If you’re a Miami Valley member of Generation X, you may have seen this show. Almost 30 years ago (29 to be exact), on October 30, 1993, one of the most important musical acts of this generation, and the last few decades, played a show at Hara Arena.
Nirvana rocked in Dayton.
Below is audio of the performance (courtesy of Kurtis). As you can see on the set list, Nirvana sang all of their biggest hits, the biggest being Smells Like Teen Spirit and Come As You Are. For more intricate and intimate details about this specific show, you can check out the website livenirvana.com.
For historic, cultural, and tragic reasons, this show is important. We didn’t get many more shows from Nirvana after this one, so every snippet of sound we have from them should be revered. It’s also major that one of the biggest Rock groups in recent memory, fronted by one of Rock’s greatest creative minds, performed one of their last shows at Hara Arena and…Dayton.
Miami Valley Music Focus explores the places and people behind the music of Southwest, Ohio. This series is made possible by support from Ohio Arts Council.
