October 1992 marked the beginning and end of Nirvana’s history in Argentina. The band was playing a show on October 30 at a 50,000 capacity venue in Buenos Aires, their biggest concert to date. But they never played Buenos Aires again after that, and it all came down to how the crowd treated their opening act.
Calamity Jane were underrated pioneers for women and queer people in grunge, forming in Portland, Oregon, in 1989. The band released one album in 1991, followed by several singles, and supported contemporaries like Scrawl and Fugazi on tour. They opened for Nirvana on two occasions during their 1992 tour, following the release of Nevermind, and the show in Argentina became infamous.
When Calamity Jane took the stage, the tens of thousands of Nirvana fans were already in a sour mood. Another band had already played before them, local art-rockers Los Brujos, and then Calamity Jane was prepared for a 30-minute set. But the people were impatient for the main event, and they made that very clear almost immediately.
Calamity Jane Vocalist Recalled Infamous Nirvana Concert 30 Years Later
Vocalist and guitarist Gilly Ann Hanner, who co-founded Calamity Jane, recalled the infamous concert in 2023. In a post on her website, she described what she remembered from the incident. From her point of view, the crowd wasn’t thrilled to see “a scrappy looking band of non-traditional looking female/queer/trans punk rockers from Oregon” come out on stage after waiting all day for Nirvana.
The band got through their first song and into the second before they noticed something off with the crowd. They were shouting back at them, loud boos and angry cries of “Putas!”, meaning “whores.” Additionally, the crowd started throwing mud, bottles, ice, coins, anything they had available.
“It didn’t really compute until I looked down at the stage and noticed a circle of spit around us,” Hanner recalled. “Spit coming from the crowd, and past that I could see the faces and middle fingers, even a few penises that had been flashed at us.” She added, “They were not happy, they did not like us, and they wanted us to get off the stage.”
Calamity Jane retreated at first, then went back out at Courtney Love’s urging. They got through a couple of songs before Hanner ended the set with a roaring scream into the mic. She recalled smashing her guitar, and her bandmates followed suit.
Kurt Cobain Faked Out the Impatient Crowd with the Opening Riff of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
After such a disastrous reception, Kurt Cobain was prepared to cancel the rest of the show. Instead, Nirvana still went out there, but they devised a torturous punishment for the unruly crowd. The fans had gathered because they wanted to hear all the hits. But they lost their privileges when they trashed Calamity Jane.
Nirvana played a set almost entirely of rarities and deep Nevermind cuts. They also teased the audience constantly with the opening riff of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. But they never played it all the way through, not once in the entire show.
Cobain even opened the set with a song he allegedly made up on the spot. It was long considered the only remaining unreleased Nirvana song. But many music historians and grunge experts theorize it was totally impromptu. Fans affectionately refer to it as “Nobody Knows I’m New Wave”, with lyrics like “I promise to s—t on your head / I’m new wave / I’m old school”.
As for Hanner, she explained that Calamity Jane didn’t play another live show together after that. Not for more than 20 years, at least. However, she added, “It was a bit of solace to feel that our comrades cared what happened to us, yet it confirmed that we as musicians are subject to the audience, and the bigger they get, the worse it can feel when the hurricane of negative public opinion storms you.”
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