When it comes to crossover “novelty” acts, you won’t find anything more inspired than the music of Nirvana, fronted by the King of Rock himself. Even tonight Elvis admits that he most of the room could do a better impression than him, but that doesn’t matter when it all works as well as this! Complete with a full band and backing singers, the music of both acts come to life in glorious form on this Friday night.
One of the best examples of this is during “Breed” which all starts out in traditional rocky formula, sounding great as they go along. However, it all culminates in a glorious rendition of “Viva Las Vegas” which is sung even louder than anything that has come before. A large proportion of the crowd are wearing Nirvana tops and are clearly there as Nirvana fans first and foremost. They certainly won’t be disappointed with the setlist that is played, with songs spanning their whole career.
“Territorial Pissings” from “Nevermind” opens proceedings in aggressive form, and “In Bloom” playing shortly afterwards really gets people going. They delve deeper with “School” from the “Bleach” era of the band. They also try out a few new things from “In Utero” including a rendition of “Rape Me” which is mixed with Elvis’ own “Love Me Tender”- striking a very weird juxtaposition in tone at the time.
There aren’t many places where you would find a circle pit being instructed by a band about to perform the classic “Blue Suede Shoes”. However, this goes completely out of the water and turns into a more traditional bit which covers most of the room and is subsequently one of the many highlights of the evening. After a rendition of “Hound Dog” the King almost has his suit ripped after getting particularly close with a very boisterous Cardiff crowd. There are in fact around 4 or 5 costume changes throughout the evening, each outfit more lavish than the previous, now that’s something you wouldn’t see Cobain to back in the day!
“A Little Less Conversation” gives everyone a proper chance to have a proper little boogie before a hit of “Come As You Are” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” which really gets everybody bouncing. The songs do sound great live and even though the whole thing is so tongue in cheek, it doesn’t feel like a gimmick, it all just works.
The encore is started off with a rather bizarre “Miss World” contest involving each of the band members coming on stage adorning wigs. It’s silly of course, yet it feels a little out of place with everything that has come before. But things are back to normal again with Elvis serenading the crowd from the balcony. “Can’t Help Falling In Love” sees everyone arms swaying and singing along and in contrast “Lithium” finishes things the way they have done for most of the night in energetic fashion. For a lot of the people tonight, they would never have been able to see either act back in their prime. Thankfully we have this wonderful melding of genres to enjoy them both for a few more years to come.