10 Flawless Live Albums In Rock Music
3. MTV Unplugged in New York - Nirvana
Granted, not every live album necessarily needs to be the heaviest thing in the world. Since most of the greatest rock music comes down to whether the songs are good, they'd sound just as good in an intimate setting than they would if they were blown out of your speakers. With Nirvana though, there tends to be some X factor that surrounds MTV Unplugged In New York.
Out of all of the grunge bands that performed on the show though, there's a lot to choose from, especially considering the painstaking performance of Alice in Chains just a few years later. Running at just under an hour though, Nirvana's episode was when you started to see Kurt Cobain less like a cultural icon and more as a person, turning off all the distortion and even going completely solo on tracks like Pennyroyal Tea.
Outside of a few hits here and there, this feels like the performance that Kurt wanted, which would become all the more tragic when he would be found dead in his home just a few months after this show. Now that you look at the lilies that decorate the floor and the way he wails on the track Where Did You Sleep Last Night, this wasn't just your average rock show. This felt like you were watching a man perform at his own funeral.