November 1, 1994 - MTV Unplugged In New York

On the same day as "Wildflowers" and a little over a year since "In Utero", Nirvana released a live, acoustic album titled "MTV Unplugged In New York" on November 1, 1994. Nirvana joined the many bands who have done acoustic shows at MTV, but they decided instead of playing just their hits that there would be several covers and guest musicians as well. Joining the three-piece of Nirvana is Pat Smear on rhythm guitar and Lori Goldston on cello, both of whom had been touring with Nirvana for a while. They're also joined by the founding members of the Meat Puppets, a band Kurt Cobain really liked, for a few songs that are covers of their songs! This performance was on November 18, 1993, just a couple months after "In Utero" was released and has come to be known as an iconic acoustic and iconic live album. Sadly, on April 5, 1994 Kurt Cobain shot himself in the head with a shotgun and killed himself.  This was a terribly tragic turn of events and it added to the immense popularity of this release, which was #1 on the charts for several weeks. Let's listen to the last album by Nirvana...

The performance begins with "About A Girl", the only song off "Bleach" on this album, and Kurt starts things off by saying "this is off our first record, most people don't own it" before kicking into the repetitive but catchy main riff. Cobain sings the verse nicely overtop and even though the instruments are unplugged the guitars and bass seem to fit this song well. After a couple verses and choruses we hit the guitar solo and even though it's obviously way quieter, it still sounds pretty good actually. This rolls into the final verse and chorus to finish off an interesting and solid choice for an opener. Up next is one of their hit singles, "Come As You Are", and Kurt leads the way with the catchy main guitar riff that obviously isn't distorted at all, but once again still manages to sound pretty good unplugged. Kurt sings the verse overtop and he does a great job of straining his voice at the end of every line just like in the studio version. The chorus doesn't hit very hard in this version, but things sound solid and they softly make their way through this song. Before track 3  Kurt tells us that it's a cover of The Vaselines, "a rendition of an old Christian song, I think" and it's called "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam". They open with the chorus which is a soft but interesting riff that has Krist Novoselic playing the accordion! The accordion sounds good actually and since Krist is playing that, Dave Grohl actually does the acoustic bass for this song! The accordion drops out for the verse and Kurt sounds pretty good leading the way on both vocals and with some nice acoustic guitar. The accordion returns for the chorus and we hear Goldston's cello for the first time as well in this very folk-y version of Nirvana that Kurt puts his grunge-y spin on. The final verse is just Kurt and his guitar and things sound pretty epic before everyone returns to play a final chorus to end things. The next thing we hear Cobain say is "I guarantee you I will screw this song up". That gets a laugh from the crowd and the next song is another cover, this time of David Bowie with "The Man Who Sold The World". We discover that Kurt still has a pedal that can turn his guitar electric as he plays the catchy lead guitar riff and it sounds pretty cool. After a short intro they move into the first verse where Kurt is back to acoustic and singing a solid verse. It rolls right into the chorus and at the end of the chorus we hear the electric part once again before they set off on the next verse and chorus. Then it's solo time! Cobain plays a slow but pretty epic solo while Smear keeps the main riff going and we hear some cool cello playing right along to the same riff as the guitar. This takes us right to the end of this pretty cool cover and after the song Kurt says "I didn't screw it up did I? Well here's another one I could screw up". The next two songs are off their newest album "In Utero", starting with "Pennyroyal Tea". Kurt plays the  whole song by himself as he sings and plays the only guitar and while this is obviously not as heavy as the original, Cobain does a pretty great job of making things sound intimate and emotional in this solo unplugged rendition. The band is back for the next track "Dumb" and Novoselic's bass sounds good backing the light guitars and Goldston's cello sounds great in the chorus. This one is actually pretty close to the original version and it's chill vibes sound pretty good. Track 7 is "Polly" and while this is originally just Kurt on this song, everyone else joins in to make things sound a tad louder, but not too much. This song was an easy choice to do unplugged and it sounds just as solid as the original. Up next is "On A Plain" and this seems like an odd song to do unplugged, but it sounds pretty good still, just not as hard-hitting. Cobain sounds great singing it and Grohl's backing vocals are solid as well. The part where things break down has no drums in this version, but Novoselic plays some great low bass that still sounds good. Track 9 is another obvious unplugged choice, "Something In The Way" and Kurt does the verse by himself, but he's joined in the chorus by everyone else and the cello once again sounds great along with everything else. The next three songs are all covers of the Meat Puppets and the two main guys from Meat Puppets, brothers Cris and Curt Kirkwood, join everyone on stage to help play all three songs, starting with "Plateau". Cobain and the Kirkwoods lead the way with some nice lead and rhythm guitars and Kurt sings a low verse overtop that also sounds pretty good. In the chorus Kurt's voice hits the other end of the spectrum with some high singing that sounds pretty good as well. After another couple verses and chorus they end the song with a little instrumental bit that is a soft and smooth way to end this interesting cover that Cobain sounded great on. The Kirkwood's are actually twin brothers and after being introduced by the band after the song, one of them says "I'm Thing 1 and this is Thing 2" and that gets a nice laugh from the crowd. Track 11 is "Oh Me" and they do a good job of utilizing all these guitarists as we hear several different riffs played at once on this song and they all co-mingle pretty well to form one cool main riff. Kurt sounds great again as he sings the verse and the Kirkwoods back him on vocals in the chorus. We hear a short but cool unplugged guitar solo after the chorus, and then it's nicely into the next verse and chorus. They do it all one more time before ending this repetitive but alright song. The final Meat Puppets cover is "Lake Of Fire" and it has a solid rhythm section keeping the pace with some cool lead guitar bits mixed in. Cobain really gives it all on vocals on this one and even though we hear him straining his voice sometimes, I think the raw emotion of it sounds great as he opens with "where do bad folks go when they DIE?" His vocals are great throughout this whole song that seems to oddly go chorus first and then the verse. After a couple nice goes through this short song ends with a pretty cool unplugged guitar solo and this is easily my favourite of the three covers. The Meat Puppets get a nice ovation as they leave the stage and then the next song is the final Nirvana original, the hit single off their new album, "All Apologies". Cobain plays the light and catchy main riff nicely before everyone else joins in and I really like how he yells the name of the song in contrast to lightly singing the rest of the verse. Where things normally get heavy in the chorus Novoselic's bass does it's best unplugged Impression, but they let Kurt finish off the chorus by himself and that sounds pretty good. The cello joins in for the rest of the song and it adds a nice extra element to things, but this is one that the unplugged version can't really live up to the heavy original. They still do a good job no doubt though and Kurt sounds good as he closes out the song. Before the final song and final cover on this album, Kurt says "this is by my favourite performer", a rendition of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", by Lead Belly, a band I had never heard of before this. Everyone plays a slow main riff with some solid guitar by Cobain leading the way and he sings nicely along to the flow of the music. The verse and chorus are the same slow riff, the only difference is the same chorus lyrics and different verse lyrics. The cello sounds great once again, especially in the short instrumental part. After this part we hear another verse and then the next chorus Cobain just belts out with everything that he has and he sounds like a man on the edge, unleashing all of his emotion in a truly fantastic chorus. They jam things out a bit longer before ending this pretty cool song, and what an amazing way to end this one-of-a-kind album.

That is the end of "MTV Unplugged In New York" and I thought it was a pretty sweet live experience that was almost half new songs! Six of the fourteen songs were covers and aside from "Oh Me" (which was still solid) I thought they were all great. Kurt Cobain gives a performance for the ages in what turned out to be Nirvana's final album, and boy was it a good one as he steals the show on basically every song with either some cool guitar or some great emotional vocals. I don't like to compare live and studio albums on the scale, but especially since this was not heavy at all, it's amazing how great Nirvana as a whole sounded, and everyone else helping out just made it all the better. A fantastic if not tragic way to end this world-changing band's run.