Billboard DVD review: Nirvana

ARTIST: NIRVANA

DVD: MTV UNPLUGGED

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Nirvana fans who rued not taping the band's classic "MTV Unplugged" back in 1994: The wait for the DVD is finally over.

The show, unsurprisingly, holds up tremendously well after 13 years; Kurt Cobain still looks hunched and tortured, Krist Novoselic still looks goofy, and Dave Grohl just looks really young. The songs are as strong and haunting as ever, and the howls at the end of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" are still enough to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

The two additional tracks, "Something in the Way" and "Oh, Me," are both stellar; unfortunately, the other extras are mostly lackluster. A behind-the-scenes documentary teaches us that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" wouldn't have worked as an acoustic number, while the rehearsals feature a lot of shots of Cobain asking for more bass in his monitor. Still, this is a stunning snapshot of a band at its peak.

Reuters/Billboard