Sayonara Cinema

Originally conceived by Kurt Cobain, and completed by Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, this documentary of sorts compiles live footage of Nirvana, mostly from 1992 and some from 1993 as they play around the world. The first hour of the documentary quickly leaps from one song to the next, and about the 65 minute mark veers off into a strange multilayer, almost unintelligible collage of sound and video piece of post-modern art that can catch the viewer off guard. It then veers back into a live rendition of Endless Nameless (the hidden CD track off Nevermind) and an anarchic montage of the band destroying their instruments at the end of their shows.

Intercut between the songs, the three band mates discuss their newly discovered and unwanted uber-popularity, their take on what punk rock is, their thoughts on corporate rock, and snippets of them goofing off via media interviews and self shot camcorder. News footage, mostly from the Mtv News archives, is also interwoven. Watching them play, listening to what and how they play, listening to what they say you can see that they almost want the majority of their newfound fans via Smells Like Teen Spirit to hate them and stop listening to them. They never expected to get where they are, and on several occasions during the interview complain that they aren’t able to do smaller venue shows anymore.

It was an early Sunday (or was it Saturday) morning in April, 1994 when my brother’s friend called looking for him, and asked me if I had heard Kurt had committed suicide. An huge Nirvana fan at the time, I thought he was joking, but when I turned the TV on, I immediately found out the awful truth. I don’t remember anymore what my initial feelings were, but I do remember thinking that now I would never be able to see Nirvana perform, and that I was angry at what he had done.

Kurt was one of the main influences for me to pick up the guitar and to pick up a pen. I will shamelessly defend my opinion that, whether they want to be or not, Nirvana became the most important and influential bands to come out of the nineties, and they were an important part of my growing up. They are one of the last bands to come along to really define an entire movement or part of a generation (maybe there have been others since, but I can’t think of one and would blindly argue that they have not made as big an impact) and their hard-rock-hard-pop-alternative-pop-punk sound will forever echo in the halls of history.

My favorite part of the documentary, and I think it kind of boils down Nirvana, is their performance on some British talk show. After the very cheeky look-how-hip-I-am host makes a few promo announcements, he introduces that Nirvana will now play Lithium. Instead they thrash right into Territorial Pissings and then of course destroy their instruments. Call it childish, call it selfish, call it juvenile. I call it freedom of choice and expression, and I thank them for instilling it in me.