When Nirvana Played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the First Time


Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc).


Saturday, April 17 marked 30 years since Nirvana performed “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time.  According to Steve Moriarty, drummer for the Grits, Nirvana took the now-famous gig at OK Hotel because they needed gas money to drive to record Nevermind. “The band walked away with a few hundred bucks, drove down to L.A., and the rest is history,” Moriarty wrote in Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge.

While the song is legendary, Kurt Cobain once admitted that he wasn’t as into the song as everyone else, saying the “…Teen Spirit” had ““such a clichéd riff.” What is your favorite Nirvana song?

 

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