Live Review: Nirvana Unplugged - Perth Symphony Orchestra and Justin Burford

A horde of grungy looking people - wearing band T-shirts, plaid and jeans - descended upon His Majesty's Theatre on Saturday night; a peculiar sight to behold considering the demographic that usually attend the prestigious theatre.

However, this was not a typical performance. Perth Symphony Orchestra (PSO), who have a reputation for breaking the rules, and Justin Burford teamed up to perform reimagined interpretations of songs performed at Nirvana's iconic MTV Unplugged performance.

The moment the curtains lifted the crowd were descended into a world of chaos, musicians could be seen adjusting their stands and tuning instruments, stage crew were completing stage set up, stage managers were frantically calling for 'Mr Cobain' to immediately make his way to the stage. This was no regular concert, this was an immersive experience. Throughout the night, performers would interact with each other and the crowd.

The stage was set as it had been for the 1993 MTV Unplugged performance, with black candles and stargazer lilies. Burford dawdled on stage looking very dishevelled in ripped jeans, a knit cardigan and unkempt shoulder-length hair. He emulated Kurt Cobain's quirks very well from appearance to stage presence to vocals. The vocals were outstanding. He used his raspy voice in a variety of emotionally expressive ways, as Cobain would have. If you closed your eyes, it was almost as if it were Cobain himself on stage. Between songs, he regaled the audience with the band's history from Cobain's perspective.

The setlist consisted of all 14 songs from the 1993 performance, including covers of songs originally performed by David Bowie, The Vaselines, Meat Puppets and Lead Belly. Ash Gibson Greig did a great job of capturing the underlying emotions and/or messages that the songs convey in his arrangements. For example, the awkward sounding trombone solo at the beginning of Dumb gave an almost comical feel. The most emotional moment of the night goes the final song of the main set, Lead Belly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night. The haunting arrangement was accompanied by news articles reporting Cobain's suicide, which were projected onto the screen behind PSO.

The crowd stomped and cheered their way through the duration of the encore wait. The curtain finally lifted to reveal Burford wearing a different band T-shirt and cardigan, however, the more exciting costume change was PSO members wearing sleeveless vests to reveal tattooed arms. The encore comprised three of Nirvana's biggest mainstream hits, which were not originally included on the Unplugged setlist; Lithium, In Bloom, and Smells Like Teen Spirt. The crowd could no longer contain their excitement, with many leaping out of their seats to mosh. The excitement intensified when four girls in cheerleading outfits waving pom poms made their way to the front of the stage for the final song of the night. At this point, not even PSO musicians could contain themselves with many jumping up to dance while continuing to play their instruments. In full rockstar mode, one of the violinists took centre stage to smash her violin to pieces!

The performance left no doubt as to why this event sold-out well in advance. Burford and PSO did Kurt Cobain and Nirvana justice. Unsurprisingly, they received a well-deserved standing ovation for their efforts.