When Cobain Roamed the Earth

Twelve years ago today (12/29/93), Nirvana played the Sports Arena. The band's 24-song set was the source of two widely circulated bootleg albums: Smells Like TJ captures all 100 minutes onto a Hi8 master, while Pissongs is missing most of the unidentified mystery finale.

After the third song, "Breed," bassist Krist Novoselic told the crowd, "Nice to be playing San Diego, hometown of Eddie Vedder." After covering Bowie's "Man Who Sold the World," Novoselic asked, "Who here is from San Ysidro?" Two songs later, he continued, "We used to play here in San Diego, we used to play, like, the Casbah and Iguanas, where you have to wait at the McDonald's in San Ysidro because the federales were on the payroll to let you cross the province."