23 years ago today, Nirvana played one of the most notorious shows in their too-short career.

I could keep it simple, celebrate the anniversary, and go straight to the point of this post, but you can read about that anywhere else on the internet, so why not spice things up with a story? And here’s to you, a tale of anticipation and frustration straight from that ill-fated 1994. Also, you’re going to learn why a cow is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about that day in Nirvana’s history. And no, malicious readers, I swear it has nothing to do with Courtney Love.

The hype was high. Overseas, the spotlight was all Pearl Jam’s, whose then-new album, ‘Vs’, had been released to record sales in the US. Here in Italy, it was more about Nirvana, who were about to launch a highly anticipated European tour. The closest show to me was near Rome, on February 22. It was only a couple of hours away by train, but I was a little kid and my parents never would have taken me. Therefore, my only chance to catch a glimpse of what was going on was through magazines, radio, and TV reports.

Then the big news hit. The show in Rome was going to be aired on the radio a few days after taking place. It was even advertised on TV, and, for those who couldn’t attend, the event became as important as the actual concert. I started counting down the days leading up to the radio broadcast until the night finally came. I tuned in way before the start, a blank tape was in the deck ready to record. I only had to wait a little bit. And I waited, but, as the concert was about to start, darkness descended.

No, it’s not a figure of speech. A power cut actually happened and I freaked out. It wasn’t fear of the dark, it was fear of missing Nirvana. Flashlight in my hand, I ran to my boombox, only to find out it needed 6 or 8 batteries to work without power. Needless to say, I didn’t have them, and the stores were closed at 9 pm. After scratching my head for a while, I had to settle for the only working radio available in my house. A cow-shaped, battery-powered radio that we got a few years earlier with the most popular brand of yogurt for kids. Let’s say that its tuning wasn’t exactly top-notch. By the time I found the station I was looking for, ‘Breed’ (the third song on the setlist) was already playing.

I was bummed, to say the least, but I could still listen. Power came back almost one hour later, when they were playing ‘In Bloom’, if I remember correctly. That’s when I started to record the show, and I kept listening to that tape for the next couple of months, wondering if I would ever have the chance to listen to the whole thing. Then one Saturday in June, walking into the local record store with my dad, the owner pointed me to something that had just gotten in. My eyes sparkled when I realized it was a bootleg Nirvana cd with the Rome show. And it was released on KTS, which meant great quality (I talked about this here). I went home, listened to the whole cd loud while playing Nintendo, and lived happily ever after.

It’s not the best Nirvana concert and the band surely sounded tired compared to the killer show they played in Rome in 1991, yet it’s still a pretty solid listen. And if you want to hear yourself, just scroll down to the end of this post.

Epilogue. Fast forward to 2002. That year, I met this guy who’s one of my best friends now. One of the first things we bonded over was our mutual love for the Seattle music scene. One day, I lent him my bootleg CD of the Rome show and he went nuts when he saw it. “I had this show on tape – he said – but it started from ‘In Bloom’ because…”. “…a blackout happened”, I said, cutting him short and picking up the sentence.

PS: as you can see in the picture above, no cow-shaped radios were harmed in the writing of this post.