Nirvana Perform Late Night TV in 1991, Play Wrong Song
Nirvana's 1991 performance on the British TV show Tonight With Jonathan Ross didn't exactly go as planned. Kurt Cobain allegedly failed to show up in time for the band's soundcheck, during which Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl rehearsed "Lithium." Once Cobain finally arrived, they rushed through the song again so the show's crew could plan out a camera sequence script that followed the song.
When they took the stage, however, the trio began playing a furious rendition of "Territorial Pissings." It was sloppy, aggressive and ultimately an iconic punk moment. At the end of the song Novoselic started mindlessly throwing his bass in the air, Cobain knocked over his amp stack and Grohl climbed over his drum kit to leave the set, intentionally knocking over multiple pieces of equipment.
As the camera panned back to Ross, he smirked and said, "Hope we didn't wake the neighbors up. Nirvana there, doing the tune that we didn't actually expect, but they wanted me to tell you that they're available for children's birthday parties and bar mitzvahs." You can watch video footage of the full performance below.
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