Music dvd review: Nirvana - Live! Tonight! Sold out!
VHS is out, DVD is in. Fortunately, the big shots at the record companies have noticed that it pays off to re-release material that was out on VHS on DVD. Nirvana’s Live! Tonight! Sold out! contains footage of several shows in 1991 and 1992, the time the band was getting popular throughout the world. The live recordings are frequently interchanged with interviews and home videos, recorded by the bandmembers.
The live footage was recorded in Amsterdam, Seattle, Tokyo, London and a couple of other places. Of course the DVD contains Nirvana’s biggest hits, but also songs that have rarely been played live, and special performances. The quality of the recordings isn’t always good, in fact, some are very poorly. But this only aids to the mood of the documentary and portrays the right image of the band. Kurt, Dave and Krist regularly smash sets and instruments around, stumble around intoxicated and take the piss in interviews.
The extra features contain five additional songs from the show in Amsterdam. Nice touch is the Nirvana-smiley menu indicator. For the old time Nirvana fans this DVD contains nothing new. The VHS-version was released in 1994 and most of the recordings have been on tv a lot. The quality of both sound and images has been improved as much as possible on the DVD.
Verdict: If your VCR had died, and you’re a Nirvana-fan, this should definitely be in your collection. If you’re only moderately into the band, wait for it to go on sale.