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Nirvana - Live At Reading
| Ew |
| From the opening of ''Breed'' through the Hendrix homage that caps ''Territorial Pissings,'' this DVD-plus-CD is — no other way to say it — straight-up awesome. Recorded at England's Reading Festival in 1992, Live at Reading presents the band at its post-Nevermind peak. Watching Kurt Cobain radiate so much life is bound to trigger some tears. But the state you're most likely to be transported to is one of holy joy, best personified by the crazed guy dancing blissfully on stage for most of the show. Po-go, dude! A...full text |
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| Slantmagazine |
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When journalist Everett True escorted Nirvana's frontman onto the stage in a wheelchair before the band's headlining slot at the 1992 Reading Festival, Kurt Cobain's adoring public believed this an affidavit of circling cancellation rumors on account of his spending the weekend on a rampant drug-fuelled binge. After indulging in his own on-stage theatrics, Cobain feverishly stampeded through a mammoth set list of 25 tracks (though only 24 make it onto this album, with "Love Buzz" strangely omitted) and cemented his legacy in the festival's folklore. Some 18 years later (15 since the suicide of the band's sphinx-like ambassador), we have an official CD/DVD package of the legendary performance, another jewel in the crown of Nirvana's posthumous back catalogue. Live at Reading, though, is a very different beast from Unplugged in New York, serving as a pointer to Nirvana's punch and energy as a unit rather than putting an accent mark on the late Cobain's troubled genius. Where Unplugged was a record which showed Nirvana could go beyond their grunge sound, Reading displays the Seattle trio reveling in it: The performance is littered with their most frenzied numbers ("Tourette's," "Territorial Pissings," "Negative Creep") and throws a little dirt on the more honeyed tracks ("All Apologies," "Dumb," "Polly"). In distancing the set from their mellifluous tendencies, Reading is a far cry from pop-chart fodder. And while the jarring howl of Cobain's Fender and his gravelly delivery may alienate the more nonchalant corners of their fanbase, these ferocious renditions will be a godsend to the dyed-in-the-wool Nirvana following. "Breed" and "Drain You" set the tone for what to expect here, juggling the sonorous hooks of their original recordings while underlining the intention to provide a chaotic balls-to-the-wall rock n' roll master class....full text |
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| Spin |
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Nirvana's headlining gig at the 1992 Reading Festival looms infamously large because of (a) that amazingly creepy photo of Kurt getting wheeled onto the stage looking like Norman Bates' mother, and (b) the show was a mind-blower -- sloppy indie rock as stadium-filling psychedelic punk. Most of Nevermind and a fair portion of Bleach are here, as are fetal versions of "All Apologies" and "Dumb," and a cover of über-influences the Wipers' "D-7." As one might imagine, Kurt sounds alternately world-destroying and already dead. On November 3, the Reading Festival set is getting a CD and DVD release. Better yet, you can catch Nirvana Live at Reading the night before on Fuse TV in its entirety at 11 P.M. EST, preceded by an hour of Nirvana videos and retrospective....full text |
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