Rock mythology is littered with landmark gigs which have attained 'legendary' status after the fact, but you have to be careful to sift truth from fantasy. After all, if everyone who had allegedly attended The Sex Pistols' Manchester Free Trade Hall gig had really been there, they'd have needed to play Old Trafford Cricket Ground, wouldn't they?
Just occasionally, though, the reality actually dwarfs the legend. NIRVANA'S highly-regarded Reading '92 performance has long since passed into the annals of legend among those 'in the know' who were there as the sonic fireworks went off and Kurt Cobain - rumoured to be hopelessly lost to heroin and reality in general - answered the critics in the best way possible by not only turning up but giving one of the greatest performances of his tragically curtailed life.
This writer has his own memories of Nirvana's meteoric rise (saw 'em at the 'Lamefest' gig with Tad and Mudhoney at the London Astoria in December '89 and was lucky enough to be in photographer Ian Tilton's basement when he developed the shots destined for a 'Sounds' cover just prior to Dave Grohl joining the band) but he wasn't at Reading '92, so this is the first time he's been able to savour the show in 5:1 surround sound and presented as a complete entity without unnecessary additional features. Well, save for a quick cameo at the end where a young, starstruck fan gets to meet his hero after the show. And that's all rather poignant and touching.
But let's cut to the chase. From the hilariously macabre introduction where Melody Maker scribe Everett True pushes Cobain on-stage in a wheelchair through to the end of a pent-up 'Territorial Pissings' (25 songs later) 'Live at Reading '92' preserves the sound of a band on fire, sick of the rumour and scandal and intent on reminding everyone exactly why fell in love with them in the first place.
This being Nirvana, there's always that frisson of danger and the feeling it could all collapse at any moment. It does occasionally derail as well - 'Love Buzz' is horribly discordant, a still rather formative 'All Apologies' loses the melodic plot halfway and the obligatory post-set destruction of the gear seems totally forced - but when you consider the riches liberally spewed around elsewhere, such nit-picking seems redundant to say the least.
Funnily enough, despite the strife surrounding Nirvana at the time, the thing that immediately strikes you is how much all three of them seem to be enjoying themselves. A triumphantly poppy 'About A Girl' is preceded by a ridiculously daft Krist Novoselic joke about the Invisible Man (I won't spoil the groan-fest for you) while the band squeeze maximum mileage from the persistent 'Nirvana are about to split' rumours at the time, with Cobain declaring: "I'd like to publicly announce that this is our last show..." only for Novoselic to add "...until we play again in November" after a pregnant pause before a gleeful version of 'Sliver' gets off the blocks.
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Other than that, it's simply a case of wallowing in some of the most magnificent, visceral Rock'n'Roll ever conjured from the ether. The opening tunes, 'Breed', a cathartically taut 'Drain You' and an ominously heavy 'Aneurysm' are all psychotically exciting while the grinding, Black Flag-style malevolence of 'School' still resonates after all these years.
Most bands would be obliterated after hitting the twin peaks of 'Come As You Are' and a steely 'Lithium' back to back, but these successes merely spur them on to even greater heights. Accentuating the gorgeous, raspy quality in Cobain's voice, songs like 'Lounge Act' and 'On a Plain' have the genius to marry Jupiter-size heaviosity with the catchiest tunes Big Star never wrote, while a gentle and true 'Polly' not only provides an oasis of calm, but the sparseness of its' setting merely accentuates the song's anti-rape sentiments.
At the other end of the spectrum, 'tourette's' gets its' live debut and its' whirlwind hardcore blast musta scared the shit outta Geffen Records at the time. 'Negative Creep' is another industrial-size sonic fuck off ending in weeping Hendrixian overload, while 'Blew' is as crushing and mind-bending as ever. They seem like they're gonna skirt around The Hit by cheekily jamming on the riff from Boston's sound-alike 'More Than a Feeling', but then Kurt switches gear and dives into 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' itself. Aside from Cobain dismantling the guitar solo it's lean and hungry and played with a welcome commitment.
The encores offer up inspirational versions of 'Dumb' (just about perfect even six months before it would be laid down for 'In Utero'), a monster 'Stay Away' powered by Grohl' superhuman pounding and a cover of Fang's 'The Money Will Roll Right In' which - with its' cyclical riffs and cynical lyrical edge - could easily have been topped and tailed by Cobain that very morning.
Hindsight, of course, forces us to place 'Reading '92' in context. It would be the very last time a British crowd would get to the see the all-guns-blazing thrill of Nirvana, so it's hard to shake off the poignancy while you simultaneously get lost in the sheer brilliance of the set they tear through. But this isn't a time for weeping and mourning. It's a chance to re-live the visceral excitement of Nirvana live and celebrate accordingly. Lets face it, posterity rarely sounds as ferocious as this.
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