Decades before Harry Styles irritated conservatives by wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue, Kurt Cobain regularly dipped his toes in the fluidity of gender – wearing dresses and makeup on stage, in photo shoots or just hanging out at friends’ houses. A memorable moment is when the late Nirvana frontman gave an encore in a combination of lace and tiara, at the Hollywood Rock festival in Rio de Janeiro on January 23, 1993.
The show was the band’s second performance in Brazil that month; the previous one, on January 16 in São Paulo, fell short of the ideal. It was the first time that they performed since October 1992, and it appeared. The messy set was filled with covers like “Rio” by Duran Duran and “We Will Rock You” by Queen (Cobain changed the lyrics to “We’re going to fuck you”), and at one point Krist Novoselic even played her bass on Cobain and the stage went out. Although the night had some highlights – Flea playing the saxophone in “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the band debuting “Heart-Shaped Box” – the band cited it as one of their worst shows.
Following the chaos of São Paulo, the Rio show on January 23 was seen as a chance for redemption, and they ended the set with a long “Apprentice Without Perfume”. In the video above, Cobain returns to the encore as Dave Grohl – wearing a bra and an inverted cap – and Krist Novoselic jam on Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion”. Cobain goes through the opening chords of “Dive”, an old jewel that was released in the compilation Incesticide a month earlier.
The video for “Dive” would end in 1994 To live! Tonight! Sold off!!, and Courtney Love later considered it to be her favorite Nirvana song. “It’s so sexy and sexual, weird and scary,” she said to Charles R. Cross in his biography of Cobain, Heavier than the sky. “I thought you were a genius.”
Cobain died 27 years ago today, while It does not matter 30 years ago this fall. Post Malone recently featured a 15-song tribute to Nirvana while wearing a floral dress inspired by Cobain, but unfortunately “Dive” was not one of them.