It turned out that Nirvana “reunion” at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on Thursday night was actually just a warm-up act. Barely 90 minutes after Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear had finished performing at Barclays Center (with four different female artists in place of Kurt Cobain), they regrouped again at Saint Vitus — a tiny metal bar in deepest, darkest Greenpoint — for a full set of Nirvana classics. Only close friends and insiders of the band were invited to this super-secret show, but those lucky 250 or so who were there saw a true one-off event that will be talked about for years to come.
Kicking things off at 2 a.m., Joan Jett reprised her role from the Hall Of Fame by singing “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” as well as screaming up a storm on full-blooded versions of “Breed” and “Territorial Pissings” — two of Nirvana’s most visceral songs.
She was followed by Dinosaur Jr. singer J Mascis, who utilized his famously wild guitar-playing skills during “Penny Royal Tea” and a fantastically brutal “School.”
“Nirvana were one of those bands who should have been big and then did get big,” he remembered fondly. “Everything made sense for a second.” And on the Saint Vitus stage, everything was making sense once again.
Local girl Annie Clark (who performs and records as St. Vincent) also repeated her Hall Of Fame performance of “Lithium,” but also added faithful versions of “About A Girl” and “Heart-Shaped Box” to the proceedings. However, the real super-fan moment came courtesy of John McCauley of Rhode Island rockers Deer Tick. On occasion, Deer Tick also operate as a Nirvana tribute band called Deervana, and watching McCauley do his best Cobain impression with his heroes was almost unnerving in its accuracy.
Not only did McCauley play the Fender Jag-Stang guitar that Cobain designed, he replicated the late singer’s snarl on “Serve The Servants” in a way that was nearly identical. Even more surreal was the sight of McCauley (who wasn’t even born when Nirvana first formed in 1987) teaching Novoselic how to play the songs he helped to write. “This actually feels like a Nirvana gig,” laughed Grohl at one point. It seemed like he was only half-joking.
The last act was left to Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, and it was a fitting finale. Before Nirvana broke through into the mainstream with 1991’s “Nevermind,” the New York noise legends acted as big brothers and sisters to Kurt & Co. Gordon again showed them the way with a vicious “Aneurysm” and an almost unhinged spin on “Negative Creep,” which ended with Smear smashing his guitar — only to be told by a roadie that they had one more song left to do.
Having endured the half-hour of speeches from The E Street Band at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, Gordon also took a moment to air out her feelings on that particular subject: “I just wanna say, Bruce Springsteen sucks!”
Chances are that Kurt — wherever he is now — was nodding and chuckling in agreement.