[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nirvana-the-band-the-show_4249.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Jay [=McCarrol=] and Matt Johnson]]
->''"We are Nirvana the Band, the live musical, that will never play the same show twice. To not let us play on your stage would be a terrible mistake. We are Nirvana the Band. For now, forever, for better, for worse, 4, times 4, is 16."''
-->--'''Jay [=McCarrol=]''', test-reading the band's press kit

Nirvana the Band consists of friends Matt Johnson and Jay [=McCarrol=]; ''Nirvana the Band the Show'' is their 10 episode web series, and ''Nirvanna the Band the Show'' is their television show based on their web series.

The show follows their misadventures trying to get their band--Matt improvising to Jay's piano-playing--booked at the Rivoli, a local dive. HilarityEnsues when they come up against minor and often self-created issues in getting themselves booked and decide to resolve them through usually illegal means. The series is shot in a fake documentary style.

The web series was produced from 2007-2009. Nirvana the Band the Show the Website is now defunct and the web series is officially offline.

The television show, which gained an extra "n" in "Nirvanna", premiered February 2, 2017 on Viceland (now known as Vice on TV). Episodes are available on the [[https://video.vice.com/en_uk/show/nirvanna-the-band-the-show Vice website]] and through iTunes.

Not Music/{{Nirvana}} the band.
----
!This series provides examples of:
%%* AffectionateParody: Scattered all over the place, but most notably in the title sequences. Except for the first and last episodes, every episode's opening credits is a parody.
%%* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:Parodied in the last episode.]]
* AllLowercaseLetters: The name of the band and the show is written in unpunctuated lowercase.
* AsideGlance: Steven Hamelin from the Born Ruffians does a few fantastic ones in "The Battle of the Bands."
* BattleOfTheBands: [[spoiler:It never actually happens, but after the band splits up, Jay and Matt both separately prepare for it.]]
%%* BerserkButton: "I curse the hole."
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Jay is generally the more docile and grounded of the two, but after a passerby insults him in "The Burn," [[spoiler:Jay sets fire to his apartment.]]
* BewareTheSillyOnes: [[spoiler:Matt kills Vince Valence in the last episode.]]
-->"''As if'' I'm not capable of that."
* BreathlessNonSequitur: Matt launches into this, and then starts talking about his haircut out of nowhere:
-->'''Matt:''' This is how you stake something out. Classic stake-out. Classic ''steak''. This is a Ruth Chris. That's what we're gonna call this. The Ruth Chris stake-out. Why do you think it's called Ruth Chris?\\
'''Jay:''' Alright, I'm going to stop you right there--(''he doesn't, and Matt launches into a [[CrossesTheLineTwice racist impression of an ex-slave]].'')
* CallBack: The series opens with Matt saying he wants to open their first show by slowly pointing at a halo of red lights around him while Jay plays a rousing number on the piano. [[spoiler:This is exactly how they open their live show in the last episode.]]
%%* TheCameo: Ronnie Hawkins in "The Band."
* CannotTellAJoke: In the deleted scene, "Good Will Hunting," Matt tries to do Matt Damon's famous "how do you like them apples?" line but repeatedly messes it up. When they switch roles and Jay tries to tell it, Matt interrupts him with [[ComicallyMissingThePoint "Oh my god! Matt Damon?"]]
%%* ChaoticStupid: Matt, to a degree.
* ChekhovsGun: Literally. [[spoiler:The gun found in Valence's office in "The Break-In" is later used to kill Valence in "The Rivoli."]]
* ChildhoodFriends: "The Band" is all about how Matt and Jay met when they were kids.
%%* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Jay to Matt, occasionally.
%%-->"How old are you? How old. Are you."
* ComedicSociopathy: Matt talks about how funny it would be to rip a cyclist off their bike with a giant hook as they go by.
%%* ComicallyMissingThePoint: "Look at the camera men behind me."
* DescriptionCut:
** "We can't use a Beatles song." Followed immediately by a montage of Matt and Jay racing to the Rivoli to the Beatles' "Helter Skelter."
** Explicitly lampshaded by Matt in "The Burn":
--->'''Jay:''' Maybe I will go say something, then!\\
'''Matt:''' Maybe you won't! [[MediumAwareness Maybe we're gonna cut]], and then be in the apartment, you'll have done nothing, and I'll be putting these photos on a board. Creator/{{SEGA}}!
%%* DidntThinkThisThrough: Oh so many moments when they're trying to track down the booking book.
%%-->"Why are we making these phone calls ''outdoors''?"
%%* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: "It's fine, it's domestic violence."
* DumbStruck: Jay, after he [[spoiler:burns that guy's apartment down in "The Burn," and sees Matt calmly waiting for him back at their apartment. Compounded after Matt reveals that the guy didn't even insult Jay in the first place. "I was fucking with you!"]]
* EasyComeEasyGo: [[spoiler:When Matt is proudly showing off the rights to their band name in "The Band," he gets so wrapped up in his victory speech that he tears up the contract.]]
%%* FlashbackCut: "The Basement" and "The Band" are full of these.
* GameMusic:
** [[JustForFun/OneofUs Jay]] covers many a video game song in their short series "The Piano Sessions," including the Mario Bros. theme, The Legend of Zelda, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario 64, and more.
** In the adventure "Update Day," Jay sings a song to the theme of the Wii Shopping Channel music entirely made up of Virtual Wii titles.
** Music from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' and ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' are used in the series.
%%* HaHaHaNo: Jay does this without any context whatsoever in "The Bday."
* HilariousOuttakes: Twenty minutes of them were on their now-defunct website's Deleted Scenes section. Because of the "real" style of the show, a great deal of off-takes [[ThrowItIn were just used in the final cut]].
* {{Improv}}: The entire series is improvised, including Jay's piano-playing.
* JapaneseRanguage: "I rike it, I rike it!" in "Update Day."
%%* LeFilmArtistique: The adventure "Just Matt."
* {{Neologism}}:
** They both call each other a "pussard".
** "You roofed it. You roofed a ''brick.''"
* NoFourthWall: They both look at the camera and talk to the camera men, and the camera men themselves are even in some of the shots.
* OverlyLongName: "Dr. Quin Man or Woman Mannequin Woman or Man."
* PaperThinDisguise: Matt's attempt to dress as Vince Valence, and Jay's stereotypical Hasidic Jew outfit.
* ThePianoPlayer: Jay has been described by Matt as a music savant. Occasionally Matt [[GlassShatteringSound tries his hand at the piano himself]].
%%* RashomonStyle: "In Hobbies":
%%-->"Both of our stories end with you being a loser."
* RunningGag:
** "Basically it's hard because right now [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow I only have a double jump...]]"
** In the Piano Sessions, every episode starts with Matt trying to do some sort of cleaning/repairing activity (always with kitchen gloves on). He asks Jay for help, and all Jay does is play a song.
** Matt makes high fives weird.
** Every single voice that is heard offscreen (via phone, etc.) is actually Jay's voice, since he is [[ManOfAThousandVoices good at impressions]]. Both Vince Valence's & Jeremy's voices are done by Jay. Even ''the guy who insults Jay'' in "The Burn" is Jay's voice.
%%* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Jay is usually, but not always, the straight man.
* TitleTheAdaptation: Parodied. "Nirvana the Band" is the name of the duo, but the lack of punctuation intentionally makes the title appear to read ''Music/{{Nirvana}}: The Band: The Show''. This is likewise applicable to its former web page, Nirvana the Band the Show the Website.
%%* TwoGamersOnACouch: Their DVD menu, and a little bit in "The Buzz".
* VitriolicBestBuds: They cut one another down constantly, even in real life.
* WritingAroundTrademarks:
** "Nirvana...the Band?"
** Throughout the whole series, there is a callous disregard for any sort of copyright infringement, punctuated in the deleted scene, "Mountain". Jay says, "This, right here, is ''Film/TheEdge.''" ...immediate cut to ''The Edge'' in its entirety.
** The same thing happens in Piano Session "Dragon."
*** Matt explains in a candid interview that they're able to get away with this, even during their run on the Vice Network (which included plots involving the ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies and speedrunning ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'') by making them so intrinsically tied to the plot, they can't feasibly be separated from the show. Almost every reference that's made is tied in some way to the episode's plot.
*** As an example: Matt and Jay watch ''Film/JurassicPark'' early in an episode, while talking about how cool and collected [[Creator/SamuelLJackson Samuel L. Jackson]] looks while smoking a cigarette in one of the scenes, leading to Matt believing that [[ComicallyMissingthePoint smoking cigarettes will help them keep calm while executing their plan]] later in the episode, leading to them getting addicted to nicotine to close out the episode.

----
-->''SEGA!''