Oliver: Nirvana - School [Live] (1 March 1992)

From the Come As You Are single, another live cut taken from their Halloween 1991 show at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle.  In a moment of insiderdom, Peel expressed bemusement at the fact that Come As You Are wasn't getting much daytime airplay despite being on the Radio 1 playlist.  Somewhere, Matthew Bannister was making another note for what would happen, come the revolution.

School was taken from Nirvana's debut album, Bleach, and may well be the most banal lyric they ever recorded - comprising just three phrases.  Apparently, it's a critique of the Seattle rock scene, "Just like a fucking high school" according to Krist Novoselic, whose silky, brawny bass part is the main reason why I would have taped this.  PJ Harvey used something to similarly enticing effect on The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore many years later.  Like a lot of early Nirvana, what it lacks in finesse, it makes up for in spirit.  And judging by the footage, that Paramount gig looks like a huge celebration, even if, as Dave Grohl bemoans at the end, only"2% of the audience have dressed up".

Video courtesy of Jean Michael Schuster.