23.html)