Holy undead band Batman! Courtney Love strikes again to cash in on her dead husband's legacy by giving the go ahead to put together a CD/DVD combo of Nirvana's legendary 1992 performance at the Reading Music Festival. Of course you can by the DVD and CD separately, and there's plenty of deals with other Nirvana merch put together by the likes of Amazon and Best Buy, but this review will be of the CD/DVD wombo/combo.
First off, the packaging is better than I expected, but being the cynic that I am I didn't expect much. The DVD stand alone comes in the standard DVD plastic case and the CD stand alone comes in digipack (which I hate with a goddamn passion), but the combo of the two comes in an odd sort of amalgamation of both. The case and sleeve material is sturdier stuff than the average cardboard digipack, and the booklet inside is a foldout black and white collage of the event with the inside case consisting of promotional posters of early and then-present Nirvana gigs. All in all, I like it and it scores points with me for new-ish packaging and making said new-ish packaging work.
On to the heart of the matter though. The DVD contains just the live performance and nothing else, so don't get your hopes up for extra little goodies. However, the performance is more than enough to keep you entertained. It starts off with Kurt being wheeled out onto the stage with a wig and a hospital gown on. Krist says, "You're gonna make it buddy" as Kurt shakily gets up, mutters a line into the mic, and falls down. Such antics are the mainstay of live performances and it helps to draw you into the concert. It was not this little stunt that made me feel like I was even close to being there though. Afterward, Kurt is handed his guitar and the feedback screeches into life. In the midst of the amp noise the main riff of Breed organically sprawls out of the feedback and hammers forward as Krist and Dave join in. It was that opening that really sucked me in and kept me there. Every single one of the songs in the performance is played with its own grungy flair and the whole thing is great fun to watch.
The production is phenomenal. Every instrument can be heard crystal clear, and the video is top notch quality. The camera work isn't mind blowingly movie-like as in Megadeth's One Night in Buenos Aires, but it doesn't have to be. This is grunge we're talking about here.
As many of you know, Smells Like Teen Spirit borrows the chord progression from the chorus of Boston's More Than a Feeling. I've been told that Kurt himself said that he borrowed it, but I've never seen this alleged interview with my own eyes. Either way, Nirvana poke fun at the accusation by playing a little section of More Than a Feeling with Krist and Dave on vocals before they play Teen Spirit, which made me smile.
If you're a fan of Nirvana this a must buy and chances are you probably already have by now. If you're just a passing listener and have $30 to blow on the video of a great concert instead of going to an actual concert yourself, then by all means purchase it, but you may want to go with the DVD only for $20. Either way, this package has got my recommendation.
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