5 November 2020 - A Nirvana 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Special

 Each of these covers today have two things in common:

1) They were all recorded on the same day in April 2014. 
2) They all featured Krist Novocelic, Dave Grohl, and Pat Smear

These performances were from the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction of Nirvana, and they decided to do it live with a bunch of different lead vocalists. While each are faithful covers - I mean, the backing band - none of these vocalists attempt a Kurt Cobain impersonation, and that's a good thing.  

The first one, "Lithium", from the Nevermind album, features a woman named Annie Clark who Krist Novocelic erroneously introduces as the vocalist from the BAND St. Vincent - Annie Clark IS St. Vincent - but that's not important.  What's important is that she was probably the least well-known vocalist of the lot, and this was something of a star-making performance.

Kim Gordon, on the other hand, was well-known in indie circles as a founder and member of Sonic Youth for many years.  That band broke up in 2011, but Kim Gordon didn't forget her old friends.  You see, Nirvana toured as an opening act with Sonic Youth in 1991, before Nevermind dropped and changed the world.  Gordon chose to sing the hell out of a deep cut, "Aneurysm", a B-side to......

........"Smells Like Teen Spirit".  On this night, Joan Jett - who Krist Novocelic states was NOT yet in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (but was inducted in 2015 with the Blackhearts, a year later) (The Runaways should be in the R&RHOF) - sang what is probably their best known song, and sang the hell out of it.  

This brings us to the end and Lorde.  Lorde covered "All Apologies" from the In Utero album.  It is probably the least faithful of the four covers - because, you know, accordion - and Lorde is the only one of these four singers to never walk the Earth as the same time as Kurt Cobain.  She still, like everyone else this evening, killed it.