August sees Silverback Touring bringing back the best Nirvana Tribute act on the plant to perform Nirvana’s iconic album, ‘In Utero’, in full, as part of its 30th-anniversary celebrations. The band, which has been hailed as one of the best in the world, and is the only world touring tribute to the Seattle trio, has mesmerized audiences across the globe with their powerful performances, capturing the raw energy and essence of Nirvana. This upcoming tour promises to be no different, and is the bands third visit to Australia since 2019 having amassed a new legion of fans with each tour.
‘In Utero’, which was released in 1993, was Nirvana’s third and final studio album, and is widely regarded as a masterpiece, showcasing the band’s incredible songwriting skills and Kurt Cobain’s unmistakable vocals. Fans will not only have the rare opportunity to hear the album played live, in its entirety, but will also experience a selection of Nirvana’s hits and deep cuts. We caught up with Jon O’Connor to find out more about the enduring appeal.
Jon: Hey how are you?
Mark: I’m great thank you. Great to have you back over again.
Jon: Thank you.
Mark: It’s not been that long since we saw you last. Reviews were glowing, and this time you’re back with something a little different?
Jon: Yes we’re taking the ‘In Utero’ tour over there this time. We will be playing the album in its entirety.
Mark: Interesting in that it was of course something the band itself never did. Does that feel a little strange?
Jon: Well it does and it doesn’t, we’re trying to bring you the tour that never was, the show that should have come there. So we’re looking forward to it. We are going to play teh album in its entirety but not back to back, we’re gonna mix in a whole host of fan favorites and other classics and B-Sides in there as well.
Mark: It’s great to have those deep cuts too, the band always had ore than their fair share of hidden gems. Can you remember the first time you heard Nirvana?
Jon: I can actually. I was really young and a friend of mine hit play on a cassette tape and I was just blown away. I had been listening to things like Metallica up to that point and the album in question that he put on was ‘Bleach’. This would have been maybe six months before ‘Nevermind’ if even that. But it was definitely an eye-opener and the songs were so different to what I was listening to at the time. Things like “Negative Creep’ and ‘School’ the simplicity of those songs and the power at the same time was just amazing.
Mark: I remember seeing Nirvana a few times in teh early days and like you the first I heard was ‘Bleach’ live I saw them play with L7 and I cant remember who the second time, but they were always interesting live. Did you ever get to see them?
Jon: I didn’t unfortunately, it was a little too much before my time. By the time Kurt passed I was around twelve. They were scheduled to play a show at the Dublin Point Théâtre and that would have been only days after he died. That would have been my closest opportunity to see the band, but it never happened unfortunately.
Mark: It’s hard to believe it’s 30 years since the album was released that you are going to be presenting and I think if anything its an album that I think has grown in stature since its release.
Jon: Oh I think so.
Mark: DO you have any favourites on there or is that the impossible question?
Jon: Oh it’s so hard to have favourites. I love the ‘In Utero’ album as a whole, I love songs like ‘Tourette’s’ on there – I love the chaos in songs like that; and I love “all Apologies’ because it’s such a contrast to the other songs on there. But if I have to pick Nirvana songs to play live I love to play ‘Drain You’ and I love for personal reasons to play ‘Love Buzz’ live because I always sing that to my wife who stands at the side of the stage.
Mark: You also take in Thailand this tour, it must be great to take the show to new territories?
Jon: Yeah it really is, that’s one of the reasons we love to do this. We’ve played something like 34 countries now and it just amazes me that it just continues to grow and grow. When we come back from doing this run in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand we have some Festivals in the U.K. and then shortly after that it’s on to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. We’ve never done those countries before so it’s great to bring the music to all these new places and like you said it’s universal, it translates all over the world.
Mark: As someone who came into Nirvana’s orbit from listening to Metallica and bands like that do you ever find yourselves tracking back and listening to what Kurt was listening to? He had quite an eclectic taste and even though he could be quite dismissive about some forms of music it’s quite interesting to see what he grew up on, do you ever find yourselves doing that?
Jon: I do sometimes yeah with some of the early Punk stuff that he liked like Flipper and stuff like that. I’ve gone through a lot of the bands that Kurt was into, I mean some of it is for me, some is not. But we are very similar when it comes to his love of Blues music and stuff. Blues music is something that’s been there for me my entire life. And The Beatles as well, Kurt loved The Beatles and I love The Beatles.
Mark: There’s something very essential about the Blues, a deep connection. What makes a great song for you? What does a song have to have? What are some of the things Nirvana managed to capture in their three albums.
Jon: I think it’s the emotion isn’t it? I’ve said this in other interviews – they’re one of those that I can look at people when I’m singing and some with have an emotional reaction – they have tears on their face and the person next to them is cathartically dancing – it’s a very strange thing. It brings such an emotional reaction out of people. It makes an impression every time I see it – you can see what those songs meant. And those songs meant so much to me as a kid so to travel round the world and see how much they mean to other people – it really lights up my heart every time.
Mark: If you could have been a ‘fly on the wall’ for the creation of any non-Nirvana album what would you love to have seen being made?
Jon: Wow. I think it would have to be The Beatles ‘White Album’.
Mark: I think it’s that later period that resonates with me too, and even though quite well documented, just to see them bouncing ideas off each other would have been amazing. Do you know much about the creation of ‘In Utero’?
Jon: Yes, I’ve seen and read quite a bit about the album. I was particularly interested in Steve Albini and just his way of recording records. He was such an unusual guy. I’ve been looking at getting back into original music at some point as well and Steve Albini is someone I would love to work with. I released a record trough Sony about 5 years ago and my aspirations after that would have been to at some point to work with Steve.
Mark: How authentic do you get on stage? Are you playing the same instruments, using the same pedals, looking at the wardrobe? Do you take it to that level? The music is spot on and the sound is wonderful.
Jon: Thanks you that’s high praise. We do try to give it the same look and the same feel on stage, I mean if I was up there on stage playing a Gibson, I just don’t think it would work the same with a Les Paul. So yes the guitars are the same, but some of the effects are different. I moved away from one of the effects companies a few years ago, just because of the reliability. I wanted to stick with Boss and Boss offered me that durability which I prefer, but all of my effects boxes are basically the same. But I do work with Blue Guitar now – I use their Amp 1 and that travels all over the world with me so I have a consistent sound no matter where I go. It’s an amazing unit.
Mark: Have you had any feedback from anyone from the band or involved with them in any way?
Jon: We have actually, we got some feedback from Aaron Burckhard the original drummer with the band who quite graciously said we were the closet to the real thing.
Mark: That’s quite some compliment. Have you been to Seattle?
Jon: No I haven’t actually been, but strangely enough there was a big music store in Seattle recently that painted a big mural of the band, of the Nirvana Tribute on their window which I thought was amazing – somebody sent me a photograph of that. So we need to go there any play – I’ve toured America but we never actually played in Seattle.
Mark: I think there is a Nirvana Tour now in Seattle that takes you around some of the original sites and some of the places that sadly aren’t music venues any more but played their part in the story.
Jon: That’s always sad when they say “This used to be”.
Mark: I know, we lose that important social heritage so easily it seems.
Jon: So sad.
Mark: It took me many years to realise that the familiarity of the riff to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was because it was the riff to Boston’s ‘More Than a Feeling’ with a note added.
Jon: (laughs) Yes.
Mark: It’s a great song of itself of course. Do you ever slip into ‘More Than a Feeling’?”
Jon: I have a couple of times at the start of the song, and of course Kurt did it at Reading as the critics were saying that at the time. But Nirvana were fans and Rock and Roll always borrows. They took one or two little riffs like ‘Come As You Are’, and ‘Milk It’ is actually a Melvins track called ‘It’s Shoved’ which Kurt admitted was his ‘homage’ to Buzz and The Melvins.
Mark: And that is Rock and Roll, what is new to some is reinvention to others and long may it continue. Let’s leave you with a Nirvana related question – what is the meaning of life?
Jon: Happiness. Simple as that. And whether than happiness be found within love or elsewhere, that’s the meaning of life.
Mark: Thanks for your time Jon, Australia may have a thousand AC/DC cover bands but there’s only one Nirvana cover band we want to see and you’re over again in less than a fortnight. Safe travels.
Jon: Thank you so much, it’s been an absolute pleasure Mark.
Thu 10 Aug – Adelaide – Lion Arts Factory
Fri 11 Aug – Sydney – Crowbar
Sat 12 Aug – Melbourne – Stay Gold
Sun 13 Aug – Brisbane – The Brightside
Wed 16 Aug – Gold Coast – Wallaby Hotel
Fri 18 Aug – Auckland – Galatos
Wed 23 Aug – Bangkok – The Rock Pub
Fri 25 Aug – Pattaya – The Rock Factory