As autumn descended down on 1991, on September 20 and with Cali-Punk brats The Melvins by their side, Nirvana opened what would become known as their most seminal tour at Toronto’s Opera House. Four days later, Nevermind would be released, and life at the eye of the storm would open the band up to some of their greatest triumphs as well as their most punishing challenges.
The album and its frantic reception gathered steam as quickly as their tour bus could pelt out exhaust fumes. As the band powered through Canada and North America, Nirvana quickly went from being the band who were going to be, to the band who already were.
By Halloween, and their homecoming show at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre, the attention and acclaim focused on the band was such that DGC sent a film crew to record the gig, which survives as the only Nirvana headline show committed fully to film. The whole show is included on the super-deluxe edition of the album as well as on DVD and Blu-ray formats. November saw then head to Europe and the UK, and swear-you-were-there performances at Manchester Academy and Nottingham Rock City were peppered with now-seminal TV appearances on Top Of The Pops and Tonight With Jonathan Ross.
The new year saw the tour continue to Australia and Japan, flanked by a range of their contemporaries like Violent Femmes and The Tumbleweeds. If the pressure got to the band at times, with shows in Fremantle and Sydney cancelled, the laceration the band endured would more often than not translate to them playing harder and faster, like their lives depended on it. Things came to a memorable and romantic conclusion in Hawaii, with Kurt’s wedding to Courtney Love on a Waikiki beach on February 24. The epic run of dates may have been over, but the rock was not to stop. Just months later, they would play the UK’s Reading Festival, putting in one of most famous festival shows of all time…
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Ricky Munster
United States
Posted Nov 11 2011
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