NIRVANA > Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! (LIVE DVD)

In 1990, photographer Ian Tilton captured what might be the lasting image of Kurt Cobain. It was an instantly iconic photo: Cobain, backstage after a Nirvana show in Seattle, sits crumpled on the floor in tears. He’s wearing the trademark grunge outfit-flannel shirt, tattered jeans, dirty Chuck Taylors-and, head in hand, appears overcome by demons and grief.Label: GEFFEN/UME
[Rating: 3]

In 1990, photographer Ian Tilton captured what might be the lasting image of Kurt Cobain. It was an instantly iconic photo: Cobain, backstage after a Nirvana show in Seattle, sits crumpled on the floor in tears. He’s wearing the trademark grunge outfit-flannel shirt, tattered jeans, dirty Chuck Taylors-and, head in hand, appears overcome by demons and grief. As Tilton tells it, that was literally just a momentary release, a few seconds between an energetic concert and the post-show celebration. But the photo shows Cobain as many remember him: a fragile man overcome by the pressures of fame, drug addiction and depression. Fans likely would rather have Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! (first released on VHS in 1994 but new to DVD) represent Cobain and Nirvana’s legacy. Primarily culled from the band’s 1991-1992 tours, the choppy documentary focuses on a band on the rise having-this is important-loads of fun. Even in moments of chaos…say, when Cobain’s stage dive at a Dallas concert leads to a security guard decking him…the mood is of relatively innocent, youthful rebellion, not obnoxious overindulgence. “Of course we want to make a comfortable living at it, to at least be able to eat and travel on tour,” Cobain says during one interview. “As far as getting in the Top 10, we don’t care at all. We know it won’t happen, it won’t last very long.” Few would have predicted then that Cobain would top Elvis as 2006’s top-earning dead celebrity.