February 27, 1994 Nirvana live from Slovenia
In Utero European Tour 94
Nirvana had more reason than most for trying to make this show special. As most of you know Krist Novoselic the band’s bassist is of Croatian origin and Slovenia where the band played was just across the border from the country his parents came from. At the start of the 1990’s after the fall of communism Yugoslavia, which was like the US in having a number of states began to disintegrate and led to wars in each of the separate nations as they declared their independence from their former rulers. This resulted in a series of wars, the first and least serious occurred in Slovenia itself before the war passed into Croatia and then Bosnia.
Eventually the US and Europe intervened and managed to defeat Serbia and put an end to the conflict. As you are probably aware the Balkans war was one of the most lengthy and brutal of wars with many villages being annexed with its male inhabitants killed and their wives raped by the Serbian soldiers. The bands concern for the rape victims was shown in the bands organising a benefit show on April 9th 1993 at Cow Palace to raise funds for their aid.It would have been no doubt the most important show the band would play on the tour, for these reasons and this show was likely very important to all of Nirvana’s members not just Krist. It was also the only show of the tour to be professionally filmed in full.
A different perspective of the show is provided by the audience recording from which we can judge the crowd’s reaction which can only be termed ‘celebratory.’ The crowd claps enthusiastically for Dumb, as they do for most of the quieter songs in the set. It seems from the recording at least that they appreciate the gesture the band was making in touring so close to a region that was at the time ravaged by civil war and are really enjoying the show. Krist also gets the chance to try out his Croatian on the crowd who seem to cheer everything he says to them in their native tongue.
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