Nirvana recorded their MTV Unplugged performance at Sony Music Studios in New York on November 18, 1993. The 14-song set opened with “About a Girl” from Bleach and gave six slots to covers. Alongside songs from Nevermind and In Utero, the band made space for the musicians whose work they wanted listeners to hear.
The acoustic setting was already part of Nirvana’s touring life. On the In Utero tour, guitarist Pat Smear and cellist Lori Goldston were performing alongside Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl during shows that included acoustic sections. Goldston brought an approach that suited a rock band working by ear. “It was also unusual for a string player to work without written parts,” she told The Ringer in its 2018 oral history. She improvised around chord changes and worked with hummed parts, drawing on a background that included playing guitar. Cobain, she recalled, already had a clear idea of what the cello should do. The musicians prepared for Unplugged over two days in Weehawken, New Jersey, before the camera rehearsal and evening taping in Manhattan.
Making that ensemble work for television involved practical adjustments. Producer Alex Coletti told Guitar World that he supplied Grohl with brushes and lighter percussion sticks, wrapped as a Christmas present, to soften the drummer’s impact. Cobain kept a Fender amplifier and effects in the signal path of his Martin acoustic guitar. The production team disguised the amp as a monitor wedge. The acoustic presentation still had room for the amplified guitar sound Cobain wanted.
The Meat Puppets’ appearance grew out of another touring connection. Brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood were on the road with Nirvana when Cobain asked them to take part. Their three selections, “Plateau,” “Oh Me” and “Lake of Fire,” all came from Meat Puppets II. Curt played guitar, Cris played bass and Novoselic moved to guitar, with Cobain handling the lead vocals. The choice made demands on the singer, too. Coletti recalled that Cobain liked how the Meat Puppets songs pushed his voice and had deliberately chosen material that challenged him.
Other arrangements were still being settled at the microphone. Before “Pennyroyal Tea,” Cobain asked whether he would play it alone, and Grohl encouraged him. The musicians had tried fuller versions in rehearsal, including Grohl on guitar and Smear singing. For the taping, those parts fell away. The In Utero song became a solo performance, with the decision preserved in the exchange before it began.
Coletti recalled the band working through the set without retaking complete songs, an unusually straightforward shoot for the series. After the closing “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” he tried to secure an encore. Cobain felt they had reached the right ending. “I can’t top that last song,” Coletti remembered him saying. The producer accepted the decision.
MTV broadcast the show that December. The recording became the live album MTV Unplugged in New York in 1994, including “Something in the Way” and “Oh Me,” which had been omitted from the original television broadcast. In 1996, the album won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.
