The DVD is interesting in that it features a very old rehearsal video of the band in Krist's mother's house. For whatever reason Kurt sings facing the wall. His nose is literally like 2 inches from the wall. It's very odd, but it's cool to see for anyone who has been in a band or been to a friend's band's practice. There's the friend who jumps around like a moron the whole time, then there's the indifferent friend who just sits there like he's bored; they're smoking and drinking and just being kids, really. The rest of the DVD is just random live songs and clips, an in-studio performance with Krist on bass, Dave on guitar and Kurt on drums and vocals. Then there's "Talk To Me" which is apparently an extremely rare live performance. There's only one video, the Sub Pop video for the pre-Nevermind version of "In Bloom."

This is an excellent collection of songs for Nirvana fans in general, especially for those who've restrained from downloading the songs on-line, or paying exorbitant amounts of money for bootlegs. But as much fanfare as this box set has received it is definitely not for the casual fan mainly because too many of the songs are unpolished, and simply too rough around the edges for the fan who likes his music to be of corporate radio-standard quality; this sort of fan won't understand why a song sounds muffled, or extremely distorted and out of tune, or if the song has that old tape "warble" to it even if he's sitting there reading the sub-text: "4-Track Nirvana demo from 1973 unearthed after being found in a pile of petrified Dingo poo." This is for the fanatics, plain and simple.

There's also a cool little thing you can do with the actual box itself. My tracklisting from the back of the box fell off, so I started to wipe off the booger-like glue they used and I noticed that the damn ink was rubbing off onto my fingers!! I was pissed thinking I just paid $40 for some cheap-ass box set! So I stopped and looked, but there was no ink on my fingers. Weird. Now I'm thinking, "What the %@*#??" Then I look at the box and I noticed the white spot where I thought ink had previously been was getting darker! The box, it turns out, is heat activated. You can rub all the black off, and it slowly comes back. This works on the inside part, as well (the right-facing side when you open the box). Just take your hand and press firmly palm down for like 10 seconds, move your hand and there will be a white print of your hand on the box, then it will slowly start to turn black again. I'm assuming it has something to do with the title "With The Lights Out." Pointless, but very cool, nonetheless.

written by Ken Wood

Playing time: 215:87