Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Breed
2. Drain You
3. Aneurysm
4. School
5. Sliver
6. In Bloom
7. Come As You Are
8. Lithium
9. About A Girl
10. Tourette's
11. Polly
12. Lounge Act
13. Smells Like Teen Spirit
14. On A Plain
15. Negative Creep
16. Been A Son
17. All Apologies
18. Blew
19. Dumb
20. Stay Away
21. Spank Thru
22. The Money Will Roll Right In
23. D-7
24. Territorial Pissings

Disc 2:

1. Breed
2. Drain You
3. Aneurysm
4. School
5. Sliver
6. In Bloom
7. Come As You Are
8. Lithium
9. About A Girl
10. Tourette's
11. Polly
12. Lounge Act
13. Smells Like Teen Spirit
14. On A Plain
15. Negative Creep
16. Been A Son
17. All Apologies
18. Blew
19. Dumb
20. Stay Away
21. Spank Thru
22. Love Buzz
23. The Money Will Roll Right In
24. D-7
25. Territorial Pissings

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116 in Music
• Released on: 2009-11-02
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: CD+DVD
• Dimensions: .32 pounds
• Running time: 294 minutes

CD Description
The greatest lost rock band of the nineties played the Reading Festival twice in their career, but the excellent value CD/DVD set Live at Reading captures their headline show in 1992, rather than the incendiary afternoon slot the previous year which heralded their elevation to the big leagues. Those who saw both recall their return as patchy, the band looking tired in atrocious weather, the stuff of disappointment rather than legend. At times, such as the stumbling versions of "Polly" and "Sliver" captured here, that impression endures. But at their best Nirvana made the most gleeful racket any three men with drums and guitars have ever managed, and the highlights of their biggest ever British show, such as a pounding "Negative Creep" and the furious opener "Breed", where bassist Krist Novoselic just about wins an instrument thrashing contest with drummer Dave Grohl, are jaw-dropping for their casual intensity. With twenty five songs to choose from (one less on the CD), including great covers of punk obscurities by Fang and the revered Wipers and tentative early versions of In Utero standouts "All Apologies" and the ferocious "Tourette’s", the set sprawls yet never quite flags, though Kurt Cobain already looks uncomfortable even in front of an adoring crowd. But as a document of perhaps the most unlikely band ever to leap from bottom of the bill obscurity to festival headliners in less than a year, Live At Reading is not only fascinating, but a genuine illustration of Nirvana’s uniqueness.--Steve Jelbert

Customer Reviews

3 guys play great music
I have actually stopped buying live DVDs these days as I find that the performance is usually ruined by special effects and the ridiculous need of 40,000 cameras showing different angles every .5 of a second.

However, what you get here is, believe it not, a recording of a great band playing great songs. No effects, no stupid camera tricks, just the band playing. Thats all I want in a live DVD as the band and their music is all you, as a viewer and fan, should need. At the end of the day, the crowd dont get different angles and effects and they love it, so why shouldnt we.

This DVD/CD set is fantastic and shows possibly one of the greatest ever Reading performances by any band. If you like Nirvana dont miss it and if you fancy getting into them I recommend getting this to achieve that.

Long live in our hearts and memory a truly great song writer.

Essential for lovers of this band
This performance can be rightly remembered as Nirvana's high water mark. The set starts in blistering fashion, a typically brutal working over of "Aneurysm," is followed by one of the favourites from Bleach,"School." The set moves along with raucous venom, each track seamlessly dovetailing into the other.
Cobain knew himself that Nirvana would have never reached the wider audience they did without Grohl on the drums. His display here is typically staggering, the DVD in particular showing just how well the rhythm section worked. Cobain looks nerdy in his long doctor's coat, shifting around his part of the stage, frequently re-tuning his guitar before and during tracks. The DVD gives an excellent insight as to how Nirvana worked as a band and Cobain as a guitarist. He was clearly obsessed with the instrument and its dynamics - visibly smug that his partners could carry anything that he chose to do along at a blistering pace.
All of the favourites appear on here and it marks an interesting point between Nevermind and In Utero with many of the tracks from Bleach still featuring heavily on the set list. Nirvana fans should teasure this as it shows Cobain still happy and clearly enjoying the music,"this is our last ever show," he jokes, "until the start of our tour in November." - it's much better than the gaunt, depressed image we are left with from the unplugged performance.
For those growing up in the early nineties this fantastic DVD/CD set is likely to serve as than more than just a nostalgic trip down musical memory lane. It's easy to forget than Nirvana were not just a band - they became a social phenomenon. I was left with the impression that I was watching a piece of history going by.

Essential
Ok, here's an honest review of the DVD.

As most fans of the band will testify, you can only listen to songs so many times before they get a bit over familiar - no matter how good they are. I listened to Nirvana non-stop for years in my late teens and early twenties. My bootleg CD of this performance was the only one of many that stood the test of time due, in part, to it's impressive sound quality.

So...the first thing I'd say is that, soundwise, this official release is no better than the bootleg. Surprisingly, there's a lot of crowd noise and singing in the mix, but IMHO this simply adds to the excitement and frenzied atmosphere of the gig.

There aren't many shots of the audience, but footage of the crowd taken from behind the stage essentially positions you right next to Kurt, offering an intimate insight of what it must have been like for the band on the night. And it gave me chills to see the trio perform in such glorious high definition.

Make no mistake - this is a five-star performance. Everything that's good about Nirvana is right here on this disc: the passion, the bum notes, the banter, the chemistry, musicianship etc. And as has been pointed out, it's bittersweet to see Kurt smiling and having fun, pulling another rabbit out the hat at the top of his game. At times the renditions seem so fragile that they might fall apart altogether (Polly and All Apologies) but then that was always part of the magic of nirvana (that it never did!!). If you are a genuine fan, all I can say is don't hesitate to buy this. Sit down, pull the curtains and relax with a beer (or whatever floats your boat) and ENJOY!