Nirvana released their third and final studio album In Utero in September of 1993. Unbeknownst to fans and even the members of the group, they would be done only 8 months later.
In November of 1993, Nirvana played MTV Unplugged and later the same month, performed on MTV’s program Live and Loud. In January of 1994, the band reassembled in the studio, but those sessions proved unfruitful.
Nirvana’s Final Tour in Europe
In February of 1994, the band traveled to Europe for what would be their final tour together. It was originally planned to be a 3 month trek that would see them play across the entire continent until April 8th.
Kurt Cobain had been struggling with heroin addiction for the previous 3 years and he was finding it difficult to find his drug of choice in Europe which resulted in him going through painful withdrawals while on tour. Adding to the problems for him, his wife and daughter were back home and Kurt was feeling lonely. The rigors of touring were taking a toll on his voice and physical health.
Nirvana’s Final Show at Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany
Nirvana would play their final gig together on March 1, 1994 at an old airplane hangar called Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany to a crowd of about 3,000 people. This wasn’t the final scheduled date of the tour. The band had upcoming dates in late March for Manchester, Glasgow as well as 4 nights at Brixton Academy in London before finishing up the tour in Dublin, Ireland on April 8th.
In the run up to the band’s performance at Terminal 1, Kerrang Magazine wrote a review of the band’s show in Paris as “a safe and conventional performance” and claimed that the band looked “bored and tame”.
“…the mood of the tour was at a perilous low…” – I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana
Esquire published excerpts from the book, I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana. The book detailed the shifting mood in the band during their final tour which began in Portugal in February of ’94. The mood shifted from excitement to, “By March 1, the mood of the tour was at a perilous low as Nirvana strolled through virtually the same 90-minute sets they’d played every night for 60 shows over 5 months and Cobain complained of illness—’bored and old’ indeed.”
The Terminal 1 Airport Hangar, where the band played their final show, wasn’t glamorous and the acoustics were terrible. Cobain didn’t attend the soundcheck and according to author Charles R. Cross, he instead went to the train station to see if he could score, after asking the group’s tour manager to get an advance on his daily per diem allowance.
According to the book, Nirvana FAQ, ahead of the gig, possibly after scoring, Kurt allegedly got involved in a fight with his wife over the phone and called his lawyer, as he reportedly wanted a divorce.
According to The Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, who was out on tour with Nirvana, Cobain claimed he was soon going to be ending the band.
Nirvana opened their show in Munich with a cover of The Cars’ song, “My Best Friend’s Girl”, which was possibly a reference to the problems he was having with his wife, Courtney Love at the time. The song was followed by “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” and “Drain You”.
“We’re on the way out. Grunge is dead. Nirvana’s over.” – Krist Novaselic
A few songs later in the set, the band performed their hit single, “Come As You Are” but the power went out. Once the power was restored, the next song on the set, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was skipped. This resulted in bassist Krist Novaselic saying as a joke, or foreshadowing the future, “We’re not playing the Munich Enormodome tonight because our careers are on the wane. We’re on the way out. Grunge is dead. Nirvana’s over… Our next record’s going to be a hip-hop record.”
“Kurt’s voice became noticeably more trashed with every song.” – Pat Smear
The show in Munich clocked in at about 80 minutes, the shortest show of the tour, as the band finished up the set with “Heart Shaped Box”. Guitarist Pat Smear would tell The Guardian, looking back at that show, “Kurt’s voice became noticeably more trashed with every song. When we sang together, we sounded like cats fighting. His voice was so gone, but instead of trying to conserve it, he seemed to delight in pushing it to the ‘I won’t be able to sing for days’ limit. After a while it was a bit much.”
As the show wrapped up, waiting backstage for the band, was their agent Don Muller. He recalled to The Guardian what Cobain told him after the show, “That’s it. It’s over”. The tour was done.
“You have to take at least two months off and learn to sing properly.” – Attending Doctor for Kurt Cobain
Kurt saw a doctor the next day who diagnosed him with laryngitis and bronchitis. The group’s road manager, Alex MacLeod told Rolling Stone what happened after the show, “Kurt was given spray and medicine for his lungs because he was diagnosed as having severe laryngitis and bronchitis.” According to MacLeod, the doctor who prescribed the throat spray to Cobain told him, “You shouldn’t be singing the way you’re singing… You have to take at least two months off and learn to sing properly.’ And he was like ‘f– that.’”
Due to Kurt Cobain’s throat problems and health issues, the rest of the tour was scrapped. The following day, Cobain and Pat Smear, who apparently was the only one in the band that Cobain was on talking terms with, headed to Rome to meet Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love and daughter, Francis Bean.
A few days after their final show in Munich, on March 4, news reports surfaced that Kurt Cobain was in the hospital after overdosing on champagne and Rohypnol.
MTV reported at the time, “…The singer who was taking a break from the group’s European tour, lapsed into a coma late last week after overdosing on tranquilizers and alcohol. Last Friday, Cobain was rushed to the emergency room accompanied by his wife Courtney Love. News got better Saturday when Cobain regained consciousness. The doctor said Cobain’s recovery was in part due to the quick thinking of his wife.”
Kurt Cobain Takes His Own Life
It was a warning sign of what was to come in the following weeks. On April 8th Cobain’s body was discovered at his Lake Washington Boulevard home by an electrician who was there to install a security system.
The official cause of death was that Cobain had taken his life 3 days prior. The coroner estimated that he had died on April 5, 1994 at the age of 27.
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