Kurt Cobain in the Hala Tivoli in Ljubljana, Nirvana’s penultimate show.

Yesterday was the ten-year anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. On April 5, 1994, he killed himself via heroin overdose and shotgun blast to the mouth.

It was a terrible day to be a Nirvana fan, which I was. My brother had turned me on to them in high school and I had been feasting on their music for many happy years since then. I enjoyed absolutely everything they did. Amazingly, in all my scroungings for rare outtakes and special live versions, I never met a Nirvana song I didn’t like. Their music consistently tickled my cherries like no other rock band before or since.

I saw Nirvana peform live on the 29th of November, 1993, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Don’t worry, I didn’t memorize the date; I just looked it up.) I was in the mosh pit of The Omni, enjoying myself immensely, when midway though About a Girl, Cobain stopped playing and shouted: “Hey you fucking asshole!” to someone in the audience. Apparently, a guy had groped a crowd-surfing girl. Cobain asked everyone to point him out, which people did. He then asked for the spotlights to be redirected onto the groper. It was a successful exercise in public shaming, but for the rest of the concert Cobain was visibly angry and played without enthusiasm.

I don’t know what happened to the groper after that. Maybe he straightened up and became a portfolio manager.

Nirvana’s In Utero tour continued. With about a month left to live, Cobain arrived in Ljubljana. The band played in the Hala Tivoli in what would be their second-to-last show — the final one being in Munich a few days later. Shortly thereafter, Kurt Cobain was dead and Nirvana was gone.

In their memory, here’s a brief 30-second clip of their concert in Ljubljana. It’s a bit short but still interesting. (Special thanks to Smon for the technical support.)

Download: Nirvana-Drain You (Ljubljana 27-02-1994) (2.61 MB / 30 seconds)