Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!

Did You Know?

• The original 1994 release peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Top Video Sales chart and number 1 on the Billboard Top Music Videos chart.
• In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number 2 on the UK Top Music Videos chart.

Background

The film was conceived by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain to document Nirvana's unexpected rise to fame after the release of Nevermind in September 1991. Kerslake stated that Cobain's concept was "much more evolved" than the released version, with "more of an interior sense of what it was like to be in the band", but that part was never shot.

Content

The video includes live performances, interview clips, news footage, and the band's home movies. Live material comes largely from the 1991 Nevermind tour, prominently featuring shows at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on October 31, 1991, and Paradiso in Amsterdam on November 25, 1991. It also includes appearances on Top of the Pops on November 27, 1991, and Tonight with Jonathan Ross on December 6, 1991. Footage from the early 1992 Pacific Rim tour appears, along with "On a Plain" from the Roskilde Festival on June 26, 1992, which had 64,500 attendees.

"Lithium" and other footage come from the Reading Festival on August 30, 1992, where Dave Grohl recalled 50,000 people chanting the lyrics. Two songs are from the Hollywood Rock festival in Rio de Janeiro on January 23, 1993, with over 100,000 attendees. Three songs—"Aneurysm", "Love Buzz", and "Territorial Pissings"—are edits of two versions each, with the Paradiso version used for all three. The first part of "Love Buzz" comes from a Dallas concert where Cobain fought a bouncer.

The "Aneurysm" edit was used as a music video for promotion in 1994 and for the 1996 compilation From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, though a different version recorded at Del Mar Fairgrounds on December 28, 1991, appeared on that album. An unsent letter from Cobain's Journals requested changes including "Sifting" from a 1989 show and "Molly's Lips" from the 1991 Reading Festival, none of which appear in the final version.

Reception

Greg Prato of Allmusic wrote that the film showed "how great the trio could be on stage" and offered "great insight into the group, just as they were hitting it big." Charles Aaron of Spin said it captured "the dizzying silliness of the times, as well as Nirvana's fractious magnetism." Noah Davis of PopMatters noted the band was rarely serious and "never played along" to traditional fame rules. Dan Martin of the NME described it as "Nirvana as they should have been experienced: a raw, visceral, devastatingly sexy way of life."

Track listing

The video includes: "Aneurysm" (Paradiso, Amsterdam and Hollywood Rock, Rio de Janeiro; incorrectly labeled São Paulo on inlay); "About a Girl" (Paramount Theatre, Seattle); "Dive" (Hollywood Rock; incorrectly labeled São Paulo); "Love Buzz" (Dallas, Texas and Paradiso); "Breed" (Paramount Theatre); "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Top of the Pops); "Negative Creep" (Honolulu, Hawaii); "Come as You Are" (Paradiso); "Territorial Pissings" (Jonathan Ross and Paradiso); "Something in the Way" (Osaka, Japan); "Lithium" (Reading Festival); "Drain You" (Paradiso); "Polly" (Paramount Theatre); "Sliver" (Paradiso); "On a Plain" (Roskilde Festival); "Endless, Nameless" (Paramount Theatre, not listed on VHS).

"Lounge Act" plays over the credits. Fragments include pieces from Saturday Night Live 1992 and an audio clip of "Rape Me" from Seattle Center Coliseum on September 11, 1992. The DVD adds Paradiso performances of "School", "About a Girl", "Been a Son", "On a Plain", and "Blew", plus a secret rehearsal of "On a Plain" from early 1991.