Rotterdam, Holland - Day 2 of this fest starts with another call from Keith. We hit the local hash bar for a space cake breakfast. Hard to believe tonight is the last show of this tour, it's been great fun. Hung out with Nick Cave, a really nice gentleman who bought me a beer. Thurston introduced us, and mentioned "Desperate Teenage Lovedolls", and Mr. Cave said it sounded great. The festival is held in a big indoor multi-hall convention center-type place, with many bands playing simultaneously. Nirvana we're getting really tanked-up backstage, and Chris tells me Kurt is flying on mushrooms. I film Kim doing the band's make up. Courtney Love enters the room, with Billy Corgan {Smashing Pumpkins were playing too} and introduces him to everyone. I think everyone was vastly underwhelmed. After they leave, Kurt scrawls on the wall in magic marker; "Courtney + Gish" and smiled incessantly. Nirvana go on and just about drive me to tears. They were fukking up too, but fukking up gloriously. I film most of the set, loading the cartridges non-stop. I was even calling out songs from stage right. "Hey Kurt, play In Bloom!" {They haven't played that song on this tour 'til tonight.} At the end, Kurt goes into distructo mode, and won't stop, until he is accosted by bouncers. Alex soon puts a stop to it
"I think the Nirvana set from this festival is a raw and nice performance, just before the mainstream and thus the beggining of the end..."
"At the festival Nirvana weren't allowed to play on the main stage. The Smashing Pumkins were. Nirvana got (childishsly) mad and destroyed the complete backline (which was not theirs but the PA Rental Service's ) When they tried to demolish the huge sound stacks on the front of house, they were taken off the stage. Needless to say they didn't get paid !
A journalist who spoke with Nirvana that day said:
"I mainly spoke with Cobain, the other two went to the Doelen to check it out. On their return they were moaning about the small hall they would have to play, while a band like the Smashing Pumpkins was on the main stage. This arose a wayward atmosphere."
It really did, Nirvana completely trashed the stage.
The show ends in chaos. In the book Come As You Are Michael Azzerad described the situation as following: For the last show of the tour, in Rotterdam, the group got drunk. Near the end of the show Krist climbed on the PA tower with his trouser on his ankles and a bottle in his hand. Security runs on stage and pulls him down, while Kurt was smashing up everything around him. One of the security guys lashes out to Krist, which started a dispute. Krist got removed from the hall, but came back and started fighting the promoter.
Willem Venema, that same promoter, tells another story. I was warned before the show by my stage manager that they would start throwing with their amps and drum kit. They did that every night, part of the show. I told their tour manager that I would intervene when they would take our stuff, PA and microphones, for the simple reason that there was another band after them. At the end of the show Krist gets up the PA and made a start throwing the speakers down the stage.I walked up to him and pulled him off the PA by his belt. On which Kurt started to interfere , telling me not to touch his buddy. They acted like they were very drunk.
