From day one, Nirvana was never interested in playing the same show twice. Since their inception, Kurt Cobain had been known for playing how he felt whenever he took to the stage, leading to many gigs where he would show animosity towards the crowd or refuse to play classic songs like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ in the traditional way. Although the band flew blind during some of their greatest concerts, Dave Grohl was convinced that one of their finest performances would be a trainwreck.
Then again, Nirvana’s time as a live band had already begun to change drastically after the success of Nevermind. Given that Cobain was used to playing the traditional punk rock venues that had housed the band since their days in Seattle, the move to playing gigantic stadiums never sat well with him, being treated the same way acts like Def Leppard were treated.
To let out his frustrations, Cobain would make a habit out of bucking the trends that he saw in other mainstream rock bands. From going onstage wearing a dress to making significant changes to the arrangements of the songs, nothing was off the table when it came time for Cobain to take to the stage.
Looking back on that time, Grohl remembered that half of the excitement was not knowing which version of the show was going to happen, remarking in Sound City, “There are some bands that are either going to be great live or a complete fucking trainwreck, and Nirvana was one of those bands”.
After getting a more authentic sound with In Utero, Nirvana set out on their worldwide tour, crisscrossing the globe and playing their traditional brand of grunge. When it came time for the group to play MTV Unplugged, though, Grohl was convinced that everything would go haywire when they stepped into the building.
Though the subdued format of the venue had inspired Cobain, Grohl didn’t think that the band rehearsed enough to pull it off. When talking about putting the final show together, Grohl said, “That show was supposed to be a disaster. 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, the cameras started rolling, and something clicked”.
There were even talks of Grohl not performing on the show at all. Thinking that his style didn’t click with the intimate setting of the Unplugged show, Cobain initially had the idea of making Grohl sit out most of the show until he switched from drumsticks to a set of brushes.
Capturing the intimacy of a Nirvana gig, Cobain also bucked the trends when working on the show’s setlist, performing a mix of deep cuts and well-chosen covers without any sight of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. While the gig would become one of the band’s more famous performances, it would become bittersweet when Cobain was found dead months after the taping. Compared to the other Unplugged performances, Cobain practically looks like he put on his memorial service on that stage.
