It’s difficult to comprehend it, but 20 years after his death, there’s still some footage of Kurt Cobain, unseen by most people, which are suddenly surfacing. On December 30th, Dave Markey, who directed ‘1991: The Year Punk Broke’, uploaded this 15-minute video of Nirvana’s last show in Los Angeles, with the following description:
‘20 years ago tonight (December 30, 1993) I stood on Kurt’s side of the stage at my hometown’s Los Angeles Forum and captured the last set I would see of this band. A band that I had worked with, toured with; people that I would call my friends. A band that both the world and myself really loved (can’t really say this has happened since.) Within just a few short months it would sadly all be over. Sharing a few songs here; a couple covers (Vaselines’ “Jesus” & Bowie’s “Man Who Sold The World”) and All Apologies. I’m glad to have documented this show, as well as their pre-fame fun in 1991.’
I wonder whether he filmed the whole show? Did he even know he had this treasure and found it recently or did he wait 20 years to make it public? Who knows, all I know is that I have never seen Nirvana in concert, and it is my loss, and it is certain that this unique footage will be cherished by fans. It’s always very weird when something like this resurfaces from the past… it’s also weird to see Kurt Cobain playing and being so alive just three months before his alleged suicide,… yeah I know I already see each of you rolling their eyes over this, thinking ‘not again, this conspiracy theory!’ But April 2014 is gonna be the 20th anniversary of his death, and I predict a resurrection of all these theories in full force! Hey, after all the police never explained why he had three times the lethal dose of heroin in his body and still managed to shoot himself, and why his credit card was used after his death! To just touch the surface of this mystery…. Life is so unfair and cruel, we are now stuck with Courtney Love’s rants on Twitter instead of Kurt’s beautiful music!
But we can only do one thing right now, listen to Kurt Cobain dedicating the first song ‘Jesus, doesn’t want me for a sunbeam’ to River Phoenix, another one gone way too soon.