Nirvana
Live at Reading - DGC/GEFFEN/UMe
FILTER Grade: 93%

From 1990 to 1994, Nirvana was everything to me. I bought every release: from the cassingle for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to the split 7” with The Jesus Lizard and Cobain’s spoken word collaboration with William S. Burroughs. I remember the day I found out Kurt had committed suicide; I had just come back from a Pearl Jam concert in Rochester, where Eddie Vedder had spent a moment solemnly talking about how precious life was before tearing into a gut-wrenching version of “Indifference.” But there I was, watching a somber, black-clad Kurt Loder on MTV use the phrase “single shot to the head.” Two weeks later, I was piss drunk on Cobains—irreverent shots of tequila delivered by a Supersoaker to the back of the throat—and still torn up. In November of that year, I cried the first time I heard the Unplugged album. And yet, just a year after that, I wasn’t listening to the band anymore, having moved on to the brashness of Britpop. For a long time, Nirvana’s music only existed for me as an encapsulation of another chapter, but this Live at Reading DVD/CD is a roaring reminder of why Nirvana was so fucking brilliant. Their performance is unapologetic, caustic and loud; the set list is impeccable, from the black and blue “Drain You” to the offhand pop of “About a Girl” and the vitriol of “Lithium.” Songs like these are why Nirvana was king and this show proves why the band was peerless. Suddenly, Nirvana is everything to me all over again.