My Last Nirvana Show

Guest blogger James Zahn, of The Rock Father, shares memories of his last Nirvana show. When it comes to Nirvana, I was one of the lucky ones.  I got to see the band perform just six months before it would all come to an end. It was October 22, 1993, and an anxious crowd was packed into the Palmer Auditorium in Davenport, Iowa to catch Nirvana (along with Jawbreaker and Mudhoney) during a stop on their "In Utero" Tour. This was the "evolved" Nirvana, one that found Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl  joined by guitarist Pat Smear and cellist Lori Goldston amidst a stage littered with flowers and flanked by angel-winged mannequins. The setlist for that night: Radio Friendly Unit Shifter • Drain You • Breed • Serve the Servants • About a Girl • Heart-Shaped Box • Sliver • Dumb • In Bloom • Come as You Are • Lithium • Pennyroyal Tea • School • Polly • Rape Me • Territorial Pissings • Smells Like Teen Spirit • Something in the Way • All Apologies • On a Plain • Scentless Apprentice • Blew While no one could have foreseen what would ultimately bring a premature end to Nirvana's music, there was a magic in the air that night that is still indescribable. It took 17 years, but I finally found a live recording of that very show floating around online last year. Around the same time, I introduced my daughter to the music of Nirvana through the Live at Reading concert film. Even as a toddler, I can see that she "got it."

- James Zahn The Rock Father

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