NIRVANA <3 SHONEN KNIFE

Posted Monday, July 30th, 2012 at 4:20 am

It was in 1991 that Shonen Knife came to find their biggest fan in the form of Kurt Cobain. Cobain had seen them play in LA and had come to deeply enjoy their music:

“When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical nine-year-old girl at a Beatles concert.”

Nirvana asked Shonen Knife to serve as their opening act for their UK tour, just prior to the release of their breakthrough album, Nevermind.^[2] Yamano later admitted that when Cobain asked them to open for his band, they had no idea what Nirvana was.

“So I went to a record store, and I bought their CD. And when I saw their photograph, I thought they might be scary persons, because their hairstyles and their clothes were very grunge. But once the tour had started, I noticed that all the members were nice, good persons. And because this was our first experience of a long tour, the drummer Dave [Grohl] helped us with setting up the drum kit.”^[2]

Furthermore, despite Cobain’s reputation for being difficult, Yamano states working with him was a friendly experience, describing Cobain as “quiet, but very nice”. From November 24 to December 11, Shonen Knife toured with Nirvana and Eugenious all over the UK for a total of nine shows and during the tour Naoko taught Cobain how to play “Twist Barbie” which Nirvana covered live at one of their secret shows.

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