30 Years Ago: Revisiting Nirvana’s Final Concert

Five weeks before Kurt Cobain’s body was found in his Seattle home, Nirvana performed their final concert. On March 1, 1994, the band played an omen-filled show at Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany.

According to Antiquiet, by the time Nirvana reached Munich, Cobain was suffering from bronchitis as a result of the rigors of their European tour. The night seemed to begin smoothly enough, with an impromptu cover of the Cars’ “My Best Friend’s Girl” before moving into “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” and “Drain You.” But a few songs later, during “Come as You Are,” the power went out.

Bassist Krist Novoselic noted the Spinal Tap-like circumstances and said, “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!”

After a brief delay, the power returned, and the band picked up where it left off, after removing the next song on the proposed set list, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The 23-song concert ended with “Heart-Shaped Box.” At 80 minutes, it was the shortest show of the tour.

Watch Nirvana Perform at Their Last Show

Because of Cobain’s health, Nirvana canceled the rest of their European dates and Cobain flew to Rome to recuperate. Three days later, he was rushed to the hospital after overdosing on champagne and Rohypnol, which he had been taking to relieve the chronic stomach pain he had been suffering from for much of his adult life. At the time, it was suspected that overdose was accidental. But in the aftermath of his death it was acknowledged that it was a suicide attempt, and that Cobain had been struggling with serious drug addiction issues.

How Kurt Cobain’s Friends Tried to Help Him

“Things got weird towards the end,” drummer Dave Grohl later explained to Howard Stern. “There were drugs around, and there were the people who did the drugs and the people who didn’t do the drugs. And I didn’t do the drugs and so I was just out of that world, you know? I think at that point it was important that we took a break, I think everybody thought that way. It was time to take a break.”

“Many people in Kurt’s life knew the couldn’t control him,” Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg recalled in his book Serving the Servant, “but they tried to encourage him to help himself. Buddy Arnold kept trying to get Kurt into a twelve-step program, but as much as Kurt liked the old jazz player, he wasn’t having it.”

Buzz Osborne, a childhood friend of Cobain’s whose band the Melvins opened for Nirvana at the Munich show, later told Revolver about his attempts to intervene. “[Kurt] wasn’t happy. The very last thing he ever said to me was, ‘I should just be doing this solo.’ At that last show, I told him to leave, get out, run. He needed to get off drugs. … He could’ve had a future, he could’ve turned his life around, and he would’ve been a wonderful person.”

A month later, on April 5, Cobain died by suicide at his home. His body was discovered by an electrician three days later. “I would be far happier if he had never had one iota of success and was alive,” Osborne declared. “He’s dead and gone and over. And I’m not over it.”

Nirvana March 1, 1994 Munich Germany Set List

1. “My Best Friend’s Girl” (The Cars cover)2. “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter”3. “Drain You”4. “Breed”5. “Serve the Servants”6. “Come as You Are”7. “Sliver”8. “Dumb”9. “In Bloom”10. “About a Girl”11. “Lithium”12. “Pennyroyal Tea”13. “School”14. “Polly”15. “Very Ape”16. “Lounge Act”17. “Rape Me”18. “Territorial Pissings”19. “The Man Who Sold the World” (David Bowie cover)20. “All Apologies”21. “On a Plain”22. “Blew”23. “Heart-Shaped Box”