Customer Reviews

Nirvana, Live Tonight Sold Out [VHS]

5 star:		(93)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have to admit, at first, I didn't like this too much. It just seemed too messy and disjointed, as some of the live performances of certain tracks are like cut-and-paste collages featuring bits of footage taken from various different concerts and spliced together - sometimes within a single song. But, after watching this quite a few times, I started to appreciate the artistic quality in this -- as well as having fun watching these three in action.

This footage was mostly recorded during the 1991-1992 era during the release and popularity of their _Nevermind_ album, and as a result, you aren't going to hear any tracks beyond the _Nevermind_ era (_Incesticide_ was mostly recorded in 1990, but released in 1992, so that really doesn't count.) You get to witness the "backstage" or offstage antics of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, and as you witness their tomfoolery, you realize that these three "weirdos" were meant for each other, as they seem to be in sync with one another, without intent. You also get to hear their feelings on superstardom, witness some nifty performances and other such stuff.

Here's a listing of the live tracks performed on here:

(1). Aneurysm. (2). About A Girl. (3). Dive. (4). Love Buzz. (5). Breed. (6). Smells Like Teen Spirit. (7). Negative Creep. (8). Come As You Are. (9). Territorial Pissings. (10). Something In The Way . (11). Lithium. (12). Drain You. (13). Polly. (14). Sliver. (15). On A Plain. (16). Noise (which is basically comprised of bits from "Endless, Nameless," the hidden track on certain copies of _Nevermind_, added with destruction.)

Some things worth mentioning are: (1). The performance of "Something In The Way" is in a different key than the studio version, as well as being amped-up. (2). During the first clip of the "Love Buzz" performance, Kurt dives into the audience, possibly hoping to do some crowd surfing. It gets a little out of hand as the bouncer is trying to keep things organized, but he gets hit in the head by the body of Kurt's guitar quite a few times, which leaves a bit of a gash in the bouncer's head. I'm not sure if Kurt did this on purpose or not. But, after Kurt returns to the stage, the bouncer comes from behind and punches Kurt in the back of his head, and kicks him once. After that, the concert pretty much stops, as Krist comes to Kurt's defense, and soon Dave is seen flying from behind his drum kit to help out as well.

(3). Anyone wondering where all those concert clips seen in the video for "Lithium" came from, you can find them all on this set. (4). The ending features something Nirvana seemed to love to do: destroy their instruments and equipment. At the end, Krist does a little bit of batting practice - with musical instruments. Kurt chucks his guitar in the air, and when it lands, it breaks in half. Afterwards, Krist picks up the body of Kurt's broken guitar, and uses it as a baseball. He uses his bass as a bat, and chucks the body of the broken guitar in the air and tries to hit it. After a miss on the first shot, he hits on the second shot, and the audience applauds. Some really demented stuff.

Enough of my rambling. Case and point: if you're a Nirvana fan, you HAVE to own this. You get to see other sides of the members of Nirvana that you wouldn't have seen elsewhere. Plus with the fun footage, and performances, how can you go wrong?

Here's the scoop on this video. Its packed full of Nirvana interviews and live performances. Also there is a ton of comic relief in it as well. Dave and Krist keep it light as they lay it on heavy during the shows. This has some great live performances on it. These are just a few of them:

-Dive- (one of Nirvana's greatest but not as well known to people familiar with only Nirvana's most popular songs. Dive is a high energy crisp grunge song and this performance of it was great from start to finish.)
-Love Buzz- (watch this performance closely...you'll get a surprise half-way through it...trust me)
-Come As You Are- (Kurts voice wasn't all that great that day so he changes things up a little by playing the song the same but just basically screaming the lyrics in a raspy voice...still enjoyable however)
-Negative Creep- (great performance of a down-right grunge song)
-Teen Spirit- (which they mocked their own song by having Kurt sing made up lyrics and none of the band are actually playing their instruments, but only because fans at the time were deeming Smells Like Teen Spirit the best and only Nirvana song and they were getting tired of it...this is definately worth checking out)
-Territorial Pissings- (a song they performed on a English talk show. The crowd and cast of the show were expecting the much softer "Lithium" and received quite a shock when Kurt, Dave and Krist burst out with some Pissings.)

This video captures the essence of what Nirvana was and who the band members were at heart by showing their off-stage and on-stage characteristics. The video doesn't waste its or your time interviewing behind the scenes people or fans getting their opinion of what Nirvana is to them or what they're about. The interviews are with the band-members themselves. There are also many clips of all the publicity and media attention that Nirvana was getting world-wide at their height of popularity, which is still taking awhile to subside. It gives you just a slight idea of how big Nirvana really was, and what they were doing to change the rock music industry at a time when rock music was desperate and seemed to be waning.

Whether you were a Nirvana fan, are a Nirvana fan or even if you really never liked Nirvana's music, this video is for everyone who likes alternative/punk/grunge/rock music. This video captures Nirvana at their best and the footage on this video is an important part of rock history. I recommend this for everyone.

This videotape helps you relive the ragged glory that was Nirvana with footage from several of their live concerts mixed with behind-the-scene , foreign news , and home video footage in between the concert footage.

Kurt and the boys downplayed their popularity and enjoyed shocking the status qou. Some of the funniest and ironic moments are when Nirvana , unpolished by society's standard , were on these very polished programs like "Top of the Pops" and "Tonight with Jonathan Ross". The boys displayed their rebelliousness and nerve on these two shows by playing WHAT they wanted to play and singing HOW they wanted to sing. Nirvana was not essentially a commercial band but hit it really big in the mainstream anyway and these two clips showed that they weren't going to compromise their grunge integrity nor take their fame seriously. They did whay they wanted to do and didn't care what people thought. In true rock & roll/punk fashion.

The concert footage is terrific , wild , crazed , energetic , funny , and at times disturbing (you can say that , overall , about the tape) from Kurt bashing a stage bouncer in the ear with his guitar and paying the price for it , to a packed stadium crowd wanting Krist Novoselic to shut up and play music(funny) , to Kurt playing a few weary notes on his guitar , dropping to one knee then , quietly , crawling off stage in lingerie. There are two concert clips that might make you cringe but that is part of the shock value of the tape. I won't say what they are but you have been warned.

The things that I don't like about the tape is that near the end they use a couple of clips that were previously shown on the tape and some songs are cut midway and jumps or blends into another concert or video clip. Overall the video is very entertaining on several different levels. Its humorously , shockingly , and nostalgically entertaining. You may find yourself watching this video over and over again and rewinding certain parts to look at again. If you want to see this ground-breaking band in their element during the days of "Nevermind" then this is the video for you.

Although this video features live performances, the real focus of the video is the phenomenon of Nirvana's success following the release of Nevermind, as from the eye of the storm. For two thirds of the video a series of jokes and pranks (e.g. Kurt singing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as low as he possibly can on Top of The Pops) are intercut with media hype for Nevermind. But the last third jetisons the humour and takes a disturbing view. Erratic editing, previously seen footage repeated in slow motion, and constant moaning feedback create the mood of nausea. This is climaxed with scenes of Nirvana destroying their instruments. You realize that all along Nirvana were trying to thwart their fame, when all it did was increase it. If the disturbing end of the video is any indication, then the viewer is left with the sense that something or someone was inevitably going to crack sooner or later.

Since this was Nirvana's only official video release, as for most people who few this video, Live!Tonight!SoldOut! was my first real look at the craziness and bliss of seeing Nirvana live. Mixed in with interviews with the band and news reports from around the globe, L!T!SO! tells the story of Nirvana's rise to fame after the release of Nevermind. The video does take a few viewings to truly digest, for many of the back-stage shots of the band goofing-off are often very quick and random and the entire video's editing is done in a very fast-pased crazed manner. Does take away from some of the incredible performances though. My personal favorite from the video was "Territorial Pissings" from the Jonathan Ross Show, which shows Nirvana clearly freaking out the soccermom majority crowd. The tape has tons of hilarious segments featuring Krist's wicked sense of humor. My favorite comedy moment is when Krist is rambling on a cigaretes or something, and Kurt informs him that the crowd wants him to shut up. 5 stars all the way and a must for any Nirvana fan.

More than your average live rock video, this is a work of art that tackles head-on the insane rollercoaster that Nirvana found themselves on, and takes Kurt and the band's anti-rock star message to its logical conclusion, kicking off with the gloriously sarcastic opening speech.

Full of press and interview snippets, and ending in a glorious orgy of destruction montage as Endless Nameless bleeds from your TV speakers, this was always going to be a video for fans of the band. It does not pander to popular music tastes.

Hence, we get the first couple of bars of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' from a live show before the band grinds to a halt and tells the audience, "we're gonna skip that one." (Footage of the band from BBC's Top Of The Pops makes up the rest of 'Teen Spirit's place on this video, the vocals delivered by Kurt in a hillarious "goth" voice.)

'Come As You Are' is also played out-of-tune (I believe they purposely screwed up the entire set, but only 'CAYA' appears on this video from that gig) apparently because the band had a problem with the audience for slagging off the support acts. Don't quote me on that though, my memory's pretty hazy about it but I'm too lazy to look it up!! Another notable moment is the fracas between Kurt and a violent security guard, which has to be seen to be believed.

This is essentially Kurt's video, he conceived it and had very specific ideas about where it would go, but the film wouldn't be completed until after Kurt's death. In the concluding scene, Kurt, apprently exhausted, puts his guitar down and crawls off-stage.

Regarding the possibility of a DVD release of this video, if you visit the following address you can add your email address to show your interest in finally having a high-definition copy of 'Live! Tonight! Sold Out!'

[ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JM81/ ]

Initially supposed to be completed by all band members, this project was released post-humously after Cobain's 1994 suicide. Although it is provoking to play "What would it look like if Kurt had lived?" the actual video is special in it's own way.

Both Krist, Dave and whoever else helped edit the video into it's final form should be commended for working under such morose circumstances. I honestly do not believe it was easy for these men. They could have just as easily scrapped the whole idea without explaination. Considering it came moths after his death, I am certain I would not be able to do as well.

The final project is as much a history of the band (which was problaly supposed to be it's original intention) as much as it is a tribute to Cobain.

Even if it is obvious that the video was supposed to be different, one cannot fault the two men for mourning over their best friend. Too often, our society forgets that musicians are people too and suject to the same emotions and flaws as the rest of the population.

The raw unreleased footage shows a group of buddies who just happened to become famous from a hit single. That the members of Nirvana cared for each other is clearly obvious from this movie and is very emotionally touching.

Also important is the fact that it revealed members of Nirvana voted in a presidential election. While this political involvement should not come as a big suprise to die hard Nirvana fans (who knew of involvement with Rock for Choice, No on Nine and other campaigns)it would problaly motivate newcomers to get out and change the system if they perceived something wrong.

I do however agree with the nausea-themed montage. This group of friends was experiencing some conflict and pressure because of the intense experience with fame and something would have to give. Ideally, it should have been all of thr tabloid media who picked on Kurt and Courtney, but as fate would have it, it was Cobain himself.The world truly lost an original when Cobain died.

This video is any nirvana fans dream. It has great interveiws and the performance is amazing. Great video to own.

The great concert film once only available on VHS is now on DVD! It's about time. The bad news is that there was no attempt made to correct any of the factual errors in the liners. No, "About a Girl," "Breed" and "Polly" aren't from Seattle '92, it's 10/31/91. No, the songs from Brazil are not from Sao Paulo, but Rio de Janerio. No, "Negative Creep" isn't from '91, but '92. "Something In the Way" isn't from '91 either, but is from '92. That's an AWFUL lot of mistakes! The "With the Lights Out" box set had all the correct information in there.. I don't understand why there are so many mistakes in these liners.

It's also too bad the extras we got are from just one concert, and that being a widely available one. 2 of the 5 songs are available from other perfomances in the proper film, but with the way Nirvana product trickles out, we should be glad we got anything at all.

The film itself is brilliant. I wore my VHS out and this DVD brings back a lot of memories of this powerful and genius band. They were a force to be reckoned with and will be badly missed. These live performances are totally exciting and really capture the brief and wonderful moment when Nirvana ruled the world. The camcorder shots look more grainy then the VHS, but the sound is much improved on and the professionally shot stuff is as sharp as ever. Hopefully this will pave the way for a video collection, Unplugged, and a DVD of TV appearances from the US and Europe. The band hung it up 12 years ago. Give us some product now!

Long live Nirvana, forever. The greatest band of my lifetime.

I own this video. It provides excellent footage of a variety of different songs. My favorite scene is when Krist Novoselic says, "who's the God damn son-of-a-bitch who had to go and rearrange all of our stuff?!" and then the camera man goes around to the people standing around. It's pretty funny. I also enjoy the performances of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Negative Creep", and "Endless Nameless"(uncredited). You really should buy this, but some parts are shocking. I am a huge Nirvana fan, and I wish that Geffen would produce more videos and rare CDs.