The story behind Kurt Cobain and Nirvana’s one and only show in Cleveland - cleveland.com

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CLEVELAND, Ohio – Kurt Cobain spent the hours before the only concert Nirvana ever played in Cleveland laid out on the floor like a worn pair of house slippers.

Exhaustion, whether in the physical or mental sense, was nothing new for Cobain. He loved music but dreaded the endless work that went into touring. He also never took to the spotlight. At shows, he was the one guy who looked like he had to be there rather than wanted to be.

This was the Kurt Cobain that arrived at Cleveland’s Empire Concert Club on Oct. 10, 1991. By most accounts, he was the weariest 24-year-old you’d ever see. And in just a few months, he would become the biggest rock star in the world.

[Lisen to our CLE Rocks podcast episode remembering Nirvana’s 1991 show at Cleveland’s Empire Concert Club on Apple, Spotify, or Acast]

Nirvana’s 1991 “Nevermind Tour” saw the three-piece band from Seattle on the verge of conquering the music world. Only, no one seemed to know it was happening even as the band’s video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was earning more plays on MTV than Michael Jackson and Madonna combined.

“It shows how strange Nirvana was,” says Nick Soulsby, author of three books on Nirvana including “I Found My Friends: The Oral History Of Nirvana” and “Cobain on Cobain.”

“The entire tour they’re on that fall in the U.S., they’re still playing these tiny venues because the mechanisms of the industry haven’t caught up to the fact that this is becoming a massive phenomenon. It’s that reality that no one saw it coming.”

“Somebody says that they’re not much like I am, I know I can

Make enough up the words

As you go along, I sing a song” (”Downer”)

The buzz surrounding Nirvana began with “Bleach.” The album released in 1989 on Sub Pop Records sold a mere 40,000 copies in the first two years after its release. And yet, while other Seattle bands like Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains were earning similar (if not more) praise, critics and fans saw something in the punk-influenced Nirvana.

“From the moment they came out there was a buzz about them. Everyone thought they were kind of a special band,” says Jim Walters, singer/guitarist for Das Damen, who served as an opening act on Nirvana’s “Nevermind Tour.”

“Kurt was definitely a unique character. He operated on his own frequency,” Walters continues. “I don’t think anyone could predict what would happen. But everyone thought if there was any band out of this whole bunch that’s going to be successful, they probably would have picked them.”

Nirvana kicked off the “Nevermind Tour” on Sept. 16, 1991. The release of the band’s sophomore album “Nevermind” on DGC Records followed on Sept. 24. Just two weeks into the tour, Nirvana would arrive at the Empire Concert Club, a two-floor, 800-person capacity venue in downtown Cleveland that operated from 1990 to 1992.

Nirvana’s rising star made for a unique environment at every club they played. Some people were there to see what all the fuss was about. Others, who had followed Nirvana since “Bleach,” marveled at just how big the indie band had gotten in a short time.

“The show was packed. It was wall-to-wall people,” recalls Matthew Faciana, a photographer who attended the concert. “We had seen other Seattle and Sub Pop bands on tour and there were maybe 20 people at these shows. We were shocked how many people were there to see Nirvana.”

Nirvana earned around $2,000 for the gig at Empire. Even the people running the venue were unaware of how historic the show would be.

“It sold out in minutes,” remembers general manager Dave Brown. “I was like, ‘Who the heck are these guys?’ We had no idea how huge they were going to be. But once the show started and I saw the reaction from the crowd, I knew they were going to be huge.”

“He’s the one

Who likes all our pretty songs

And he likes to sing along

And he likes to shoot his gun

But he knows not what it means” (“In Bloom”)

Initial expectations for “Nevermind” were modest. However, as MTV continued to play the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” both the single and the album moved up the charts. More positive reviews poured in. During the years that followed, “Nevermind” would be hailed as a seminal album responsible for sparking a new rock renaissance.

“‘Nevermind’ was the perfect combination of everything that would make anyone want to buy an underground record, but with a lot of the values and shine that people look for from a mainstream record,” says Soulsby. “I would compare it to Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite for Destruction.’ A lot of people bought that album for “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” A lot of people bought ‘Nevermind’ because of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” this sort of perfect punk-pop song that manages to encompass so many things.”

Sometimes lost in Nirvana’s unprecedented rise to stardom is just how great of a band they were. When the band wasn’t touring, the members were rehearsing. The addition of drummer Dave Grohl (replacing Chan Channing) in 1990 elevated their sound. And while history would show Cobain developed a full-fledged heroin direction by the end of 1990, his performance rarely suffered in those early days.

“I’d seen them play at the Uptown in Minneapolis when they were out for ‘Bleach,’” recalls Eddie “King” Roeser of Urge Overkill, another band opening for Nirvana on the “Nevermind Tour.” “The one thing I remember about the band early on was that they had a guy who could sing.

“All the bands in the scene at that time had the same instruments and basically made the same noise for the most part. But for all my traveling around I’ve never noticed anybody who could sing in that rock style better than Kurt. That was the thing that definitely carried Nirvana over the top.”

“With eyes so dilated

I’ve become your pupil

You’ve taught me everything

Without a poison apple

The water is so yellow, I’m a healthy student

Indebted and so grateful

Vacuum out the fluids” (“Drain You”)

Nirvana’s show at the Empire Club opened about as inconspicuously as you can imagine. drummer Dave Grohl bangs away before bassist Krist Novoselic jumps into the bassline for Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.” The jam lasts for less than a minute before Cobain introduces a cover of little-known Scottish band The Vaselines’ “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.”

“There started to be all these surges when they would open a gig. Crowds were immediately going wild,” says Soulsby. “So they deliberately start with a calmer piece of music just to sort of get the audience under control. Then they ratchet up the pressure. There’s a lot of intelligence about what they were doing and why they were doing it.”

Cobain’s introduction of The Vaselines’ cover would mark one of the few times he spoke to the crowd during the Empire show. Novoselic would do most of the talking, including telling whoever threw their watch on stage that they could get it back after the show.

Cobain’s shyness would remain consistent throughout Nirvana’s career, no matter how big the band got. He was the reluctant rock star thrust into the public eye when he’d much rather fade into the background.

“There was this sense of this quiet guy who had all this energy on stage. Then there’s Kurt later sitting in the back of a room not comfortable with a crowd,” says Soulsby. “In interviews, there was a lot of Krist Novoselic almost shielding Cobain from the attention. You’d hear it a lot that people would have lovely encounters with Kurt. But there was always a certain degree of distance, privacy and shyness to him as a character.”

“With the lights out, it’s less dangerous

Here we are now, entertain us

I feel stupid and contagious

Here we are now, entertain us” (“Smells Like Teen Spirit”)

A fan recording of the Empire Concert Club concert has circulated among fans for years. The show’s setlist serves as a snapshot of where Nirvana was at that point in their career. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” arrives seventh in a setlist of 20 songs. The crowd reaction suggests a few fans were familiar with the now-iconic opening chords (played faster in a live setting than on record). But the excitement for the song wasn’t greater than any of the others.

In fact, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was somewhat of an afterthought when it was released as a single. The song was to serve as an appetizer from “Nevermind.” The marketing team at DGC Records saw another track as Nirvana’s potential breakthrough.

“The people backing Nirvana were thinking, ‘We’re going to put out ‘Teen Spirit,’ but the real big hit is going to the be the next one ‘Come as You Are,’” remembers Roeser. “’Teen Spirit’ was kind of recorded at the last minute. Nobody knew it was going to take off and be the biggest song.

“That night in Cleveland, Nirvana was just another band that had some hype around them. But by the time we got to St. Louis a few nights later, everyone knew every word to that song. It was everywhere.”

“Come as you are, as you were

As I want you to be

As a friend, as a friend

As an old enemy” (“Come As You Are”)

“Come as You Are” would be part of a string of follow-up singles – along with “Lithium” and “In Bloom” – that would affirm Nirvana’s greatness. Yet, in typical Cobain fashion, the band chose to close its Cleveland gig not with a single, but with “Territorial Pissings,” a raucous album cut from “Nevermind.” And fans ate it up.

“It was awesome. It was total energy,” recalls Faciana. “The crowd was going crazy for every song. Kurt stage dove into the audience and was carried by the crowd 20-feet out then back to the stage. I feel like it went by in a blur. We were so stoked when we left that show. We knew we’d seen something special that night.”

Nirvana’s Cleveland concert would mark one of the last modest showcases of the band’s career. Two nights later in Chicago, Lyle Hysen, drummer for Das Damen, noticed a major change.

“We played Chicago a bunch and it was always a good show for us,” says Hysen. “But at that show, I remember crickets. I have a friend who was a young person at that show who admitted, ‘Yeah, we were just waiting for Nirvana to come on.’ At that point, it became clear they were on a different level now. You could tell something crazy was about to happen.”

The Chicago show also marks an important point in the history of Cobain’s life. It was when Courtney Love flew to the show to see Kurt and became a regular fixture in his life. The two would embark on a highly publicized, volatile relationship, marrying in February 1992.

Following its North American trek, Nirvana would head overseas for a series of shows in Europe and Australia that would last through February. By then, “Nevermind” had kicked Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” out of the top spot on the Billboard 200.

Nirvana’s newfound fame would fall squarely on Cobain’s shoulders. The reserved singer-songwriter was now the face of popular music. Nirvana would release one more studio album, “In Utero,” in 1993. But Cobain’s publicized struggles with fame, drug addiction and relationship with Love would culminate in his death by suicide in April 1994.

Roeser calls Cobain’s death devastating. He counts the time he spent touring with Nirvana before the band’s rise to fame as the greatest experience of his life and remembers it being a highlight for Cobain as well.

“It went from maybe we’ll sell as many records as Sonic Youth to No. 1 on Billboard in a couple of months,” says Roeser. “We were in Rome. Nirvana and all their crew rented scooters and rode them around all night. Kurt wasn’t crazy about touring and all the attention that came with being in a band. But on that night, I remember Kurt saying, ‘This is literally the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.’”

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