10 Live Albums That Are Better Than Studio Albums

From the moment that Nirvana started, you knew that Kurt Cobain was never going to go the flashy route. Even when they were darlings on MTV throughout grunge's first waves, Kurt always chose to be himself, not going along with the program and choosing his art over any kind of trend that people were following at the time. They were all about something more than just loud guitars, and the biggest litmus test is when you take all of that distortion away.

Leading up to MTV Unplugged, Kurt was initially concerned about the way people saw him as a songwriter, not really getting the same respect that people like Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam were getting around the same time. Now with no real safety net, their appearance in New York for an Unplugged set was one of the more honest gigs they would ever play. Though it's a much more lowkey affair this time around, you can tell that Kurt is much more comfortable showing people this side of himself, especially with songs like Polly and Something in the Way being much more potent than the studio version.

The climax of the show has to be their version of Leadbelly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night, which ends with a moment where you can see the light leave Kurt's eyes for a second, knowing how much power he put into the song. Considering Kurt would be dead just a few months after this live show was broadcast, it's hard not to see this as Nirvana's epitaph, a tribute to the raw band that was underneath all that screaming.