Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’ Anniversary Reissue Will Feature Over 50 Unreleased Live Recordings
Nirvana have unearthed a trove of unreleased live recordings — including two full concerts — for a new In Utero 30th anniversary edition, set to arrive Oct. 27.
The deluxe edition of the reissue will feature 53 unreleased recordings, anchored by Live in Los Angeles, recorded in 1993, and Live in Seattle, recorded the following year and capturing the band’s final concert in their hometown. The set will feature additional live recordings pulled from shows in Rome, Springfield, and New York. Jack Endino — who produced Nirvana’s debut Bleach — oversaw the reissued live recordings, reconstructing the tracks from stereo soundboard tapes.
Along with the live recordings, the In Utero reissue will feature a remastered version of the original album by Bob Weston, who worked as an engineer alongside Steve Albini during the original In Utero sessions. Rounding out the set is a collection of five bonus tracks and b-sides from the In Utero era.
Nirvana released In Utero on Sept. 21, 1993. Coming off the multi-platinum, culture-shifting Nevermind, the album was a stark, visceral return to the band’s punk roots — an active challenge to the millions of fans they’d just picked up (Cobain famously sought out Albini in part because he wanted to make an album that sounded like a Pixies record). In Utero, of course, would also be Nirvana’s last, with Cobain dying by suicide several months after its release in April 1994.
The super deluxe edition of the In Utero reissue, with all the unreleased recordings, will be released as an eight-LP vinyl set or a five-CD set. Those will come stuffed with an assortment of ephemera, including a hardcover book featuring unreleased photos, a newly designed fanzine, a Los Angeles tour poster lithograph by the artist Coop, and even replicas of the angel mobile sent to record stores.
The In Utero reissue will also be released in a few pared-back formats, featuring the original remastered album and a selection of bonus tracks, b-sides, and live recordings. All formats are available to pre-order now.