End Of Fashion frontman Justin Burford resumes his role as tragic rock star Kurt Cobain when he and the Perth Symphony Orchestra (PSO) perform 'Unplugged: Nirvana Reimagined'.
First staged last year to both critical and popular acclaim, the show brings the PSO together with Justin's vocals to pay homage to Nirvana's seminal 1994 'MTV Unplugged In New York' album and acoustic performance.
It's Justin's way of celebrating the first artist that spoke to him as a out-of-place teen raised on the music of his parents and older sister. “I was brought up on all this great music, but it was always other generations' music,” Justin says.
“It was other people's music and I loved it, but I remember at 14 suddenly seeing Nirvana on 'Video Smash Hits' or something; it's 1991 and seeing the video for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and knowing immediately that this was mine and things had suddenly changed.”
The importance of Kurt Cobain's legacy has never been understated, as important to Gen-Xers as John Lennon was to the Baby Boomers and Frank Sinatra to the bobby soxers.
As with the death of John Lennon, many Nirvana fans define their timelines in life based on where they were when they heard Kurt Cobain was dead. “I was in bed actually, I woke up to the news of it on Triple J as a high school kid,” Justin says.
“I seem to recall hearing it half-asleep and thinking 'I'm dreaming this', then suddenly coming to and going 'what the hey, this has actually really happened'. It was devastating, I took a couple of days off school.”
More than just Nirvana songs arranged for strings, 'Unplugged: Nirvana Reimagined' is an immersive experience trying to recreate the power of the original MTV performance. “There's a rock element to the end, but we try to stay true to the original set dressing from the TV studio,” Justin says.
“In the plan for the show we'd love to eventually set it up more and more like a TV studio, have cameras. We've got the candles there and the lilies - they're definitely two of the more iconic pieces from the original show.
“People have this weird preconception about orchestras that they're whimsical [but] you hear one play something like this where it's dark and there's real emotion involved, there's nothing else that sounds like it. It's incredibly moving.”
Though Justin finds something special in each of the songs on the set list, one more than any other hits him deep in the feels. “Leading up to 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night', in all of the rehearsals and especially on the night I get butterflies in my stomach knowing I've got to get that big note and it's so satisfying. We do such a brooding version of it as well; there's a real rumble and it takes its time getting there.”
And of course, for the grand finale, no concert would be complete without the wanton destruction of a musical instrument, in this case, a violin smashed to smithereens.
“Most of the violin, I think I've got a piece of it somewhere, it's been mostly collected and is hanging on a board in the Perth Symphony Orchestra office.”
