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While professional widow Courtney Love resumes another round of infamy through self-pity, and Foo Fighters continue their descent into arch-rock meaninglessness, here comes yet another posthumous release from the Nirvana camp (they must be neck-and-neck with Tupac at this point) to remind the kids just what they missed.

Originally conceived by Kurt Cobain before his death, LTSO was compiled by surviving band members Kris Novaselic and Dave Grohl and first released on VHS in 1994, but only now reissued on DVD. Nirvana were a notoriously chaotic and imperfect band live—often intentionally so—and the quality of this sliced, diced, chopped and slopped video reflects that, in the best way possible. Shows from far flung locales including Seattle, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, are mashed with bits of music TV and offstage home video, most of it far from professional quality, even after a new remastering (including 5.1 sound).

After a mock rock industry intro, we first see clips showing the datecode Jan 21, 1991 (moments before the release of their cataclysmic album Nevermind) then June 28, 1992, after the frenzy began, then Italian video from '93 of Cobain being brought onstage in a wheelchair and blonde wig. That's in essence the outline of LTSO's arc; not to tell the entirety of Nirvana's storyline—there's nothing before '91, nothing from their last climactic/catastrophic months in '94 (nor especially anything from In Utero or with late-period fourth member Pat Smear). But this is the genuine Nirvana experience, which is to say not just "warts and all," but almost "warts is all."

We see their famous drag show before an arena audience in Brazil; the Dallas stage dive by Cobain which ended in him getting punched by a bouncer; the band mocking their own success with a crooned version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the BBC, then playing hardcore thrasher "Territorial Pissings" on the Jonathan Ross show (instead of the announced "Lithium"); Cobain (under some influence, seemingly) spitting at TV cameras and exposing his privates onstage. And we see them smash a lot of instruments, in a lot of ways.

And yet, within all that, "Lithium" at Reading Festival and "On A Plain" at Roskilde emphasize that when Nirvana were good, they were very, very good. Interview clips, serious, sardonic, or arrogantly humble, tell their tale the way Jackson Pollack painted pictures.

The new extras are nothing more, or less, than five more live songs from a '91 Amsterdam show (but other uncredited bonus footage appears after the main credits—rehearsal space video of them working out "On A Plain") The disc also includes a cool option which allows the viewer to program the songs to play in any order.

There are other Nirvana video documents, but none that captures them in all their many facets as they wanted themselves seen. Unlike most of their posthumous releases, real fans will want to have this one.

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Veteran entertainment journalist E.C. Gladstone has written for Rolling Stone, Spin, Us Weekly, Premiere (Japan), NME, Alternative Press, Raygun, Grand Royal, and America Online, among others. He is currently working on two book projects about early silent film history and funk music. A portion of his record collection is on display at the Stax Museum in Memphis, Tenn. He has also curated two photo exhibits and in his spare time, DJs and plays bass. He lives in Los Angeles.

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