nirvana cultural tour

6 Places In Seattle You Need To Visit If You’re A Nirvana Fan

Pay homage to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana at these spots around Seattle that played a part in the history of grunge.

Did you know about these iconic Nirvana places in Seattle?

Here we are now, entertain us!

Fans of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain have flocked to Seattle for years to pay homage to the band. Bars, museum exhibits, and even Cobain’s house can all be found here. This self-guided tour through Seattle will give you an intimate look into the story of the iconic grunge band, Nirvana. Local or tourist, you’ll want to stop by these historic corners that still hold an aura of talent and tragedy.

1. Kurt Cobain’s house

View this post on Instagram

Where: 171 Lake Washington Blvd, Seattle

In 1994, Kurt Cobain decided to settle down in a surprisingly normal and elegant residence in the affluent neighborhood of Denny-Blaine in east central Seattle. This is the place where the singer spent his last months and where he ultimately took his life. The house has been completely remodeled since and is not open to the public. However, plenty of Nirvana fans stop by anyway to pay homage and get a photo outside of the gate.

2. Viretta Park

Where: 151 Lake Washington Blvd E, Seattle

Make a quick visit to Viretta Park, just south of the Cobain’s former residence, where you’ll find a lonely bench covered in messages and flowers for the singer. The haunting memorial overlooks Washington Lake.

3. Museum of Pop Culture

Where: 325 5th Avenue N, Seattle

Don’t miss the ongoing exhibit Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture. It includes more than 200 rare artifacts and photographs of the band. Take a look at Kurt Cobain’s Fender Stratocaster, Dave Grohl’s drum kit and even a casting call flyer for the Smells Like Teen Spirit music video.

4. Screwdriver Bar

Where: 23201st Ave

Also known as the “Rock N Roll Utopia”, Screw-Driver Bar was once a rehearsal space for the band, specifically between the release of Bleach and Nevermind. After they decided not to renew the lease, the space sat empty until a group of friends rented it with the intention of turning it into a bar where people could drink and enjoy music, which is occasionally live. They are open to this day!

5. Central Saloon

Where: 207 1st Ave S

Nirvana played their first Seattle show at Central Saloon in 1988, which led to their relationship with Sub Pop Records. In fact, many other grunge artists played there such as Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, giving Central Saloon the right to claim the title of “the birthplace of grunge.” It’s still open today in Pioneer Square.

6. Linda’s Tavern

Where: 707 E Pine St

Finally, the last stop on your tour should be Linda’s Tavern. This laidback bar and restaurant in Capitol Hill was frequented often by Kurt Cobain. It was also the last place he was seen in public before his death. The so-called “grunge Cheers” is still open today and you can visit it to sit in the booth that Cobain was last seen in.

TYPE IN YOUR SEARCH AND PRESS ENTER

Nirvana Verified

Similar artists on tour, nirvana merch.

Concerts and tour dates

Fan reviews.

About Nirvana

Kurt Cobain is still shaping culture – 30 years after the Nirvana frontman’s death

Senior Teaching Fellow, Music Management, University of Southampton

Disclosure statement

Howard Monk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Southampton provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

View all partners

Thirty years from his death on April 5 1994, the impact of Kurt Cobain and his band, Nirvana, and their values, still resonates in today’s culture and music.

Nirvana were everywhere at the start of the 1990s, much like Taylor Swift’s omnipresence today. But unlike Swift, who has embraced and mastered the business side of her fame, Cobain was very much the anti-superstar of his time.

While Nirvana were certainly at the very top of the industry, headlining sold-out festivals , Cobain clearly felt uncomfortable being in the corporate music business. He expressed this discomfort in many ways, from merchandise emblazoned with the words “corporate rock whores” to his rows with MTV and journalists . No Swift-style media savvy slickness here.

Since 2010, the person responsible for Cobain’s name and image rights has been his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Nirvana LLC, meanwhile, is managed by a team including original band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic.

These rights are expertly managed and controlled in a way that benefits from hindsight, showing an understanding of what Nirvana stood for which would scarce have been possible when the band was active, or Cobain still alive.

Cobain and the press

I’ve often said that Nirvana were the last band to reach the very top on their own terms. It didn’t hurt that they embodied the rags-to-riches type stories the press love so much. Cobain had an unhappy childhood and his art was a solace while he worked shifts as a janitor , relying on his girlfriend to fund his band.

Cobain’s relationship with fellow musician Courtney Love also attracted a lot of snide celebrity journalism attention, as did his struggles with his mental health and addiction. Looking back at some of the supposedly supportive headlines of the time, it is clear how the press perpetuated myths and heaped pressure onto an already vulnerable Cobain. I wonder whether headlines today would be quite so leading, or unthinking.

Today it’s not at all uncommon for artists to cancel or postpone shows and tours in order to protect their own mental health. Fans no longer tend to see this admission as weakness – in many ways it strengthens their devotion to the act.

This can be seen in the reactions to artists like Lewis Capaldi and Sam Fender , who have both postponed live shows to protect their mental wellbeing. In this respect, Cobain’s death by suicide paved the way for the press and fans alike to discuss the mental health of musicians in a more serious way.

Cobain’s cultural legacy

It is important to note that his final couple of years saw Cobain battle addiction and depression. Working with him would clearly have been a lot of fun, and yet very difficult. For the five to six years that Nirvana shined, they shined very brightly. And it has to be said, they rocked. Their music was simple, no frills, rock and roll.

That the band didn’t tour with Guns N’ Roses in 1992 may be a blessing for purists. Nirvana’s music was an authentic antidote to the hair metal which had dominated rock music in the few years prior. Cobain took time off with illness while they were supposed to be on that tour. In reality, Courtney Love states in the 2015 documentary Cobain: Montage of Heck, he just wanted to “stay and home and shoot up”. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett claims that Cobain “just didn’t like what Guns N’ Roses stood for”.

The band’s influence on fashion can also still be felt. Particularly in the proliferation of blokes wearing dresses in heavy rock bands like Idles , as Cobain often did on stage .

The iconic “Flower Sniffin’, Kitty Pettin’, Baby Kissin’, Corporate Rock Whores” band T-shirt, now sells for over £2,000. But in recent years, Nirvana LLC have granted rights to print new merchandise to several affordable brands, in keeping with Cobain’s anti-elitist values. In 2019, they filed a lawsuit against high fashion designer Marc Jacobs, when the brand released a t-shirt with a twist on the iconic X-eyed Nirvana smiley face.

Brand Nirvana today is clear on its values. It is hard not to believe that Cobain would have something to say about today’s identity politics (Cobain once declared he was “gay in spirit and … probably could be bisexual” and called himself a feminist ). A man for our times, in his times, so to speak.

As an expert in the music industry (particularly the indie side), it is clear to me that Cobain would remain a marketer’s dream in 2024. Thankfully, the custodians of the Cobain brand continue to advance and protect his thoughts and ideas long after his tragic death at just 27.

Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here .

• Music industry
• Kurt Cobain
• Nirvana lawsuit
• Give me perspective

Faculty of Law - Academic Appointment Opportunities

Operations Manager

Senior Education Technologist

Audience Development Coordinator (fixed-term maternity cover)

Lecturer (Hindi-Urdu)

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

‘Kurt was not in a good way’: backstage on Nirvana’s first – and only - Australian tour

Promoter Stephen ‘Pav’ Pavlovic spent weeks on tour with bands like Nirvana and Hole in the 1990s. ‘I hoarded everything,’ he says – and a new exhibition reveals all

• Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email

Nirvana’s first – and only – Australian tour is the stuff of legend. But the story of how it came to be is delightfully quaint.

In 1991, music promoter Stephen “Pav” Pavlovic, then in his 20s and booking bands for Sydney’s Lansdowne hotel, had just toured US rock group Mudhoney. They told him that their friends Nirvana were keen to play shows in Australia, passing on the phone numbers of Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic.

“So I just called up Kurt and Krist and said ‘Hey, my name’s Pav, do you want to come tour here?’” Pavlovic recalls. “They said, we’d love to come, we’re just busy making this record … And as it turns out, that record was Nevermind.”

A year later, Nirvana made good on their plans. But in that time, the world had shifted dramatically for the trio. Their song Smells Like Teen Spirit propelled them from a relatively small-time Seattle band to global superstars. Every other promoter in the country tried to book them, but Nirvana stuck with the scrappy young guy who had called before anyone else.

They also stuck with the small venues they had originally locked in; at undersized spaces such as ANU Bar in Canberra, mammoth crowds loitered outside until “skaters smashed all these windows and people started piling in through the side”, Pavlovic remembers. He drove the band from show to show in his van, and took them on sightseeing excursions including a camping trip to the south coast, where they slept on the beach, drank beer, and made toasted sandwiches with jaffle irons.

Photos, footage and oral accounts of that now-fabled tour – including the camping trip – are on display at Unpopular, a new exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum. Pavlovic would go on to become one of Australian music’s most influential figures, later founding the label Modular Records, home of indie sleaze-defining acts such as Cut Copy, the Presets, Van She and Bag Raiders – but Unpopular charts the earlier years: the “secret society” of alternative bands in the 1990s rock scene, captured from Pavlovic’s insider vantage point. The promoter would spend weeks at a time escorting bands around the country, becoming tight friends with them along the way.

Scrapbooks and tour diaries he kept at the time are on display at the Powerhouse, as are postcards and letters sent by his musician mates, such as Superchunk’s Laura Ballance or the Lemonheads’ Jesse Peretz, after they’d left. Photos lifted from Pavlovic’s own albums feature heavily – a tender snap of Dave Grohl shivering on the sand after an ocean swim; a double-exposed photograph of Cobain sitting and smiling.

There are also gig posters, fanzines, live photos and footage of some of the shows, including video of Nirvana’s debut Australian performance at the 1,000-capacity Phoenician Club in Sydney in 1992. (A special “Nirvana room” in the museum has been covered with that quintessentially dank, patterned pub carpet, to really transport the visitor.) While most came direct from Pavlovic’s overstuffed storage unit – including unreleased demos sent by friends like Evan Dando, which can be listened to through headphones – some are on loan, such as a guitar that belonged to Cobain, and Polaroids taken by his then girlfriend.

The exhibition has taken two-and-a-half years to put together. The initial plan was to cover the entirety of Pavlovic’s career, from the early 90s to his reign at Modular Records. But when there proved to be too much stuff, a decision was made to split the exhibition in two. (The Modular-era exhibition will come at some stage in the future, as will a book from Pavlovic.)

Pavlovic says it has been cathartic to revisit and catalogue this chapter of his life. “I hoarded everything,” he says. “And who would have thought that 30 years later people would want to see it?”

More than 200 items are on display in Unpopular – but here are four of Pavlovic’s favourites.

Nirvana’s airline tickets – and the Perth fan petition

Much of the exhibition is composed of physical objects – including Kurt, Kris and Dave’s plane tickets to Australia, from the days when those were hard copy. Also part of the collection is a handwritten petition from fans protesting against the cancellation of Nirvana’s Perth show, along with passionate messages voicing their displeasure (one reads, simply, “ASSHOLE”).

“I love how tactile things were,” Pavlovic says. “The way people used to communicate stuff was so hands-on and raw. I just found it really fascinating that people would … be so upset when their favourite band didn’t come to be motivated to write a petition.”

The Perth date was cancelled because of Cobain’s ailing health, Pavlovic remembers. “Kurt was not in a good way physically – he was struggling with his addictions and travelling. He had a lot of health issues, whether they were a result of his drug use or his lifestyle, but he was not well. And it was getting to a point where we were going to have to make a decision about whether to cancel the whole tour.

“I thought, ‘What about if we just cancel this one show, take a couple of days to regroup and I’ll see if I can get you some doctors to try and help you?’ He sort of came back around and we were able to move on. But if we hadn’t cancelled that one show, then I don’t know if we would have made it through the whole [tour].”

An interview with Dave Grohl

Visitors can listen to a series of audio interviews conducted for the exhibition between Pavlovic and music greats including Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and the Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock. But Pavlovic’s favourite chat was with Grohl, of Nirvana and later Foo Fighters fame.

They spoke about the punk rock scene of Washington DC that Grohl came up in and the early days of his career, where he would stay in “squats” while touring through Europe, as well as his breakneck transition to global fame with Nirvana.

after newsletter promotion

“He talks very openly. He’s a very articulate man and he’s got a super incredible memory,” Pavlovic says. “He’s such a wonderful guy and the way he talks and tells stories is pretty engaging.”

Hole’s holiday photos

Pavlovic and his then girlfriend were both keen photographers, and their personal snaps from the 1990s feature heavily in the collection. They are photos of Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Mudhoney and more on holiday in Australia between shows – “just hanging out on beaches and doing things you don’t normally see [artists] doing, like changing tyres on cars when the van breaks down”.

Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur has also loaned some of her personal photographs.

“She takes a lot of photos and documented every tour she’s ever done … so we can see it all from Hole’s perspective with her and Courtney [Love].”

“Not just another live photo of a band, right? Or not another photo of them on stage,” Pavlovic says. “We’ve got all that stuff [too]. But it’s nice to see a different side of it.”

Summersault festival footage

In 1995, Pavlovic staged a touring festival called Summersault – never-before-seen footage from which plays on large screens at the Powerhouse.

Summersault came about after Pavlovic fell out with the founders of the Big Day Out, whom he’d been supplying bands to.

“I found the music [at Big Day Out] was all over the place and a lot of stuff I didn’t like. So I thought, I’d rather do something that is laser-focused towards this community that we’re part of,” he says. “I reached out to the Beasties and they were into it; Mike asked Kathleen Hanna [of Bikini Kill], ‘Would you come and play?’ The bands called each other, and we decided we’ll do our own event. Fuck the Big Day Out.”

But Pavlovic “lost a bunch of money on it” and Summersault never returned. That 1995 event also marked the beginning of the end of his career as a promoter, as he began to lose interest in touring bands.

A few years later Pavlovic founded Modular, which he found “way more fulfilling creatively”. But for the photos and tchotchkes from that era of Australian music, we’ll have to wait a while longer.

Unpopular opens at the Powerhouse Museum on Thursday; entry is free.

• Photography
• Australian music
• Kurt Cobain
• Courtney Love

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died 30 years ago, but his legacy lives on

His influence and music remain vital today.

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana frontman and music icon, died April 5, 1994, 30 years ago Friday.

With Nirvana, Cobain released only three albums during his lifetime over a five-year span, including the RIAA Diamond-certified "Nevermind," making him the face of counterculture and the grunge and alternative movement of the early ‘90s. Yet despite their brief tenure, Nirvana and its frontman had a profound impact on both rock music and pop culture, which continues more than a generation later.

Kurt Donald Cobain was born February 20, 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. While in high school, he met fellow musician Krist Novoselic, and they started a band together.

After various personnel and name changes, Nirvana was created, with Cobain on guitar and vocals, Novoselic on bass, and Chad Channing on drums. They released their debut album, "Bleach," in June 1989, on the influential, independent Seattle label Sub Pop – the choice a reflection of Cobain’s passion for the anti-corporate ethos of punk and indie rock.

“Kurt subscribed to that very deeply,” Michael Azerrad, who interviewed Cobain as author of the 1993 authorized Nirvana biography "Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana," told ABC News. “And yet, he had this conflicting impulse to be as famous as he felt his talented merited. That was a large conflict, I think, that he never managed to resolve.”

MORE: Video -- Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died April 5, 1994

After "Bleach," Nirvana jumped from Sub Pop to a major label, DGC Records, and brought on a new drummer: Dave Grohl, who cut his teeth playing in Washington, D.C. punk bands. Together, the band recorded what would become "Nevermind," adding a glossier, expansive finish to their sound.

"Nevermind" was released in September 1991, and word quickly spread of its lead single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and its video , which showed Nirvana performing in a high school gym while surrounded by anarchist cheerleaders.

By January 1992, "Nevermind" hit #1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 album chart. Driven by hits that also included "Come as You Are," "In Bloom" and "Lithium," the album ultimately sold over 10 million units and was RIAA-certified Diamond just seven years later.

MORE: Nirvana's 'Nevermind' Turns 25

Cobain’s lyrics, about self-hatred to adolescent rebellion, coupled with Nirvana’s hook-filled, distorted rock, spoke directly to the disaffection felt by that generation’s youth, and was viewed as an antidote to the excess and debauchery of the ‘80s hair metal scene. “Grunge” quickly became a household term, and the Seattle bands Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains – all of which embodied the same sound and ethos – surged up the charts.

As Nirvana's popularity grew, so too did interest in Cobain’s personal life, which deeply affected his already fragile mental and emotional health. Reports of his heroin use, as well as his relationship with his wife, Hole frontwoman Courtney Love, became tabloid fodder.

Cobain and Love welcomed a baby girl, Frances Bean, in August 1992. Shortly thereafter, Vanity Fair published an article that alleged Love had used heroin while pregnant. In September, Los Angeles officials investigated the couple's fitness as parents, with Cobain and Love briefly losing custody of Frances.

Nirvana’s third and final album, the dissonant "In Utero," dropped in September 1993. The following November, at the height of their popularity, the band recorded an intimate show for the TV concert series "MTV Unplugged." The performance was released in 1994 as the live album "MTV Unplugged in New York," which ultimately was RIAA-certified eight-times Platinum. Nearly thirty years later, the guitar Cobain played during the concert sold at auction for a record-breaking $6 million in 2020, while the tattered green cardigan he wore sold a year earlier for $334,000.

Yet Cobain remained a troubled soul. His drug use continued, and on March 4, 1994, he was hospitalized in Rome for an overdose while Nirvana was on tour in Europe. Following a five-day hospitalization, Cobain returned home to Seattle.

Related Stories

Why did Yoon's party lose in South Korea's elections and what troubles does he face now?

• Apr 11, 7:15 AM

Frances Bean Cobain pays tribute to Kurt Cobain

• Apr 5, 6:10 PM

Ex-NFL star Terrell Suggs faces assault charge in Arizona

• Apr 10, 12:29 PM

On April 8, an electrician who arrived at Cobain's Seattle home to do some work discovered him dead. Following an investigation, it was ruled that he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 5. Cobain had turned 27 not two months earlier.

Cobain’s death marked the end of both Nirvana and the grunge era, and enhanced the dark notoriety of the so-called '27 Club,' which includes the late musicians Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, all of whom died at the same age. More poignantly, his death raised national awareness of both suicide and mental health, and focused a spotlight on Cobain’s past comments and lyrics that referenced guns or self-harm.

“It’s very painful,” Azerrad told ABC News of revisiting those earlier Cobain comments. “You smack your forehead metaphorically and just think, ‘Oh, why didn’t I notice that?’ It was staring at you in plain sight. But sometimes there’s such thing as hiding in plain sight, and that was one of those things.”

MORE: Frances Bean Cobain Talks About Father Kurt's Death

With Nirvana over, Grohl formed his own band, the chart-topping Foo Fighters. He and Novoselic have reunited several times, perhaps most notably at the 2014 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where Cobain and Nirvana were inducted during their first year of eligibility, and during which they performed Nirvana hits with guest singers including Lorde and Joan Jett.

MORE: Video -- 2014 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Include Nirvana, The Zombies

In the three decades since Cobain's death, Nirvana's influence never waned, and has reached beyond rock music into other genres, and pop culture in general. Rapper Post Malone livestreamed a celebrated Nirvana tribute set during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, while actress and singer Selena Gomez – born less than a month before Frances Bean – recently shared that she was “obsessed” with Kurt Cobain growing up. In 2022, the "Nevermind" song “Something in the Way” enjoyed a resurgence due to its use in the trailer for the hit movie "The Batman."

"That's why Kurt made music – to rock people and himself," Azerrad said. "To make him feel better, and, by extension, hopefully, the audience feel better."

Josh Johnson writes about alternative and active rock music for ABC Audio.

If you're struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Nashville school shooting families accuse senator of using bill to get his way in records lawsuit

• Apr 10, 5:00 PM

Italy opens new slander trial against Amanda Knox. She was exonerated 9 years ago in friend's murder

• Apr 10, 3:17 AM

ABC News Live

24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events

Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ at 30: The Inside Story of the Album’s ‘Overnight’ Success

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

• Taylor Swift Songs Return to TikTok 19 hours ago
• Blackpink’s Lisa and Her Company Lloud Co. Partner With RCA Records 2 days ago
• Babyface to Play Three Weekends at Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino in Las Vegas 2 days ago

Every person who worked on Nirvana ’s “Nevermind,” released 30 years ago today, says that the album basically broke itself, almost immediately taking on a life of its own in a way that could never have been planned — “Get out of the way and duck” was a phrase that record company executives said often at the time. But dozens of people were working at the top of their respective games to make sure that the band was heard and seen.

Nirvana — Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl — did not come out of nowhere, as many seemed to think at the time. Even outside of their Northwest base and their original label, Sub Pop, the American indie-alternative “underground” of the era — an ecosystem comprised of college radio, independent record stores, fanzines and local clubs — and the influential British music press had been championing Nirvana loudly from the release of their debut single, “Love Buzz,” in the spring of 1988.

But the multi-platinum, global success of “Nevermind” did come out of nowhere — and caught absolutely everyone by surprise, not least the band, their management (Gold Mountain) and their label, DGC, a subsidiary of Geffen Records, which at the time was arguably the dominant major label in the business, with powerhouse acts like Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Cher and upstart multi-platinum hair merchants Nelson. But Geffen in 1991 was hardly known for breaking underground rock acts, so the support and precedent of Sonic Youth, the New York band who dominated the underground scene that spawned Nirvana and brought the group to both Gold Mountain and the label, was crucial.

Popular on Variety

Yet even with all that support, it’s hard to describe how everywhere “Nevermind” was at the time — you’d hear people playing it at work, then go to a concert and hear it playing over the P.A. between bands, then to a bar where they’d be blasting it, and finally get home to a breathless message on your answering machine from your teenaged cousin thanking you for sending her the CD because “Oooh my God.” You couldn’t escape it because nobody wanted to.

Even 30 years later, looking back at a pre-internet, pre-social media, pre-email era of CDs, magazines, FedEx, faxes, cable TV and snail mail, it’s hard to think of any stars before or since who rose so far, so fast. “Nevermind” was released on September 24, 1991 and reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the issue dated January 11, 1992 — three and a half months. Michael Jackson’s 1982 blockbuster “Thriller,” the top-selling album of all time by most metrics, took three months.

The story of Nirvana has been told in depth in countless books, documentaries, articles and virtually every other form of human communication — so the challenge on this anniversary was to find voices that haven’t been heard quite as much. So Variety reached out to some boots-on-the-ground people who worked closely with the band and on the record’s promotion during those three and a half months and the weeks leading up to them. (We broke that different-voices rule for former co-manager Danny Goldberg, who even wrote a book “Serving the Servant” on his experience with Nirvana; other Gold Mountain execs who worked with the band declined Variety ‘s requests for an interview, as did several others we approached.)

Anyone seeking a more conventional history is directed toward Michael Azerrad’s 1993 book “Come as You Are.” But read on for a rare view from the front lines, from the perspectives of the people who did their live sound or took the band to interviews and in-stores and radio stations during that insane, unprecedented autumn when a scruffy rock band from Seattle became a global phenomenon in a matter of weeks.

With thanks for their time, courtesy and memories, here they are now: PETER BARON : Head of video promotion, DGC/Geffen Records (now an independent consultant) JENNIE BODDY : Publicist, Sub Pop Records (now VP of publicity, Capitol Music Group) RAY FARRELL : Sales, DGC Records (now director of content acquisition, the Orchard) LISA GLADFELTER : Publicist, DGC/Geffen Records (now co-founder/CMO, L2O Entertainment Agency) DANNY GOLDBERG : Nirvana co-manager (now founder, Gold Village Entertainment) MARK KATES : Head of alternative promotion, DGC/Geffen Records (now artist manager, Fenway Recordings) CRAIG MONTGOMERY : Nirvana sound engineer, 1988-1993 (now a “semi-retired” sound engineer) JOHN ROSENFELDER : Director of alternative and metal promotion, DGC/Geffen Records (now manager of data visualization and analytics, Warner Music Group)

In 1990, Nirvana made four moves that set them up for “Nevermind”: They recorded a demo with producer Butch Vig that included several songs that would be re-recorded for “Nevermind”; Dave Grohl replaced Chad Channing as the band’s drummer; they signed with Gold Mountain for management; and after a heated bidding war, they signed with Geffen Records subsidiary DGC.

BODDY : I was at the show where Nirvana first played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” [on April 17, 1991], which they insisted on playing at the OK Hotel because it was all-ages. When they played the song there were all these shirtless guys, sweating so hard, moshing and smashing into me — for a song they had never heard before. My friend Susan started hyperventilating, she had to run outside for a minute: “Oh my God, this is so good!” I ran outside to get her and then we went back inside and got slimed some more.

GOLDBERG My management company, Gold Mountain, had had success with Bonnie Raitt and the Allman Brothers, but I knew there was this new generation of rock that I wasn’t fully tuned into. So John Silva joined in 1990, he had a couple of [alternative] bands like Redd Kross and House of Freaks, and together we signed Sonic Youth, who had just signed with Geffen and were about to put out “Goo” [which was basically their breakthrough album]. That’s how we found Nirvana. John saw them opening for Sonic Youth, and Thurston [Moore, Sonic singer-guitarist] said “I know you don’t really like new acts” — not that I didn’t like them, but it usually took a couple of years to make any money with them — “but in this case you really wanna make an exception.”

FARRELL  When I first came to the company in 1989, one of the first conversations I had was with David Geffen. He knew a lot about a lot of independent bands: He asked me about the Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr., he knew about my association with Sonic Youth, who had just signed with the label. I said, “I want to be here because I love Sonic Youth, but I don’t understand how they’re ever gonna be on mainstream radio.” And he said, “That doesn’t matter — they’re going to lead us to the next big band.” That was a genius move — he knew Sonic Youth represented the top of the heap and everyone respected them, and he knew there were a lot of bands in that realm. Sonic Youth were even part of the reason Beck came to Geffen [three years later]. David Geffen had more on the ball than most A&R people when it came to understanding the core of this music, and it was Sonic Youth’s trust in the label that helped bring Nirvana to Geffen.

“Nevermind” was recorded with Vig in May and June of 1991 at Sound City in Van Nuys, California (even the studio has been immortalized, by Grohl with his 2012 “Sound City” documentary). Later in June, the band set off on a West Coast tour opening for Dinosaur Jr.

GOLDBERG When I first heard the album, I knew they would become bigg- er — “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was an incredible song, “Come as You Are” had a chorus I could imagine regular rock fans liking, and the wind was blowing in the right direction generationally and culturally. But I had no idea that any artist from that subculture could have a global pop hit.

GLADFELTER I always asked artists, “What’s your dream?” Nirvana said, “To be on the cover of the Rocket,” Seattle’s alternative weekly newspaper.

GOLDBERG Kurt’s thing was, “I wanna be as big as the Pixies,” and that was our horizon. Sometimes, when no one else was around, in the back of my mind I’d think, “Maybe they could be as big as Jane’s Addiction!” ( laughter ), who were maybe twice as big as the Pixies. Kurt loved Black Flag and the subculture, and he also loved the Beatles, and he figured out a way to combine those two loves. I think he always had an intuitive sense of the mass audience, because he was part of that mass audience, even though he was also part of the punk subculture.

ROSENFELDER I first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” when Gary Gersh [Geffen A&R exec who signed the band] played it for me in his office. It was one of those times when you’re playing something as loud as it can go and it doesn’t even seem loud, you’re just like “Holy shit, that’s the best song I’ve ever heard, play it again!” I get chills just thinking about it.

FARRELL Gary gave me a cassette that led with “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and he wanted me to play it for anybody and everybody. So I was bringing it around to parties, stores and a few shows in Florida. I asked the soundman to play the tape ten minutes before the band went on, and each time people would ask what it was.

GLADFELTER We all loved it, and when we started sending out advances, people just freaked out. I barely even got to pitch it because everybody already wanted to talk to them.

FARRELL They asked me in a meeting what I thought “Nevermind” was gonna sell and I didn’t feel like I was going out on a limb by saying 250-300,000 — based entirely on the enthusiasm I was getting from stores, who were saying, “We can’t even sell this album yet, but we’re still playing [the advance CD] all day long.” Stores didn’t usually play albums they couldn’t sell yet, but in this case they’d say “It doesn’t matter — people will come back when it’s out.”

ROSENFELDER Everywhere we brought it, people had the same reaction: Whooo! We took it to big college stations like KCMU and KXLU and commercial stations too, and everybody loved it.

FARRELL When they played in Tijuana opening for Dinosaur Jr. [in June], this kid had already figured out how to look like Kurt Cobain, with the flannel and the dyed hair. I talked to him and he was like, “Nirvana’s gonna be huge!” After the show [Dinosaur Jr. frontman] J. Mascis said to me, “If I could be the second guitarist in that band, I would break up Dinosaur Jr. tonight.” They were that incredible and exciting live.

In August, the band set off on a tour of Europe opening for Sonic Youth, including several festival dates.

MONTGOMERY The Sonic Youth tour was really fun, it was just before it all exploded. “Nevermind” was recorded but it hadn’t been released yet, Nirvana played in the middle of the day, there was no pressure and no expectations. It was almost like a big party.

ROSENFELDER They were great to work with — there were food fights in the car while we were driving around, they’d be throwing pizza at each other. But they were nice, funny, cheerful, enthusiastic, on time — Kurt was a little serious.

MONTGOMERY They were total smartasses. I remember one festival in Belgium there was this really nice catering tent with a table for each act with name cards — the Ramones had a big group of people with them, like 18 people, and Black Francis from the Pixies was doing a solo tour so he had three, and they switched the name tags so the Ramones had a table for three. That day ended with a food fight — a lot of days ended with food fights! I was always trying to be the responsible one.

Late in August, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was serviced to radio stations, around a month before the album’s release. On Friday, the 13th of September, a record-release party was held at Re-bar in Seattle.

GOLDBERG Two things happened the week after “Smells Like Teen Spirit” first went on the radio that made me think this might be something unusual. Mark Kates at Geffen, who is a very understated guy and had been around the underground scene a lot, was reading the responses from radio stations and record stores and he said, very uncharacteristically, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.” The other was when John got a call from someone who had been at a Guns N’ Roses show in New York, and when they played “Teen Spirit” over the P.A. in between bands, the crowd cheered. He was like, “How did they even know this song when it’s only been out a few days?” — and this was a Guns N’ Roses audience!

ROSENFELDER It became the number-one most-requested song on [L.A. alternative powerhouse] KROQ after they played it once. KNAC, the big metal station in L.A., played seven songs from the album. Even KMEL [in San Francisco], a “rhythmic” station, played it. Smith College [in Massachusetts] played “Smells Like Teen Spirit” seventy times in one week.

MONTGOMERY Those dates with Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth, we were playing pretty sizable places and the buzz was growing and growing — they were almost co-headlining, because you could tell there were a lot of people there to see Nirvana. You could see how much they were connecting.

GLADFELTER The music just seemed to make people crazy. At the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video shoot, when the extras came rushing down out of the bleachers, the directors had a hard time controlling them.

BODDY The band got kicked out of their own record-release party for sneaking a whiskey bottle into the photo booth — I think it was a no-hard-liquor party, for some reason — and a food fight involving stuffed grape leaves.

ROSENFELDER The release party at Re-bar ended up with Grohl covered with onion dip in the front seat of a Caddy, and me holding him up so he wouldn’t lean into me on turns and get dip all over me.

BODDY The party moved on, and a game ensued involving stacking Nelson CDs into a pyramid to slide into. The guys in Nirvana put on dresses and would take these running starts and slide into the pile. It was an homage, if you will.

On September 20, the “Nevermind” North American tour officially launched in Toronto; the album was released four days later.

KATES We shipped 35,000 units of “Nevermind.” We thought it might have the potential to go gold, which is 500,000 units. [It has sold an estimated 30 million copies worldwide.]

FARRELL Sometime in September, Lyle Hysen from Das Damen called me and said, “We played with the Beatles last night.” I said “What?” “We opened for Nirvana. I’ve seen them before but there’s nothing to express how great they are now. We might as well just give up.”

KATES In Boston there was so much demand for their show at [750-capacity] Axis that they added a second one. Seeing the reaction they were getting 3,000 miles from their home base was amazing, but I was concerned that their next big show, at the Marquee in New York, hadn’t sold out yet. [It did.]

ROSENFELDER They had a Crisco fight at the release party in Boston.

FARRELL Every show was different, nothing was ever repeated, the songs never sounded exactly the same. That had nothing to do with how good the record is, but seeing them live, it was obvious how great they were.

GLADFELTER On that tour the shows seemed to get more and more crazy.

GOLDBERG It was overnight! Within one week of the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video going on MTV, everything changed forever.

BARON I ordinarily would fly out to New York to present a video to MTV, but they already had an ally and advocate there with [music and programming exec] Amy Finnerty — she was a friend of Kurt’s and the band and she loved them. We didn’t want to rush it, so she and I worked out a plan together, where it would start on [the Sunday night alternative specialty show] “120 Minutes” for a month. But it took off almost immediately and next thing you knew it was getting played all the time.

MONTGOMERY The tour had been booked before the album came out, and because nobody could have seen what was about to happen, they were playing a lot of the clubs they’d played before — which were nowhere near big enough [for the demand]. So every show was packed sold-out, and the music just whipped people into a frenzy like I’ve never seen. It was fun but they were difficult situations to be in, really crowded and stressful. And the band enjoyed it, but they were frustrated because lots of people couldn’t get in.

GLADFELTER After the show at the Marquee in New York, it was game on. The fans were so passionate that these weren’t just shows, they were events .

KATES  I went on my honeymoon in the middle of that [period], and when I came back we had sold 400,000 albums in 12 days.

MONTGOMERY It seemed like that tour went on forever — two months with all of us in one big van with a trailer.

GOLDBERG In terms of a sense of self and identity, the success didn’t change who they were to themselves or their friends — they stayed in the psychological lane they had created, and fame didn’t change that. But it did enormously change their career and widened enormously the options of what they could do. They were very conscious of their roots and original audience, but they liked the bigger audience and having hits — Kurt in particular. If he was watching MTV and didn’t see a Nirvana video within a certain period of time, he’d let me know it, and I assume other people as well.

KATES I remember at the Minneapolis show — where a couple of people I knew from L.A. had flown in because they said they knew it was the last time they’d get to see them in a small venue — Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum came in and Kurt was like, “Wow, it’s Dave from Soul Asylum!”

MONTGOMERY Suddenly everyone had to talk to Nirvana — really Kurt, it was all on him. He started getting obligations he didn’t want to do, he just didn’t want to do interviews all day.

GLADFELTER At first, they were really excited and would do almost anything we asked, lunches with journalists and all that. They didn’t really understand the business yet. Krist would be like, “I don’t understand why you gave tickets to Guns N’ Roses and Slash is here but our friends can’t get in.” I had to explain that Guns N’ Roses were the biggest act on the label and we couldn’t really tell them no.

MONTGOMERY Suddenly it was not fun — the business machine was amping up. Everyone who worked with Nirvana were all great people, but artists need a lot of freedom and Kurt had none. I could see that being a huge source of stress and he seemed like he was questioning what he wanted from all this.

GLADFELTER Then, they stopped doing so many interviews — especially with metal publications — because they were so appalled at the coverage they were getting. Kurt got more and more suspicious, he wanted to vet the magazines he was talking to, he didn’t like not having control.

FARRELL I don’t think Kurt started [getting second thoughts about fame] until later on. I think he was excited that so many kids were into it and his message was coming across and maybe they were really understanding the lyrics, but that wasn’t always the case. His ideal audience was probably younger people and, ideally, enlightened punk rock fans who understood the problems with sexism and racism, and understood that Nirvana supported that culture. I think it did get to him when it got super popular and people were misconstruing and some of the identity got lost.

BARON We were shooting the Guns N’ Roses video for “Don’t Cry” just before the “Nevermind” release and I brought a CD, a cassette and a hat to the set to give to Axl. He proceeded to use the hat in the video as a prop, as well as wearing it during some interviews.

GLADFELTER Axl actually left me a phone message, begging me to get them to play his birthday party. He loved them but there was no way it was gonna happen. They hated Guns N’ Roses.

The North American tour concluded with a homecoming show at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, which was filmed and later released as a video and album. Just five days later, Nirvana launched a European tour that was scheduled to last for six weeks.

MONTGOMERY The Paramount was a big, triumphant homecoming. They were always happy playing in the Northwest and Kurt loved having bands he liked touring with us — for that show it was Bikini Kill and Mudhoney. But even that place was too small — the Paramount holds 3,000 people.

FARRELL Susie [Tennant, Geffen’s Northwest regional radio promotion rep] was the real champion in Seattle because she was the local rep and she had a good relationship with Kurt — I think he was crashing on her sofa for a while. She was very sweet and very enthusiastic and I think her heart was really with them. Everything was changing because of them, and this was her band.

ROSENFELDER Susie really rallied Seattle for them. Nirvana were actually a lot more indie than most of the other Seattle bands [like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam] and people there could have been like, “Oh, major-label sellouts,” but they weren’t, and she had a lot to do with that.

MONTGOMERY That European tour started almost right after we finished the U.S. tour. It was hard. Everyone was sick and tired, and we had this English driver who did fine in England, but once we got to the continent we got lost a lot. It was grueling and tiring — it wasn’t a sleeper bus, it was more like a big van. And it was still the band and crew in one bus, playing theaters and large clubs. We ended up cancelling the last few dates in Scandinavia, everyone was so tired.

GOLDBERG Kurt didn’t love touring — he liked it up to a point, but he didn’t love it the way that some bands do.

The band finished the year with a series of arena dates with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam, with Nirvana playing in the middle. At some point early in January, “Nevermind” achieved the astonishing-at-the-time feat of knocking Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” from the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 top albums chart.

FARRELL Just before our two-week holiday break, the word went out that we were almost out of stock [of the album]. The alert went up, “Some of you are going to have to come in to work” to make sure that the CD manufacturers were pressing more copies. It was a good problem to have!

MONTGOMERY The Chili Peppers were big at the time and it was still early for Pearl Jam, but it was kind of strange — Nirvana were the new kids and they were opening for bands that never had a No. 1 record, so it was like “Why aren’t we headlining arenas?” There was supposed to be an arena tour in 1992 that ended up not happening, but even if it had, they wouldn’t have made it. Those tours are not fun: you’re not connected to fans, you never see anything, you just end up sleeping on the bus under the arenas. I stopped working with them just before “In Utero,” and when they did an arena tour behind that album [in 1993], everyone was telling me, “You’re not missing anything!”

KATES I remember we were at the Phoenix in San Francisco, this cheap hotel, on New Year’s Eve and hearing the Live 105 countdown of the year and “Teen Spirit” was number one, and we all had champagne, but there were no limos or anything. Even later, they might have acted a little rock star, but that wasn’t really who Kurt was.

GOLDBERG A lot of thought went into the strategy leading up to “Nevermind,” but once it [took off], the business part was easy — it was a manager’s dream. The hard part was trying to deal with the personal issues that would come up over the next few years, particularly with Kurt.

“Nevermind” officially reached number one in the issue of Billboard dated January 11, 1992 — and the group made its galvanizing first appearance on “Saturday Night Live” on the same day.

KATES All of us were learning a new perspective — “Nevermind” knocking Michael Jackson out of the No. 1 spot was a massive cultural moment. But a lot of the time, change can’t be appreciated until it’s passed.

GLADFELTER People think Geffen masterminded it, but it was organic. They were equipped to deal with it, but you can’t plan something like that.

MONTGOMERY It’s hard to be objective. Nirvana was a phenomenon and they’re part of the musical firmament. For my kids and their friends, it’s the Beatles and Michael Jackson and Nirvana, and it’s really weird because those guys were my friends and it was a big part of my life.

FARRELL It was a really fun time. It didn’t even feel like a job.

BODDY  Seattle was such a small town, everybody was rooting for them. It felt like we won.

More From Our Brands

Norm macdonald was the hater o.j. simpson could never outrun, chris pratt and katherine schwarzenegger just tore down this stunning midcentury modern home, sam bennett 2023 masters run has set up off-course earnings, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, grey’s recap: pregnant pause — plus, what’s ailing mer and derek’s son, verify it's you, please log in.

Skip to the content

Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses

The world's most extensive exhibition of memorabilia celebrating the music and history of Seattle rock luminaries, Nirvana.

Get an intimate look at the history of Seattle luminaries, Nirvana, with more than 200 rare artifacts, photographs, and oral histories.

The exhibition features instruments like Kurt Cobain’s Fender Stratocaster, Krist Novoselić’s Hiwatt DR103 bass amplifier head, and Dave Grohl’s Tama Rockstar-Pro drum kit. In addition, a diverse set of objects like the Cobain-created Fecal Matter shirt and the casting call flier for the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video will be on display.

Visitors eager to dig even further can view video kiosks with even more information. Steve Fisk’s ambient soundtrack can be heard as fans move through the exhibition.

Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses  is included with museum admission and is free for MoPOP Members.

DAVE GROHL AT SEATTLE CENTER COLISEUM, SEPTEMBER 11 1992

“Great drummer shots are few and far between. This is one of a handful I took of Grohl, but it displays perfectly his intensity behind the drum kit. He was an anchor for the band.”

- CHARLES PETERSON

Photograph by Charles Peterson

Cookie Notification

Please adjust your travel plans accordingly. Seattle's SR99 Viaduct will close for approximately three weeks starting January 11, 2019. To help you prepare, here are some resources to help make your travels to MoPOP stress-free. View traffic alert info ▸

By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and use of cookies and similar technologies. We store cookies and similar technologies on your computer or device to provide you with a great experience and help our website run effectively.

I n the late eighties, a small community of talented, sludgy local bands began attracting attention in the Pacific Northwest. Few had realistic ambitions of mainstream success, devoting themselves instead to an underground economy of independent record labels and loud, albeit small, gigs.

One of those bands was from Aberdeen, Washington, just outside Seattle, and called itself Nirvana: a sunny, hippie-ish reference to a stage of Buddhist enlightenment. Despite its joke of a name, the group played music that was heavy and deafening—because if failure seemed a foregone conclusion, why not at least have fun?

Nirvana’s sense of playful irony, which you could hear in its music, set the band apart from many of its doom-and-gloom peers in what would become known as the Seattle scene. In 1989, Nirvana signed to Seattle’s Sub Pop Records and released its first studio album, “Bleach.”

Nirvana had a reputation for writing surprisingly catchy songs and for putting on chaotic live shows, such as the band’s performance in Denver on the “Bleach” tour. These shows revolved around its charismatic lead singer and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. He had presence. In the eyes of major-label executives, perhaps he could even be positioned as a new kind of anti-rock star.

At the time, I knew none of this. I was just a teen-ager in Cupertino, California, turning the dial, looking for something different. Back then, the divide between mainstream and alternative music—a designation that had only recently emerged—still seemed meaningful. My local rock station was dominated by bands like Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, and Van Halen, which were indebted to a hard, heavy, and theatrical style, full of big guitar solos and even bigger hair.

Mainstream rock seemed to fit within a limited gradient of American machismo, from fun-loving buffoonery to the serious and virtuosic. This isn’t to say that there were no other options: college radio had fuelled the rise of U2, Depeche Mode, and R.E.M., and punk had seeded small, intrepid, alternative scenes in places like Boston, Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and Athens, Georgia. But from my perch in suburban California those other options were still a challenge to find. And it seemed self-evident that musicians who rejected mainstream professionalism would remain on the fringes.

There was a romance to pledging allegiance to these lost causes and underground voices. When Nirvana released its second album, “Nevermind,” in the fall of 1991, everything changed—for me, and for the pop-music ecosystem. The band, which now consisted of Cobain, the bassist Krist Novoselic, and the drummer Dave Grohl, had signed with a major label, Geffen Records. A few years earlier, Geffen had begun wagering that “alternative rock”—a category that began appearing on the Billboard charts around that time—could be a profitable niche. The label had signed Sonic Youth, respected pioneers of New York’s avant-garde rock scene, and a band whose trajectory and choices Cobain admired. Perhaps there was a strange excitement to smuggling something unusual into the mainstream. The cover of “Nevermind,” which featured a naked baby swimming toward a dollar bill, seemed a sly and hilarious allusion to signing with Geffen.

Nirvana’s first album, “Bleach,” had been produced for just six hundred dollars, and it more or less sounded like it: muffled, dingy, like early-draft Beatles songs swallowed in noise. “Nevermind” cost much more, and there was a lot more oversight. Like “Bleach,” it featured songs that alternated between bludgeoning, distorted guitars and sweet, catchy melodies. But the new album was prettier and more dynamic, powered by Grohl’s end-of-days drumming and Novoselic’s friendly, loping bass lines. There was more space for Cobain to sing and croon, not just shout—though he did that, too.

The perfect distillation of Nirvana’s newly refined sound was “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which Cobain later described as his jokey attempt to write “the ultimate pop song.” On September 29, 1991, the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” premièred on MTV’s late-night alternative-music show, “120 Minutes.” The video quickly went from the “120 Minutes” niche to the “Buzz Bin”—MTV’s showcase for up-and-coming bands—to constant rotation.

I first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that fall, on the local modern-rock station. I soon decided I needed to be able to hear to it whenever I wanted, so I bought the cassette of “Nevermind” as soon as it came out. I remember staring at my tape deck as I listened to it for the first time, overwhelmed by how many good songs there were. Nirvana would soon be the biggest band in America, but, in that moment, to a teen-ager casting about for something new, it still felt like a secret.

I became invested in the band’s identity as underdogs. As Nirvana became more popular, I remember how strange it was to hear it on drive-time radio, or see the band on MTV during the daytime. I even heard it on the local hip-hop station. Unlike the bands topping the mainstream rock charts, an assembly line of men with enormous, wavy hair and tight leather pants, Nirvana seemed young and spontaneous. Its members looked different from those other rock stars, too. It was much easier to dress like them.

Nobody—not Nirvana’s label, its management, or the band itself—was prepared for the velocity of its ascent. In January of 1992, “Nevermind,” which had débuted modestly, at No. 144 on the Billboard album chart, took over the No. 1 spot (displacing Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous”). The album would eventually go diamond, selling more than ten million copies in the U.S. alone.

It was exciting to see something so unexpected take off like that. For my friends and me, Nirvana’s unglamorous, D.I.Y. style was a welcome reaction against the groupie-chasing, hard-partying posing that had dominated MTV for so long. Nirvana was like an intruder in the temple, making those bands seem barbaric, and instantly irrelevant. But Nirvana was also tapping into something bigger: an emergent, far-flung world of youth culture that was proudly, at times self-consciously, “alternative.” A new spectrum of identities and creative forms seemed to infiltrate the mainstream, and the possibilities felt thrilling.

The success of Nirvana and other Seattle bands, including Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains, changed the music industry. The breakout rise of “Nevermind” suggested that so-called alternative bands and niches could be commercially viable—not just as steady, low-risk earners but as the proverbial next big thing. Major labels began showering loads of money on tiny, Nirvana-esque bands that played a similar kind of “grunge” rock. The “grunge gold rush,” as the journalist Steve Knopper termed it, created boom-or-bust trajectories for bands that might have once settled for modest regional fame. It was no longer hard to find alternative sounds; major labels were desperate to pitch everyone as the next Nirvana.

The members of Nirvana acted nonchalant, sometimes even hostile, toward their fame. It didn’t help that they were becoming celebrities just when advertisers and cultural critics were trying to figure out how to label and define my generation. Cobain started to be called the voice of Generation X, and his resistance to the tag merely entrenched it further. Nirvana’s ambivalence came to be held up as a Gen X trademark; the band’s iconoclasm turned the musicians into icons.

Cobain used his platform admirably, to promote underground bands from America and abroad. In interviews and liner notes, he stuck to his principles, and decried the casual sexism, racism, and homophobia of American culture.

“If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us—leave us the fuck alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records.” —Kurt Cobain

But the non-stop touring and celebrity took a huge toll on Cobain’s health and stability, and his heroin addiction, for which he had previously been in rehab, got worse. I wasn’t shocked when he took his own life, in 1994. There were rumors of overdoses and near-death experiences in the preceding months. But it was still jarring.

After his death, there were articles and nightly-news segments about Cobain’s nihilism, and what his choice suggested about the younger generation. Mostly, I remember listening to “Nevermind” over and over—not as a search for clues (for that, you’d listen to Nirvana’s last studio album, “In Utero,” and its many references to despair and illness), but as a reminder of how unlikely his trajectory had been. It was the first time I’d wondered how you could work both inside and outside the system—whether you could be critical of, say, the corporations underwriting your art while making art that aspired for worlds beyond those realities.

At the time, I thought a lot about whether Cobain was actually “cool” and disaffected, or whether his coolness merely masked a deeper earnestness. Now I see that both things were true. People gravitated toward his persona because it didn’t seem like one; he seemed authentic. But, of course, it was a persona—just a more thoughtful, conflicted, and unguarded one than we were used to seeing.

There’s a sort of bittersweet aftermath to this story. “Nevermind” has since been absorbed into the rock canon. Just as kids a couple of years younger and older than me at school had wildly different opinions about whether Cobain was a saint or a sellout, every generation has their own version of the Nirvana legend. Nowadays, Cobain has become a fashionable reference point for musicians across genres, from pop to hip-hop, who want their music to seem brooding and emotional. Dr. Dre and Jay-Z today express admiration for the cultural rebellion that Cobain represented, describing his music as powerful enough to have briefly “stopped” hip-hop’s ascendancy.

Maybe that’s the paradox of alternative culture that’s always been true, only it was our turn to realize it: pop culture is born anew each time an outlaw is discovered. Your pose lives on, even if the seeds of your own rebellion are forgotten.

Nirvana has become canonized as a gritty, punkish pop band working through a surplus of emotions, but I often think back to how radical the band was in its time: Cobain’s softness, his rejection of mainstream America’s self-serious machismo, Nirvana’s profound unease about being rock stars. The band was a gateway.

My friends and I would hunt down obscure books, movies, and bands that Cobain championed, to try and figure out how he had come to be. Only we would never know. We followed Nirvana into new worlds of possibility, people brought together by songs describing one man’s private, unknowable despair.

The photo of the “Real World” cast has been updated.

Credits: Illustration by Bráulio Amado; Source Photograph by Jan Boeve / Hollandse Hoogte / Redux; Everett. The Seattle Scene: Sub Pop, Sub Pop, Big Bad Music / Bomb Shelter, Sub Pop, SST. Universal Music Group, 1991. Paul Bergen / Redferns / Getty. Nirvana’s Evolution: Universal Music Group, Sub Pop. The Ultimate Pop Song: Sub Pop. Hua Hsu. Alternative Nation: Mimi Nguyen, Mario Ruiz / The LIFE Images Collection / Getty, ABC / Everett, Orion Pictures / Everett. Mark Seliger / Rolling Stone. Peter Pakvis / Redferns. Kevin Mazur / WireImage / Getty. Roger Kisby / Getty. The Nirvana Gateway: Kevin Cummins / Getty, Alastaire Indge / Camera Press / Redux, "The Devil and Daniel Johnston," directed by Jeff Feuerzeig, 2005, Anthony Pidgeon / Redferns / Getty.

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Sarah Larson

By Michelle Orange

By Justin Taylor

By Andrew O’Hagan

Nirvana: Everything you need to know

Who are Nirvana? Why were they called Nirvana? And what's that smiley face all about? We find out...

Nirvana are one of the biggest and most influential bands in music history. Formed in Seattle in 1987, they pretty much single-handedly catapulted alternative music into the mainstream when their second album, Nevermind , took the music industry by surprise and turned popular culture on its head on its release in 1991. Their mix of dirgey, down-tuned rock’n’roll, punk rock spirit and abstract lyrics originally captured the imagination of the increasingly disaffected Generation X youth, but continues to shape and inform rock music today.

But who are Nirvana? How did they start out? What are their biggest songs? What is nirvana, anyway? We bring you everything you need to know about Seattle’s favourite sons.

• The 30 best Nirvana songs
• Get your hands on the latest Nirvana shirts and merch
• Nirvana: the birth of a rock'n'roll revolution

Who were the members of Nirvana?

In their best-known formation, Nirvana was made up of singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain , drummer Dave Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic . Cobain and Novoselic met at high school in Aberdeen, Washington, where the band was originally based.

Cobain was Nirvana’s chief songwriter, wrote all their lyrics and almost all of their music – though Grohl and Novoselic both contributed to Nirvana’s music, as on Aneurysm , which was a co-write by all members of the band. Grohl also wrote the Heart-Shaped Box B-side Marigold himself.

When did Dave Grohl join Nirvana?

Dave Grohl joined Nirvana in 1990, after the band had already recorded their debut album, Bleach . When Grohl’s first band, Scream , suddenly split up mid-tour in 1990, Grohl – who had quit high school to follow a career in music – called friend and Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne for advice on what his next move should be. Osborne passed Cobain and Novoselic’s phone numbers on to Grohl, and the rest, as they say, is history. Novoselic later commented that “We knew in two minutes that he was the right drummer”.

Who was the first drummer in Nirvana?

Chad Channing is widely accepted as Nirvana’s first “official” drummer, as he performed on Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach . However, there was a revolving door of drummers in Nirvana before he joined.  

Bob McFadden was the first drummer to ever pick up the sticks for Nirvana, but he lasted only a month. After McFadden came Aaron Burckhard, who drifted away from the band when they moved out of Aberdeen. At this point, the band started jamming with Melvins drummer Dale Crover, who appeared on Nirvana’s first demos in 1988. Crover left shortly after, at which point Dave Foster joined – until he got sent to jail a few months later. It was at this point that a mutual friend introduced them to Channing, who stuck around long enough to make it through the Bleach sessions. However, Cobain and Novoselic were left cold by Channing’s drumming abilities throughout the sessions. Amid growing frustrations at not being allowed to contribute to the songwriting process, Channing left. He was briefly replaced by Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters, then Dale Crover again, before Grohl joined the ranks.

Get the Louder Newsletter

The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.

Why were they called Nirvana?

Cobain has said Nirvana settled on that name because he “wanted a name that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk name like the Angry Samoans". Before they became Nirvana, the band were known as Skid Row, Fecal Matter and Ted Ed Fred.

Nirvana were sued by a British psych-rock band of the same name over usage rights of the Nirvana name, given that they had been active under the title since 1965 – two years before Cobain was even born. The two bands eventually reached a settlement in court. The British Nirvana seized on the opportunity, though, releasing a tongue in cheek, psychedelic cover of Nirvana's hit Come As You Are as part of an ultimately unreleased Nirvana Sings Nirvana covers album .

What is the meaning of Nirvana in Buddhism?

The term nirvana in Buddhism is most commonly used to refer to the religion’s ultimate spiritual goal of attaining a state of enlightenment which releases one from the cycle of reincarnation. The term refers to the extinguishing of three fires within the self, each of which represents greed, hatred and delusion, so that one can reach peace and spiritual fulfilment. Modern interpretations suggest a “nirvana in this life” is possible dependent on a “transformed state of personality characterised by compassion, peace, deep spiritual joy and an absence of negative mental states and emotions such as doubt, worry, anxiety and fear”.  

Are Nirvana grunge?

There really is no question about this: Nirvana were – and still are – the biggest grunge band on the planet. Grunge itself is a term that comes with a fair amount of contention, as its defining qualities borrowed from the ferocity of punk, the down-tuned dirge of metal and pop’s irresistible songwriting nous, which has lead some to claim grunge isn’t a genre in its own right at all, or dismiss it as a cynical marketing term. But if people tell you that Nirvana were a punk band, an alt.rock band, a pop band, you shouldn’t listen to them. Nirvana weren’t just a grunge band. Nirvana were grunge.

What is the Nirvana smiley face about?

This doodle of a yellow face on a black background, with crossed out eyes and a wobbly smile, is one of the most enduring images from Nirvana’s career, and has adorned T-shirts, mugs, key rings, beer koozies and pretty much everything else you can think of since. Legend has it it was drawn by Cobain for a flyer announcing a Nevermind album launch party in Seattle in September 1991. It’s said to have been inspired by a similar crudely drawn smiley face, which wished punters “an erotic day” from its spot on the signage at The Lusty Lady strip club – a well-known joint close to where Cobain and the rest of the Seattle scene used to hang out.  

Photo by Michael Hanscom on Flickr . Licensed via  Creative Commons . 

How did Kurt Cobain die?

Kurt Cobain died by suicide on April 5, 1994. He was discovered in his Seattle home with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and high levels of heroin and diazepam in his system. He was survived by his wife, Courtney Love, and their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.

What are Nirvana’s best albums?

Best is a tricky term, given its subjective nature – though of them all, Nevermind is the definitive Nirvana album, and historically the most important. Nirvana only officially recorded three albums in their time as a band: Bleach in 1989, Nevermind in 1991 and In Utero in 1993. Nevermind is by far Nirvana’s best-selling album, having sold over 10 million copies in the USA alone. In Utero comes in second with 5 million US sales under its belt, while debut album Bleach is the least popular – though has still sold 2 million copies in the US.  

As well as these albums, Nirvana compilation album Incesticide has grown a huge cult appeal over the years.  

What are Nirvana’s biggest songs?

Nirvana’s biggest song was the world-changing Smells Like Teen Spirit . Released on September 10, 1991, it shot straight into the Billboard top 10, and is often cited as the moment when grunge music crossed over into the mainstream.  

We recently held a vote with our readers to determine the best Nirvana songs of all time . Here are their choices of Nirvana’s 15 best songs, in descending order:

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit 2. Lithium 3. Heart-Shaped Box 4. Come As You Are 5. All Apologies 6. Aneurysm 7. Drain You 8. Breed 9. In Bloom 10. You Know You're Right 11. Territorial Pissings 12. Lounge Act 13. Where Did You Sleep Last Night 14. About A Girl 15. Pennyroyal Tea  

• RELATED READING: The 10 worst Nirvana songs

Briony is the Editor in Chief of Louder and is in charge of sorting out who and what you see covered on the site. She started working with Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Prog magazines back in 2015 and has been writing about music and entertainment in many guises since 2009. She is a big fan of cats, Husker Du and pizza.

"Minor Threat were like The Beatles. I saw Ian MacKaye write Straight Edge on his mother's piano": Henry Rollins on Black Flag, Minor Threat, The Stooges, Green Day, Beyoncé and the meaning of punk

Every cover song by Nightwish ranked from worst to best

Everyone that left Delain in 2021 will perform on singer Charlotte Wessels’ next album: “This is the album I want to re-introduce myself with, and I’m so glad to do it with this amazing team.”

Most Popular

By Johnny Sharp 9 April 2024

By Neil Jeffries 9 April 2024

By Paul Elliott 9 April 2024

By Sid Smith 8 April 2024

By Henry Yates 8 April 2024

By Daryl Easlea 8 April 2024

By Stephen Hill 8 April 2024

By Vicky Greer 8 April 2024

By Rob Hughes 8 April 2024

By Metal Hammer 8 April 2024

By Merlin Alderslade 8 April 2024

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

30 years after his death, bbc to air kurt cobain documentary.

'Moments That Shook Music: Kurt Cobain' aims to "demystify" the controversial death of the Nirvana frontman, who died on April 5, 1994.

By Pino Gagliardi

Pino Gagliardi

Deputy Editor, THR Roma

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Email
• Show additional share options
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Pinit
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Tumblr
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Print
• Share this article on Comment

Thirty years after the death of Kurt Cobain , the BBC will air a documentary that it says will “demystify” the Generation X icon and grunge music legend. Moments That Shook the Music: Kurt Cobain , a feature-length documentary directed by John Osborne and produced by Touchdown Films, airs Saturday, April 13, on BBC iPlayer and BBC 2, as part of programming entirely dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Cobain’s death. The Nirvana frontman died on April 5, 1994, in what was ruled a suicide.

Related Stories

How to watch lana del rey, tyler, the creator, doja cat and no doubt perform at coachella 2024, jon bon jovi says he's "more than capable" of singing following vocal cord surgery.

Moments That Shook Music: Kurt Cobain reconstructs in just under an hour the last days of the grunge icon and leader of Nirvana through never-before-seen footage, including some shot by fans who were in Seattle at the time and from news crews who were on site when Kurt Cobain’s body was found.

On the morning of April 8, 1994, after the electrician Gary Smith called 911, reporting he’d found a lifeless body at Cobain’s lavish Seattle mansion, a police officer arrived at the artist’s residence on Lake Washington Boulevard. He found the body in a room above the garage. The officer, Von Levandowsky, finds a wallet on the body and IDs him. In short order, the news goes wide: Kurt Cobain has died by suicide. It was a shocking end to one of the biggest names in music.

“How much do you enjoy being a family man?” the journalist asks in the last interview. The artist replies: “It’s more important than anything else in the world. My music is what I do; my family is who I am. When everyone has forgotten Nirvana, and I’m on a nostalgia tour opening for the Temptations and the Four Tops, Frances will still be my daughter and Courtney will still be my wife. That matters more to me than anything else.”

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

‘good times’ review: netflix’s animated sequel improves when it steps out from norman lear’s shadow, valerie bertinelli criticizes food network: “not about cooking and learning any longer”, lou ferrigno jr. on returning to ‘9-1-1’ for buck’s bisexual awakening, robert downey jr. says kids “seemed anxious” to shave their dad’s head for ‘the sympathizer’ role, edgar burcksen, emmy-winning ‘young indiana jones’ film editor, dies at 76, streaming ratings: ‘eras tour (taylor’s version)’ scores for disney+.

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love lie in bed with their baby daughter, Frances Bean, in September 1992.

Unseen photos show a day in the life of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love

Photographs by Guzman Story by Kyle Almond Published April 5, 2024

They were greeted at the front door by rock star Courtney Love, who welcomed them into the Los Angeles home she shared with her husband, Kurt Cobain.

She offered coffee and a slice of “just delivered” guava pie.

Photographers Constance Hansen and Russell Peacock politely declined, eager to get to work. They were on assignment for Spin magazine, which was doing a cover story on the famous couple.

Love showed them around the house, a modest three-bedroom Craftsman in the Hollywood Heights neighborhood, as they waited for Cobain to come downstairs.

He never came down.

So instead, they went up to him.

When they got to Cobain’s room, they found the Nirvana frontman still in bed.

They introduced themselves and asked him if it was OK to take pictures. He nodded. He seemed unfazed by the whole thing. Meeting strangers in bed? No big deal, it seemed.

“Thirty years later, we thought, well maybe that was the whole plan all along. Because he was wearing this fancy robe, and that’s not something he would ever wear normally,” said Peacock, who along with Hansen forms the photography duo known simply as Guzman .

The photos that followed would come to be known as some of Cobain’s most famous. And a soon-to-be-released book, “Family Values: Kurt, Courtney & Frances Bean,” includes nearly 100 photos from the day, most of which have never been published.

These photos were taken in September 1992, a year after the album “Nevermind” launched Nirvana — and Cobain — into superstardom. But over that time there were some personal struggles.

Cobain was in rehab for heroin addiction earlier in the month, and he had checked into a hospital a month before that to detox, according to Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad, who wrote the photo book’s introduction. A story in Vanity Fair magazine, released weeks before this photo session, didn’t paint the couple in the greatest light, and they were fighting for custody of their newborn daughter, Frances Bean. When Hansen and Peacock visited their home, there was a court-mandated nanny there.

The Spin magazine story gave the rock stars a chance to reframe the narrative.

When Hansen and Peacock were first given the assignment, they came up with a fun premise they thought they might try at first.

“We were going to (show) them homemaking, doing domestic chores and things like that,” Hansen remembers. “We were laughing on the way out (to Los Angeles). We were like, yeah, they’ll be mowing the lawn or ironing or cooking.”

Soon after arriving to the house, they quickly realized that wouldn’t be the vibe. They followed their subjects’ lead, and it all started with Cobain in bed.

It worked out for the best.

“Photographing someone in bed is great, because they’re vulnerable and it’s very personal,” Peacock said.

The duo took photos of Cobain and his room, which he said he was fine with. But he was never as comfortable in front of the camera as his wife was.

A short while later, Love came up with their baby girl and everything changed.

“Having the baby there made a big difference, I think. It made him more open,” Peacock said. “And so it was kind of fortuitous to have the baby there. We kind of joked like, wow, we should bring babies on more shoots because they open people up.”

Now the entire family was in bed together, and Hansen remembers how beautiful it was to see everyone in sync. “They just were loving Frances. It was really so apparent,” she said. “It was really about her. They were oblivious to us in a lot of cases, anytime they had the baby.”

Eventually, everyone would come back downstairs for more photos, including individual portraits for both Cobain and Love.

At one point, Cobain grabbed a marker and began writing the words “family values” on his wife’s stomach. At the time in 1992, “family values” was also a campaign theme for the Republican Party going into November’s election.

“We just went with it. We didn’t know (what it meant),” Hansen said.

On his own stomach, Cobain wrote “diet grrrl,” a play on words with the feminist punk movement “riot grrrl.”

Hansen and Peacock spent a few hours taking photos for what is now known among music fans as the “family values” story. They often took photos simultaneously, and they used many different types of cameras and setups to get a variety of looks. Some are more polished and posed. Others are more gritty and spontaneous.

When the story was published by Spin, only a few images were included. The rest were tucked away in storage. Recently, friends from the LABspace gallery in New York asked Hansen and Peacock about that day and wanted to see more. The photos were exhibited at the gallery before becoming a book.

Many people remember the Spin article and tell the photographers that they had it on their wall when they were growing up.

“We didn’t realize the effect that those pictures had,” Hansen said.

The photos are now especially poignant because of Cobain’s tragic suicide.

Thirty years ago, in April 1994, Cobain took his own life at the age of 27. It was a shocking story that shook a generation of music fans.

“He was an extraordinary musician and lyricist,” Hansen said. “He was really different, too. He took it to another level. He wasn’t derivative, He was just really special.”

Peacock said Cobain and Nirvana came at the perfect time, ushering in rock’s grunge era.

“The timing was just right for that music, and it embedded itself in the culture like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones,” he said.

After Cobain died, Hansen and Peacock sent a few snapshots of him to Love at her request. They would later work with her on an album cover for her band Hole.

They’re looking forward to going on the book tour later this year, to hear more about how Cobain and Nirvana impacted lives. “Their music still resonates with people,” Peacock said. “We were in a coffee shop a couple weeks ago and there’s a young girl in a Nirvana T-shirt. It’s interesting.”

Working on the book has made the photographers think deeper about the Spin assignment and what might have been going on beneath the surface.

“I think there was a lot of vulnerability in the house at that moment,” Peacock said. “I didn’t think about it at the time, but looking back, everything swirling around them, it must have been very intense to be so successful so quickly and struggle with that. Looking back, that feeling is there.”

The book “Family Values: Kurt, Courtney & Frances Bean” "> “Family Values: Kurt, Courtney & Frances Bean” is being published by powerHouse Books and can now be pre-ordered.

Virtual Tour

Explore and get a preview of the spectacular beauty of Nirvana’s various memorial parks and centers from the convenience of your mobile and desktop devices through an immersive 360 virtual tour.

I WANT TO KNOW MORE

Please fill up the information below and our service representative get in touch with you soon.

Email Address

Why make offerings of light?

In its most basic context, the act of making an offering in Buddhist tradition enables one to practice generosity in giving, to express gratitude and respect, and to contemplate on the life sustaining law of interdependence. In Buddhist teachings, all of suffering is a result not knowing and not seeing. The offering of light dispels darkness, which is the perfect allegory for the illumination of wisdom extinguishing the darkness of ignorance.

By offering light to the Buddha, it not only pays homage to his achievement of enlightenment, but it also serves as a reminder for oneself to strive for the same through the Dharma. Therefore, if one wishes to develop Dharma wisdom, he or she should offer light. The act of offering of light to the Buddha is also considered meritorious and is said to create the karma for great wealth and blessings for many hundreds or thousands of lifetimes.

Although butter lamps are the traditional form when it comes to making offerings of light, Buddhist masters will be quick to dismiss the misconception that offering traditional butter lamps is the only acceptable way. Candles, lanterns and even battery or electric-powered lamps can also be used for this purpose. In fact, Buddhist teachers advocate that whatever light is clearer and dispels darkness then it is suitable to be offered. The most important thing is having the right motivation in making the offering.

The Feng Shui principles behind Sheng Ji

For the benefit of the layperson, the metaphysical art of Feng Shui can basically be divided into two; namely Yin House Feng Shui and Yang House Feng Shui. In a nutshell, Yin House Feng Shui is the practice of geomancy for the dwellings of the dead (tombs) while Yang House Feng Shui is the practice of geomancy for the dwellings of the living (houses). It is interesting to note that the latter is in fact an evolution and derivative of Yin House Feng Shui as all practices of Feng Shui began with tombs before it was later applied to houses and other buildings.

The basis for both however is pretty much the same; that is to harvest the auspicious energies or “Qi” of the environment in order to bring about desirable and positive changes in various aspects of life. In Yin House Feng Shui, the bones of ancestors are said to have a direct link with their descendants. Therefore, to inter the bones of ancestors in tombs located on land with auspicious Feng Shui features are believed to help descendants prosper and achieve greatness.

The installation of Sheng Ji or “Living Tomb” is based on this principle of Yin House Feng Shui but it does not involve the bones of ancestors and the beneficiary is a specific living person. In lieu of bones belonging to ancestors, personal items associated with the intended beneficiary such as hair, fingernails, clothing, shoes, socks and sometimes even a vial of the subject’s blood are buried in the “tomb” instead, which is what lends the technique its moniker of “Living Tomb”. Through this, the natural auspicious energies of the land will be directly absorbed by the intended beneficiary to enhance wealth, health, vitality and longevity. The technique is occasionally deployed by Feng Shui experts for people with deeply flawed Ba Zi, extremely down on their luck or seriously ill with life-threatening conditions.

For this purpose, people will sometimes utilise pre-purchased auspicious burial plots. Instead of leaving the plot unused prior to using it for its intended purpose, they transform it into a Sheng Ji with the assistance of a Feng Shui master in order to reap the benefits for themselves while still alive. Occasionally, some may choose plots of lands not intended for burials but with excellent Feng Shui to execute this purpose.

The significance of ancestral tablets

Ancestor worship is a practice that occupies a supreme role in the religious and social life of Chinese society. Deeply rooted in the all-important virtue of filial piety, much of its associated rites have remained unchanged since Confucian times. Integral to the practice of ancestor worship are ancestral tablets – sacred objects in which the spirit of deceased ancestors are believed to reside.

Ancestral tablets vary in shape and size from place to place. Traditionally carved from wood, it is composed of three pieces – a square pedestal and two oblong upright pieces of unequal length. The longer piece terminates in a round knob that is set into the rear of the pedestal while the shorter piece is fitted into the front so that both appear as a single piece.

The outer surface of the first piece is inscribed with the name and year of the reigning dynasty, the title of the deceased, the deceased’s personal name and surname, and the name of the son who installs the tablet. The day and hour of birth and death as well as the place of burial are recorded on the inner surface. The inscriptions are in no way distributed in a uniform way on the tablet and can vary. Married deceased women may at times share a single tablet with their husbands or be represented by their own tablet.

The Chinese believe that a person has three souls. Upon passing, one stays with the entombed body at the grave, one moves on to the afterlife and one will take up residence in a dedicated ancestral tablet. Ancestral tablets were traditionally enshrined on an altar where they were venerated by the head of the family. Wealthy families may have a dedicated ancestral hall for this while others may install ancestral tablets on the same altar of the household deities.

Offerings of incense, candle and food are made to show reverence to one’s elders or ancestors, as part of the continued practice of filial piety that extends beyond death. The Chinese believe that the spirits of the ancestors will continue watch over the family and bless them; therefore, great care and respect must be shown to spirits of the ancestors as the protectors of a family’s fortunes. Due to lack of space for altars and time to perform worshipping rites in modern times, ancestral tablets are nowadays commonly installed in temples, clan halls or memorial centres where caretakers will perform worship on behalf of the family.

Who should pre-plan?

There are people in their 20’s and 30’s considering pre-planning, while there are people in their 40’s and 50’s who may think it’s too early to even think about it. Majority are likely to hold the perception that those in their senior years should consider pre-planning because – for the lack of a better way to say it – they are closer to the “expiring age”. Who then is right, and who is wrong?

The answer may come as a surprise; nobody is wrong and everyone is right. The truth is there is no age demographic that makes one more eligible to pre-plan than the other (with exception perhaps for those who are still too young to earn their own income). To understand the rationale to this, one can ask: who should marry? The answer is simple: those who are ready.  The same answer is also applicable when it comes to the subject of who should pre-plan.

Different factors may come into play for each individual considering pre-planning such as personal experiences, financial capability, mental awareness and concern for the welfare of their loved ones. The one thing these individuals have in common is readiness. As long as you feel mentally ready and financially stable to consider the idea, then you should pre-plan.

When is the best time to pre-plan?

The topic of death is a delicate one and it is understandable many are uncomfortable to discuss it. However, one should contemplate on this question: which comes first, tomorrow or death? We can never know for sure, but death does not discriminate and neither does it wait. So when it comes to the topic of the best time to pre-plan, there is no better time than now when you are already thinking about it.

In fact, the common perception of waiting till we are older to do it may not be entirely correct. According to data from Knoema, the number of deaths in 2015 between ages of 25 and 69 numbered at 338.25 (thousand cases). In comparison, the number of deaths at the same year for those above the age of 70 numbered at 309.59 (thousand cases).

The conclusion that we can draw here is that it is never too early to pre-plan. The sooner you do it, the greater your peace of mind. Similarly to the question of who should pre-plan, as long as you are ready to explore the idea, then you can proceed to do so.

The difference between columbarium and mausoleum

The words columbarium and mausoleum are sometimes used interchangeably but both terms actually refer to very distinct memorial structures. The mausoleum (or mausolea in plural) has always been associated with the interment of human remains and the term is derived from the tomb complex of King Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The columbarium on the other hand was initially used in Roman times as nesting niches for pigeons and doves. It only came to be associated with the interment of cremated human remains when Buddhists in ancient Asia started constructing similar structures for such purposes.

Both structures are nowadays utilised as memorial structures but the columbarium is only used to house cremated remains. The mausoleum on the other hand, is designed to house whole bodies in general but can occasionally be designed to accommodate cinerary urns as well. Both columbaria and mausolea can accommodate from a handful of interments in a family setting to hundreds of interments in a shared or public setting. The term mausoleum can also sometimes be used in reference to specific collective burials in an enclosed indoor or outdoor setting as in the case of royalty, wealthy families or famous personalities. In Malaysia, mausoleum interments are generally only reserved for royalty or influential people such illustrious leaders or national heroes.

Some famous examples of mausolea around the world include Forest Lawn Memorial Park’s Great Mausoleum (USA), Frogmore’s Royal Mausoleum (UK), the Pantheon (France), Qianling Mausoleum (China) and Taj Mahal (India). Well known examples of columbaria are the San Francisco Columbarium (USA), True Dragon Tower (Taiwan) and Columbaria of Vigna Codini (Italy).

Columbaria and cremation niches

A columbarium is a construct used for the storage or final resting place of cremated remains in cinerary urns. They can be free standing structures, or part of a building with many niches resembling dovecotes. In fact, the term “columbarium” comes from the Latin term “columba” meaning “dove” which in the past was used to describe nesting compartments for doves and pigeons. The plural term for columbarium is called “columbaria”.

Columbaria nowadays are popular choices as final resting places due to growing popularity of cremation, economical in terms of pricing, and the increasing scarcity of land. Like cemeteries and memorial parks, columbaria can either be privately or publicly managed although most cemeteries and memorial parks nowadays will also include columbaria for added convenience and to maximise options in terms of choice.

Previously, columbaria are usually a part of religious complexes such as Buddhist temples and Christian churches as an extra benefit for local congregations or communities. Due to growing popularity and demand, columbaria are nowadays independent, elaborate structures reflecting cultural, religious or even fanciful themes. Privately managed columbaria may even offer the convenience of extra amenities and luxuries such as visitor’s centres, lounges and air-conditioning.

Memorial options for cremations

Upon cremation, the ashes or “cremains” are usually collected by the crematorium and returned to the family in an urn. At this stage, it is up to the bereft family to decide on how to memorialise their loved one. Professional bereavement care providers will usually offer a variety of choices depending on the options available at that locality.

Columbarium

The most popular memorial option is to place the urn at a columbarium – a permanent structure or building that is built specifically for this purpose consisting of many repositories or niches resembling dovecotes. The urn is placed within such a niche and occasionally families will place other things together with it, such as favourite items associated with the deceased or decorative and religious objects.  The niche is then covered in a variety of ways. Some columbaria will employ the use of lockable door or glass covering which is inscribed with the deceased’s name and details. Others might seal the niche permanently with an inscribed stone covering or tile.

Despite cremation, families may still choose the option of burial below ground in an urn garden. An urn garden is a burial ground designated for the burial of cremated remains only. Unlike a standard burial plot, an urn garden’s burial plot will contain a below ground compartment or vault big enough to accommodate an urn or two. A headstone or marker will then be installed at the plot to memorialise the deceased.

Some families may choose the option of scattering the ashes (usually at sea or a favourite spot associated with deceased). For some cultures and religions such as Hinduism, this option is usually preferred although some land scarce countries might also encourage this practice. No permanent markers are erected after the ashes are scattered. However, families can still celebrate the memory of the deceased during selected anniversaries through personal or memorial prayers.

What are bereavement care providers?

Bereavement care providers are generally professional establishments that engage in death care, burial preparation, funeral and memorialization of the deceased. In the past, these establishments were traditionally known as “undertakers”.

Depending on the size of the establishment, bereavement care providers may provide a different range of services. A small family owned establishment for instance may provide basic funeral services such as organising wakes and funerals, body transportation services, sale of products such as caskets and urns, and burial services. Larger enterprises may provide a larger range of integrated services aside from the ones mentioned above such as pre-planning, death reporting and documentation, body preparation services (e.g. embalming, restoration and cosmetology), funeral parlours, post funeral services,  grief counselling, operation of private memorial parks and other value added services.

Whichever option you choose to go with, there are always pros and cons. A small family owned establishment may at times have a community-based track record that goes back several generations and therefore can be counted upon to provide personable service although with limited range of services. Larger enterprises on the other hand can offer wider range of professional-level services although at a higher cost. The most important consideration here is that you and your family must be comfortable with the bereavement care provider.

Meeting the bereavement care provider

Owing to the unpredictability of death, bereavement care providers are generally on call 24 hours a day all year round and will be ready to assist at just a phone call. An understanding service representative or consultant will be more than willing to meet you in a place of your choosing.

To save yourself time, you should make a list of all your needs and enquiries. A good and experienced bereavement care provider service representative or consultant will listen to them attentively and guide you through any enquiry you might have in a respectful and courteous manner.  If you wish to get a good feel the product and services they offer, it may be more sensible and beneficial for you to visit their facilities to ensure your own satisfaction and peace of mind.

Some service representatives may suggest services and products. You are well within your rights to decline if you feel they are irrelevant or unnecessary. At no point should you feel pressured into accepting anything you don’t feel comfortable with. A truly professional and sincere representative or consultant knows not to be pushy during a time of loss and tragedy.

The Funeral

Funerals tend to be very spiritual in nature and are generally dependent on the deceased’s cultural and religious background. The customs and practices may vary from place to place even for similar religions. Regardless of these differences, funerals are usually structured in a similar manner consisting of three distinctive stages: a beginning, middle, and an end. Each stage is intended to engage living participants to acknowledge a major change has occurred for the deceased and all involved, and to provide an opportunity for mourners to collectively grieve.

A typical funeral would include:

Visitation Often termed as a “viewing” or more commonly, a “wake”, this is when guests come to pay their respects to the deceased whose body is presented in a formal setting at home or a funeral parlour either in a closed or open casket. Visitations can occur any time before the funeral service and can last for days. It is also an opportunity for guests to offer their support for the bereft family by spending time with them.

Funeral Service This event is the culmination of the visitation period when the final religious and ceremonial rites are performed in preparation for the deceased’s final journey. Depending on religious and cultural practices, it can take place at home, the funeral parlour, a place of worship or at the grave site.

Committal or Interment Service The final stage of the funeral, the committal or interment service involves the procession bearing the remains of the deceased to the final resting place of choice. If burial is chosen, this typically placing or entombing the casket in a cemetery or memorial park. If cremation is the choice, the remains are cremated at a crematorium with the ashes collected in an urn for scattering or interment in a columbarium.

The funeral is an important step in grieving and coming to terms with the passing of a loved one. In some ways, it can be more important for those left behind than the one who has passed. A sensitive and professional bereavement care provider will work closely with the bereft family towards achieving this aim. A well-arranged funeral not only celebrates the life of the person who has passed, but also provides proper closure for grieving families.

Burial versus cremation

When referring to burial or cremation, this usually relates to the final stage of the funeral involving the disposition of remains. In burial, the remains are interred whole below ground in a cemetery or in some cases, a crypt or mausoleum. In cremation, the remains are incinerated and the ashes are then collected in a cinerary urn. It is then left to the family to decide on the final disposition and the choices are generally interment in a columbarium, burial at a burial plot or scattering (usually at sea).

Between the two, cremation is generally the more economical choice. In recent years, cremation has been gaining in popularity, surpassing burial as the most popular choice. However, one important factor to take note is that certain religions or denominations do not permit cremation while some actually encourage it. Less religious individuals may take environmental impact into consideration but both burial and cremation have its pros and cons when it comes to this topic.

Ultimately if religion is not a factor, burial or cremation is deeply a matter of personal choice. This is one of the reasons why it is always important to keep your loved ones in the loop about your final wishes. Whenever possible, pre-plan to avoid leaving the difficult decision of what to do with your loved ones.

Preparation or taboo?

The Chinese imperial dynasties and nobility of the past were known to pre-plan decades ahead; hence, the idea of pre-planning is not actually even new among eastern cultures. It was thought to be an auspicious and culturally respectable thing to do. In the past, the imperial elite went as far as constructing their tombs years ahead to safeguard political power and secure dynasties through spiritual beliefs.

Among the ordinary folk, the younger generation would gift their elders with coffins to wish them longevity and good fortune! The coffins would be kept at home as a reminder to appreciate life and one’s own mortality, as well as a symbol of filial piety. When the time came, these coffins would actually be put to use during funerals and interments. Though it may seem foreign to us today, such practices are actually still observed in some rural parts of China.

As life expectancy improved with modern medicine and healthcare, people became less accepting of the idea of pre-planning and began seeing it as more of a taboo and “tempting fate”. Such ideas are nothing more than superstitions at best and it doesn’t change the fact we will eventually expire.

Although less traditional or culturally significant in present times, pre-planning is done out of consideration and care for loved ones and is considered a prudent exercise rooted in logic and economic sensibilities. Thankfully with education and exposure, the negative perception associated with pre-planning is beginning to shift as more and more are beginning to see its importance.

Nirvana Life Plans

Funeral planning is a complex and sensitive matter. Whether as a pre-plan or an immediate need, knowing where to begin and deciding what needs to be done can be daunting for many, especially for those who have never been directly involved in the planning of end-of-life affairs. With over 30 years of experience in providing award-winning bereavement care services and products, Nirvana Asia understands this challenge.

Nirvana Life Plans aim to ensure the funeral planning process be as hassle-free as possible by combining our best services and products in convenient, pre-arranged plans. The plans come in different price ranges to address every budgetary concern and are suitable for multi-denominations. Nirvana Life Plans can also be personalised according to individual needs.

Aside from making the process of pre-planning easier for our customers through our Nirvana Life Plans, Nirvana Asia has dedicated service personnel in multiple internationally-certified branches nationwide and a wide network of professional authorised agents who are ever-ready to lend a helping hand.

Why is pre-planning important?  

According to a general survey, there are three primary concerns among family breadwinners. Matters concerning their children’s future top the list. This is followed by financial pressures of the next generation. In third place is the occurrence of unpleasant incidences such as loss of income, critical illnesses and worse still, loss of life.

Life is uncertain; but death isn’t. That is the universal truth that is shared by all regardless of age, status, race or gender. Anyone who has lived through the unfortunate passing of a loved one will know how devastating it can be. Aside from having to deal with the trauma of losing someone dear, there is the additional stress of dealing with the financial and logistical details.

What would the deceased have wanted? What sort of religious service is appropriate?  Do you choose burial or cremation? Are there adequate funds to cover the entire process?  

If providing answers to these questions feel difficult before death occurs, imagine how it would be like when it happens. This is exactly why pre-planning is important for both yourself and your family.

How does pre-planning work? 

Pre-planning can be thought of as a preparation strategy of everything connected to your funeral in and pre-paying for it in advance as a pre-need funeral contract. Depending on your wishes or that of your family’s, the arrangements can vary in cost and details.

Most pre-need funeral contracts like Nirvana Life Plans usually cover the entire process from the moment of death to the funeral, such as type of funeral and religious services, duration of the wake, management of remains or even preferred casket.

Depending on the range of services offered by the bereavement care provider, the choice of final resting place may need to be managed separately. Nirvana, being a convenient one-stop bereavement care provider, is able assist in this aspect aside from its comprehensive pre-need funeral contracts as it also manages an extensive selection of private columbaria and scenic landscaped memorial parks in various nationwide and overseas locations.

When someone passes away, pre-planning will empower the family to set the required actions into motion without having to concern themselves with difficult financial decisions and unfamiliar details. Different individuals may have different needs and choices; the most important thing here is their families can proceed with confidence that they are acting in accordance to the wishes of the deceased. This will give them the freedom to cope with loss and say goodbye.

IT’S TIME TO

Crave new adventures, mystical experiences and relaxing beaches? You need to visit the enchanting island of Bali. Create unforgettable memories with us. We ensure you get the experience of a liftetime in Bali!

LICENCE TO LIVE

Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions

© 2023 nirvana bali tours. all rights reserved ., nirvana bali tours | abn:49 940 109 319.

the alternative cultural center

- art community founded i n 2003 -, exhibitions, nirvana studios "tour map".

This huge outdoor gallery articulates a circuit composed by around 100 contents of cultural, museum and sociologic interest.

The central idea behind this complex structure is to offer, in situ or via internet, a guided visit into the whole Nirvana Studios community in order to unveil through an interactive way the artistic movement born in the Cultural Alternative Center since 2004, a movement that pulses daily towards all cardinal points.

Link Tour Map:   nirvana.pt/mapa 

APOKALIPSE HEIRS

This roadshow exhibition is an adrift shelter lost in the ruins of an amnesic retro-futuristic world we hope will never exist, where objects and anachronistic remains rise as past witnesses. It’s composed by two 40 feet containers and a classic truck linked for an unexpected tour of Steampunk, Bizarre Chic and Dieselpunk art.

Link Expo. Heirs of the Apokalipse:

 www.customcircus.pt/herdeiros 

ARTEXPRESS - WALL OF FAME

This habitable volumetry active the year round also gets to be the platform for the Wall of Fame and for the exhibitions of installations theme related to Oldschool Motor Culture, Tours, Roadshows and Shows.

Above the containers that form Artexpress will spread out an extensive longitudinal sculpture yet to inaugurate between 2019-2010.

Link  Wall of Fame:

  nirvana.pt/murodafama  

cUSTOM CAFÉ COLLECTION

This vast unconventional collection is the very own contour of Custom Café, where Burlesque Cabaret crosses Industrial Goth and an exotic Art Nouveau with rents of Post apocalypse.

Due to the variety and quantity of pieces it’s impossible to develop here an explanation of the whole, however every contents are also available on the website at the option The Collection.

BAND BOX CORRIDORS I & II

The Band Box project was created by Custom Circus to harbor alternative music bands and tour productions. This impressive compound of more than 60 clubhouses studios has had an astonishing history that the troupe started to depict in a mural art form back in 2006.

Today, more than 200 bands form this musician’s community inside the artist’s community and the intertwined items of memorabilia on the murals are conceived to leave an impression on Rock’ n’ Roll aficionados.

BAND BOX CORRIDORS II & IV

​Today, more than 200 bands form this musician’s community inside the artist’s community and the intertwined items of memorabilia on the murals are conceived to leave an impression on Rock’ n’ Roll aficionados.

UNITED WORLD 2072

Launched on the STRANGE Gallery at Nirvana Studios 2018 open day, this Custom Circus exhibition presented before the public the whole 50 piece collection used in the Absurdium show. The structure features an isle of decrepit sofas surrounded by a truss haunted with deformed mask molds, while a real body suspension (with hooks piercing) occurs performed by the Ascendus group.

STEAMPUNK CORRIDORS

Being a studio mostly dominated by artisanship ateliers, the hall and interior corridors where decorated with murals depicting obsolete objects, tools or tasks related to them or performed by our ancestral artisans.

• +90 242 244 38 93
• +90 541 521 60 53

Now Is The Time To Travel

In the service area, which we have been serving since 1998, we offer you more than 50 different program variants

Discover new destinations with Nirvana Travel

Suluada and Kemer yacht tours on the deep blue shallow shores of Antalya. Historical trips to Perge and Aspendos with their historical riches. The unique beauty of Pamukkale. You can join the fun right away by choosing one of the many tour options such as Beskonak Rafting tours, which are intertwined with nature and adventure.

Not a Member Yet?

Join us now and enjoy tours with the best prices!

Best Deals For You

Get your next booking.

Historical and Activitie Tours

Discover with nirvana, alternative.

Coming Soon…

Traveller reviews

Happy customers globally with nirvana tour.

Travellers’ Choice 202

Why choose us

Why nirvana tour.

Flexible bookings

Avoid fees and frustration with cancellations up to 56 days before departure on eligible trips and easy deposit transfer.

The right trip for you

Whether near or far from home, your trip will be local led and full of unforgettable experiences, with everything taken care of.

Locally based guides

Our Chief Experience Officers are all locally based, meaning they know the area you’re exploring.

Recent post

Latest travel guides.

Antalya Adventure Tours

If you are planning a vacation in Turkey and you would like to try some new adventures in…

Antalya Yacht Tour

If you are interested in taking a yacht tour in Antalya, you are in luck because you can…

Cultural Tours in Antalya

If you are looking for cultural tours in Antalya, you have come to the right place. Whetheryou want to tour a famous site like Perge Aspendos, or discover the ruins of a city like Demre Myra Kekova, you’ll find a variety of options available.

24 Years of Experience

Our company continues its service successfully in the field of tourism with its qualified staff.

24/7 Customer Support

We provide nonstop service so that everyone can create their dream vacation.

117+ Destinations

We are always working to give you newer discoveries and experiences.

Customer Satisfaction

Without compromising on quality and honesty, high customer satisfaction has always been our company mission

Nirvana Travel Service was founded in Antalya in 1998 to operate in the travel and tourism sector. Since its inception; The mission of our company has always been based on customer satisfaction without sacrificing quality and honesty Read more…

Subscribe Newsletter

Popüler turlar.

• ANTALYA KONYA CAPPADOCIA
• AQUALAND & DOLPHIN SHOW
• DIVING & SNORKEL TOUR
• KEMER YACHT TOUR
• BUGGY & RAFTING
• BALLOON RIDE

popüler lokasyonlar

Do not have an account, already have an account.

 1998 yılında Antalya da kurulan Nirvana Seyahat Acentesi kuruluşundan bu yana, kaliteli ve dürüstlüğünden ödün vermeden, her zaman müşteri memnuniyetine şirket misyonumuz olmuştur.  Read more

+90 242 244 38 93 +90 541 521 60 53

[email protected]

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

‘Is She Sure?’ How the Breeders Joined Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts Tour.

The ’90s alt-rock icons hit the Madison Square Garden stage for the first time Friday night, after the 21-year-old pop star invited them to join her on the road.

By Jenn Pelly

Olivia Rodrigo remembers her life in two parts: before she heard the Breeders’ “Cannonball,” and after, she told the crowd at Madison Square Garden on Friday night, when her Guts World Tour arrived in New York.

And that is how the ’90s alt-rock idols came to play the New York arena for the first time last week, 31 years after that song from their platinum 1993 album, “Last Splash,” charted on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Rodrigo’s camp initially approached the Breeders in September about opening some dates on the tour supporting her second album, “Guts .” “My first reaction was, Wow, that seems kind of odd,” the band’s bassist, Josephine Wiggs, said in an interview. “But after I’d thought about it for a while, I thought, ‘That’s actually really genius.’”

Kim Deal, the singer-guitarist who leads the band with her twin sister, Kelley, said she was surprised when they got the invite. “I’d heard ‘Drivers License,’ and I liked that a lot,” she said, referring to Rodrigo’s breakout 2021 smash.

Kelley wondered if it might be a mistake. “I thought, ‘Is she sure? Do they really mean us?’”

But Rodrigo made her enthusiasm clear when the shows were confirmed, reaching out personally to share her excitement. “She texted each one of us individually,” Kelley recalled.

“And said, ‘Really happy to hear that you’re going to do this,’” Wiggs added. “Very classy.”

Aside from Kim, who played Madison Square Garden in 1992 when her earlier band, Pixies, opened for U2, no one in the group had ever performed at the venue before. Kim hadn’t been back since, and said she had no memory of that previous gig: “I usually remember the bad shows, so it’s a good thing that I really don’t remember that one.”

With the first date in the books, the Breeders spent part of Saturday afternoon glimpsing Rodrigo’s soundcheck — she was belting “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” to an empty arena — and then briefly chatting with her. “So easy to talk to!” Kim reported as the Breeders headed up to the stage to adjust their own amps and pedals. The lights were up; two men vacuumed the previous night’s pink and purple star-shaped confetti.

“How about we do a piece of ‘Cannonball,’ like when everything comes in?” Kim asked the band, which also includes the drummer Jim Macpherson. They had already tested the distorted ahh-ooohh-ahh vocalizations that open the song. Kim blew a whistle to emulate the record’s microphone feedback.

Rodrigo was born a decade after the release of “Cannonball,” but the 21-year-old heard it as a teenager and remembers “instantly falling in love with the Breeders,” she wrote in an email. “I thought Kim was the coolest girl in the world,” Rodrigo said. “I’m very inspired by them and everything they stand for. They are absolutely iconic, and playing these shows with them has been a surreal honor.” (The Breeders have joined the tour for four shows at the Garden that wrap on Tuesday, and four more at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles later this summer.)

Mischief, wryness, confidence and camaraderie feel encoded into the poised riffs and bass line of “Cannonball,” and it’s easy to imagine girls gently headbanging along to it for eternity. Rodrigo went louder and crunchier on “Guts,” long inspired by artists who are “not trying to recreate a version of rock music that guys make,” as she told The New York Times last year.

Soundcheck proceeded like a supercut. “Should we do half of ‘Do You Love Me Now’?” Kim asked before crashing the song open and letting its twin harmonies ring out. “A little piece of ‘Drivin’ on 9’?” signaling the aching country tune. “Should we throw in ‘Gigantic’?” Kim asked before unleashing the titanic anthem she co-wrote and sang as a member of Pixies. (She dedicated its “big, big love” to Rodrigo during the show.)

Earlier, the band sat in a green room processing its Guts experience so far. Kelley had been impressed by the emotional arc of Rodrigo’s songs the previous night. “I was texting somebody, ‘I’m so empowered right now!’” She later reached out to praise Rodrigo’s voice as “really special,” observing, “Her tone and control are spectacular!”

“She performs with a really good sense of humor,” Kim added.

Wiggs said she could hear some Breeders commonalties in a Rodrigo chord progression, while Macpherson detected a bit of the band in “Jealousy, Jealousy,” from her first album, “Sour.” “The bass riff was almost like a ‘Hag,’ ‘Hellbound’ -ish kind of thing,” he said.

The Breeders expressed shock at how young Rodrigo’s fans were, and the collective decibel of their screams on Friday night. “You’re going to be surprised by how loud it was,” Kelley said. Weren’t their own amps loud, too? “Not louder than 30,000 tweens,” she said.

Kim roasted her bandmates for withholding stage banter the night before. “Looking out at the sea of 7- and 8-year-olds, I had no idea what to say,” Wiggs said, deadpan. “I could just about manage to say something to people who are obviously teenagers. I was like, OK, maybe I’ll try to make eye contact with the dads.”

The Deal sisters are no strangers to parental accompaniment at gigs. “My dad used to have Ray Charles in his headphones, watching us play, when he drove us around in the r.v. with Nirvana,” Kim said, referring to the band’s 1992 tour with what was then the biggest band on Earth. “He’d have his cassette Walkman,” Kelley added. “He was a big supporter, but he’d heard us a million times.”

In Kurt Cobain’s liner notes to Nirvana’s 1992 compilation “Incesticide,” he detailed the recent life experiences that had meant the most to him since “becoming an untouchable boy genius,” including “playing with the Breeders” on the list. “Nirvana and Foo Fighters would really curate their opening bands, which is I think what Olivia is doing in a way, curating new music that she wants fans to get to know,” Kelley said.

Most of the young people watching from the front rows on Saturday were not familiar with the Breeders — who are all in their 50s and 60s — though there were exceptions. “My parents know who they are!” exclaimed an 18-year-old fan named Mack. “My dad said they had some jams back when he was younger. He didn’t know if I would like them, but I trust Olivia.”

Another fan, Elle, 16, was with her father, who saw the Breeders at Lollapalooza alongside Smashing Pumpkins and the Beastie Boys. “For me, this was really cool,” he said. “I don’t know the tour’s other openers as well, but I’ve loved the Breeders since ’94 when I saw them last.”

Rodrigo’s fans were decked out in sparkling skirts, purple bows and platform boots in honor of their heroine, who took the stage in a series of short, glittering skirts. The Breeders are known for more understated sartorial choices. Had they given any thought about to what to wear?

“I sent out a ‘help’ text to a friend of mine,” Kelley admitted. “I said, I’m trying to upgrade my look from my T-shirt and jeans that I typically wear, but staying in my comfort zone. He said, ‘I find glitter or sequins to always be the answer.’ I just waited for him to laugh or something. That was no help to me at all. So I went with a T-shirt and jeans.”

“Like she’s been dressing since seventh grade,” Kim said.

Tour Details

Moscow metro tour: architectural styles of the subway.

Duration: 2 hours

Categories: Culture & History, Sightseeing

This metro tour of Russia’s capital and most populous city, Moscow, is your chance to get a unique insight into the beautiful and impressive architecture of the city's underground stations. Admire their marble walls and high ceilings representing Stalin's desire for glory after World War 2, and see first-hand how the interiors change with the rise of new political eras. Your guide will lead you through the complex network, which is one of the most heavily used rapid transit systems worldwide, with over two billion travelers in 2011.

Opened in 1935, Moscow’s underground system, now 190 miles (305 km) long with 185 stations, is today one the largest and most heavily used rapid transit systems in the world. On this Moscow metro tour, discover the impressive architecture of Moscow’s underground stations and learn how they reflect the Soviet era.

Getting around by metro, your local guide will take you through parts of Moscow’s infamous history. Stop at stations built during the time of the USSR (Soviet Union) that are praised as one of the most extravagant architectural projects from Stalin’s time. After World War 2, he was keen on establishing Stalinist architecture to represent his rising regime and a recognized empire. Learn how when his successor started the de-Stalinization of the former Soviet Union in 1953, the extravagancy of the architecture was toned down.

Discover how the unique character of each station reflected several different eras. While stations like Kievskaya and Slavyansky Bulvar have pompous halls and high stucco ceilings brimming with extravagant decorations, those built later, like Volzhskaya, are lightly adorned with sparse furnishings. Architect Alexey Dushkin and painter Alexander Deyneka were just two of the many artists who made these magnificent landmarks possible.

Revel in Moscow's glory days, as well as the years of scarcity, on this fascinating Moscow metro experience. Conclude your tour at one of the central stations in Moscow. If you're lucky, you may even find the secret entrance to the unconfirmed Metro-2, a parallel underground system used by the government -- a mystery which has neither been denied nor confirmed today.

Nearby tours

Soviet-Era Walking Tour in Moscow: Lubyanka Square and the Gulag History Museum

If you love history, would like to know more about Russia’s past, or just want to take an interesting walk, book this guided Moscow walking tour of Soviet-era sites. With your expert guide, walk through Lubyanka Squ...

Walking Tour of Moscow's Kolomenskoye Estate

On this walking tour through the Kolomenskoye Estate in Moscow, immerse yourself in Russia’s interesting royal history. Walk around the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Ascension Church, built in 1532, and enter the Hou...

Moscow Cultural Walking Tour: Red Square, Kitay-Gorod and St Basil's Cathedral

Take a guided walking tour of Moscow's cultural highlights, like the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage-listed Red Square, said to be the central square of Russia. Walk through the adjoining district Kitay-Gorod, one of ...

Kremlin Grounds, Cathedrals and Patriarch's Palace Tour from Moscow

A great three hour tour exploring the Kremlin Grounds, Cathedrals and Patriarch's Palaces in Moscow! The small city in the center of Moscow, once the residence of Czars and Patriarchs, contains Russia's main cathedra...

Moscow City Tour

The Moscow City Tour covers all the highlights and most beautiful places in the enchanting Russian capital. The tour begins with a stop at the Red Square and St. Basil's Cathedral, the architectural masterpiece and w...

Culture Shock Rating

We have a wide range of tours designed to give you an insight into the destination you're travelling in and there is something for everybody. The culture shock ratings considers the destination visited, transport used, activities undertaken and that "Wow, I'm really not at home now!" factor. While generalisations are always tricky, a summary of our gradings is as follows…

This is the least confronting of our tour range. Transport used on the trip is either private or a very comfortable public option, the activities included are usually iconic sites and locations that are not all too confronting.

The tour can include a mix of private and public transport providing a level of comfort that is slightly below what you would experience at home. Sites visited are usually iconic sites, tours can also include market visits, visits to communities etc that provide the traveller with a fantastic insight into destination.

Expect to rough it for parts of this tour, whether it's a packed public bus where you are forced to stand, a visit to a local market, a local community, you are sure to have an experience that is very different from what you're used to at home.

The comforts of your home town and the environment you are used to are more of a rarity. Expect some challenging transport options, visits to local sites and areas that don't resemble anything at home.

You're out there in the global community! You are likely to be exposed to the elements, travel in whatever means of transport is available and basically take it as it comes, whatever comes! It can be tough.

Physical Rating

Our physical rating gives you an idea of how much huffing and puffing you can expect on the tour. While generalisations are always tricky, a summary of our gradings is as follows…

These tours have very limited physical activity. Usually climbing in and out of the transport provided, walking through sites, markets etc included in the itinerary.

These tours have a bit of physical activity but nothing that should challenge you too much. This could be climbing on and off public transport through to a walk through the destination you're travelling in, they can include walking only tours or a combination of walking and transport.

These tours involve a bit of physical activity from walking up and down hills in the destination you're travelling in or the surrounding areas. Climbing on and off local transport or riding a bike up to 30 kms along predominantly flat terrain or jumping in a kayak for a gentle paddle on flat water.

These Tours will provide you with some solid physical activity. Whether its bike riding, walking, trekking, kayaking or riding on public transport you will need to have a good level of fitness to enjoy this tour.

Be prepared for some serious physical activity. These tours are our most challenging and involve some serious walking, hiking or bike riding. Can involve step climbs by foot or pedal and some challenging public transport options in the destination you are travelling.

Luxury Rating

Some trips are like a stroll on the beach, while others have you trekking alpine passes. Some of you thrive on camping out on the savannah, while others may prefer a hot shower and a comfortable bed in a lodge. Follow the grading systems below to find the right trip for you.

To help you choose the trip that's right for you, we've broken all of our trips down into four service levels. Measuring the comfort level of the accommodation and transport. So whether you're travelling on a budget and want to save money by using public transport, or prefer upgraded accommodation and are happy to pay a little more, then we have a level for you.

This is grassroots travel at its most interesting

Authentic experiences with some of the comforts of home

For those who like to travel in comfort

All the unique experiences wrapped up with a gold ribbon