'Nirvana headlining at Reading in 1992 was something you had to see, and if you didn't see it then it was something you pretended you saw.' –Kerrang (October 2003)
'The staggering energy and intensity radiating from the stage never let up Cobain's ravaged pop songs coming off like some dream marriage of the Sex Pistols and the Beatles, borne on bracing waves of distorted guitar noise.' –Rolling Stone (October 29, 1992)
Ranked #1 in Kerrang Magazine's '100 Gigs That Shook The World' and voted as 'Nirvana's #1 Greatest Moment' by fans in an NME poll, Nirvana's historic August 30, 1992 headlining appearance at the UK's Reading Festival is one of the most bootlegged concerts in the annals of rock 'n' roll. Now, fans will have an opportunity to own a pristine copy of that entire performance with colour-corrected video from the original film with audio sourced from the original multi-track masters. Nirvana Live At Reading will be issued in a limited edition DVD+CD Deluxe Edition as well as DVD-only, CD-only configurations on November 2, 2009, followed by a 2 LP version on November 16, 2009.
While the show's centerpiece was a performance of nearly the entire Nevermind tracklist, also noteworthy were early performances of three as yet unrecorded songs which wouldn't be released until two years later on – In Utero's All Apologies, Dumb and in its first ever public performance, tourette's. The career-spanning setlist also reached back to the band's 1989 Sub Pop debut album, Bleach, for Blew, About A Girl, School, Negative Creep and first single Love Buzz and even further back to the mid-80s for Spank Thru. Other songs from the Reading set would appear in studio form on the Incesticide compilation later in the year: Aneurysm, Been A Son and Sliver. Additionally, the band played a pair of beloved covers by two bands that helped shape the formative Nirvana sound The Money Will Roll Right In by Fang and D-7 by The Wipers.
Only 2 of the 25 performances on the DVD have ever been released before.
Nirvana Live At Reading DVD:
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
*not included on CD