BACK WHEN THE MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS WERE STILL COOL

Our friend Allyson over at Bring Back Glam has reminded us of a time when the VMA’s were actually something to look forward to and the live performances were remembered for years afterwards for something other than being a complete trainwreck. Allyson has posted videos of GNR’s legendary 1988 performance of “Welcome to the Jungle” (which actually sounds good — the sound for what few rock bands performed last night was AWFUL) as well as their famous 1992 performance of “November Rain” with Elton John. She’s also got tasty nuggets of Queensryche performing their VMA-sweeping “Silent Lucidity” and Van Hagar’s “Poundcake” — complete with electric drill intro — both from 1991. Enjoy those. [Bring Back Glam]

In the meantime, we’ve also got this now famous bit, also from the 1992 VMAs, of Nirvana performing “Lithium.” This is the one in which bassist Kris Novoselic makes up for a completely disconnected-looking Kurt Cobain by throwing his bass way up in the air… and hitting himself on the head with it. After which Cobain proceeds to destroy the entire set, followed by Dave Grohl (!) running up to the mic and yelling “Hi Axl!” a number of times. THAT, my friends, is rock n’ roll.

-VN

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