Live and Loud is a live video by Nirvana, released on September 23, 2013. It was released as part of the 20th anniversary of the band’s third and final studio album, In Utero. Live and Loud was released for the first time on vinyl (as well as a standalone streaming release) on August 30, 2019.
It features the band’s full concert on December 13, 1993, at Pier 48 in Seattle, which had been recorded by MTV and broadcast in abridged form. The DVD also contains bonus footage from other performances from the In Utero tour.
As well as the standalone DVD release, a DVD and audio CD version of the show are available packaged together as part the limited edition Super Deluxe box set reissue of the In Utero album.
Featuring Nirvana, hip hop act Cypress Hill, and the Breeders, the Pier 48 concert was pre-recorded for a worldwide New Year’s Eve broadcast. The show was originally set to feature Pearl Jam as the co-headlining act, and was conceived in part as a reconciliation between Nirvana and Pearl Jam. However, Pearl Jam cancelled their appearance the day of the show, with the official reason being that the band’s vocalist, Eddie Vedder, had the flu. This left Nirvana as the sole headliners, and led to the band playing an extended set.
With Pearl Jam‘s cancellation, Nirvana‘s extended set resembled a typical concert from the In Utero tour, although it excluded the two quietest set list regulars, “Polly” and “Dumb”. Also absent was the band’s 1991 breakthrough single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” The concert featured material from the band’s 1991 sophomore album, Nevermind, and In Utero most prominently, along with three songs from their 1989 debut album, Bleach, and the 1990 single, “Sliver”. It also included a cover of “The Man Who Sold the World” by David Bowie, which they occasionally performed during the In Utero tour, including their MTV Unplugged appearance the previous month. The show ended with a rare In Utero-era performance of the Nevermind hidden track, “Endless, Nameless”.
The performance featured second guitarist Pat Smear, who had joined the band at the start of the In Utero tour, and cellist Lori Goldston. As with other shows on the tour, the stage was decorated with winged anatomical models and fake trees.
At the end of “Endless, Nameless”, the band smashed their instruments and stage props, with Cobain decapitating one of the winged models with his guitar. As McCarthy-Miller recalled:
“There’s a shot where (Cobain) walks up to the camera guy on stage, a guy named Charlie Huntley, and I’m in the booth directing, telling (Charlie) ‘Stay with him!’ And then Kurt ends up spitting in the lens. It was a moment.”
Finnerty added:
“I was standing on the side of the stage, it was an incredible view, the way they built the set the fans were able to get really close, so, at the end of the show, Kurt was grabbing their hands and pulling them onto the stage. I’ve seen them trash a lot of stages, and they did it again here, but that one was pretty amazing because the audience was just so close to it all.”
The concert, which began with the Breeders’ set at 5 p.m., was filmed in front of approximately 2,000 fans. Nirvana‘s set ended at 8:15 p.m.
Tracklist:
Side One
- Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
- Drain You
- Breed
- Serve The Servants
- Rape Me
Side Two
- Sliver
- Pennyroyal Tea
- Scentless Apprentice (Grohl, Novoselic, Cobain)
- All Apologies
- Heart-Shaped Box
Side Three
- Blew
- The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie)
- School
- Come As You Are
- Lithium
Side Four
- About A Girl
- Endless, Nameless (Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic)
Nirvana
Kurt Cobain: lead vocals, guitar
Dave Grohl: drums, backing vocals
Krist Novoselic: bass guitar
Pat Smear: guitar, backing vocals
Additional personnel
Lori Goldston: cello
Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994)