Free Beer Sure Sounds Like Nirvana To Us
By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 22, 2004 4:32PM
In a cut scene from Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace tells Vincent Vega that there are “Beatles people and Elvis people.” And while some people can like both artists “nobody likes them equally.” Chicagoist isn’t sure if the same holds true for Nirvana people and U2 people but a pair of release parties for Nirvana’s With The Lights Out boxed set and U2’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb are making it seem like it’s 1991 all over again. Can a boxed set by C + C Music Factory be far behind? Lord, we hope so!
Darkroom (2210 W. Chicago Ave) will be screening the Nirvana boxed set’s accompanying DVD at 8 PM tonight. The DVD includes a rare video for “In Bloom,” early performances of “Pennyroyal Tea” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from 1991, as well as a nine-song performance at Krist Novoselic’s mom’s house (Chicagoist hears the mosh pits at Mrs. Novoselic’s bridge club meetings used to get pretty out of hand). More importantly, they’ll be serving free beer and pizza for the first hour along with giveaways the whole night, courtesy of Newcity. You’ll need to go to newcitychicago.com to get on the list though. Also tonight, AliveOne on Halsted will be previewing the U2 album at 9 PM and making it available for sale at midnight. (They’re also having a release party for the Nirvana set on Wednesday).
The Nirvana box has been “coming soon” for the last three years but has been delayed due to the involvement of a certain rock widow. But as we all know, lawyers don’t pay for themselves so the faithful have been rewarded with the second coming of Kurt and Co. this Tuesday. The boxed set includes three CDs with 68 unreleased recordings. As for the U2 album, Chicago’s resident rock critics’ hearts beat as one: DeRogatis calls it an “atomic dog” and Greg Kot says it “turns a parade of U2 signatures into clichés.” Interest may have waned due to the ubiquity of their iPod commercial and the early release online but we’ll go out on a limb and say it’s still going to be a big seller. Not as big as a reunion album from Color Me Badd, but still.