Last
night Courtney Love came to town. I suppose we should begin to refer to
her as Courtney Michelle, but I don’t think that a name change is going
to re-brand this women in any serious way do you? Look, there is no
denying Courtney has her detractors. The women has been through hell
and some of it was her own doing. Still, at 45 years young (for now
that is, she has a birthday coming up on July 9th), she seems more able
to let the criticism bounce off of her. She’s got balls and I admire
her for that. I was on the fence about attending, but the truth is, as
soon as I saw Hole listed as a June show at Boston’s House of Blues, I
was drawn to the show. I was jokingly calling it a train wreck I just
had to see, but I was wrong. Oh, she did space some words during her
impromptu rendition of a recent outtake called Stand Up M*F’er, but she
and her band did some solid work last night. Some idiots through some
stuff up on the stage, mostly beer bottles and water bottles, but she
never lost her cool, not even for a second. I was praying she
wouldn’t. Why let her detractors win? A guy next to me mumbled to his
girlfriend as Courtney was trying to remember the words at one point
and said “this is what I came to see.” I remember nodding against my
will. Thanks not really what I can to see even though I’d heard the
rumors.
I
don’t care what anyone says about women like Sinead O’Connor or Courtney Love. When you rock, you rock…end of story. Love does like to stop
the show and almost chit chat with her audience. I don’t have any
problem with that. It makes her human. Last night, for instance, we
learned that her smash hit “Doll Parts” was written at somebody named
Joyce’s house near Harvard Square. We learned that one of the first
albums she ever owned was a Leonard Cohen record and she covered one of
his songs during the show called “Take This Longing” after a nice
intro. We learned that some of the lyrics to her song “Awful” were
written about a then 22 year old rocker named Gavin Rossdale (of Bush
fame) and that he was hot way back when. We learned that everything we
do in life is all about getting laid (what’s the definition of doing the
same thing over and over again and expecting different results again?…I
better work on this). And we learned Courtney wears $800 panties…which
we witnessed on the outside of her leggings. There was a 50-50 chance
of a wardrobe malfunction at one point, but all this aside, Hole put on
a great show as far as I’m concerned. I get a real kick out of her
whole rock chick persona, but you still have to deliver the goods. She
does that and then some.
After
a “Dirty Water” voice warm up they dug into “Pretty On The Inside”
which morphed into “Sympathy For The Devil.” Curious, but I wasn’t
thinking about covers going in. Later on they covered “Play With Fire”
which you may recognize as another Rolling Stones classic, but that was
dedicated to all the bitches in the audience living off of Daddy’s
money. An issue she clearly has had trouble with over the years. In a
completely unrelated story the next song following “Sympathy” was her
hit single “Skinny Little Bitch.” If you came to hear “Doll Parts,
Miss World, Violet, Plump, Celebrity Skin, Malibu, Awful, Reasons To Be
Beautiful” and on and on she didn’t disappoint. I would have thrown in
“Softer, Softest” and “Asking For It” for good measure, but I’m not
complaining. The thing is, she seemed to be having fun instead of
going through the motions. One woman whined, just enough so she could
hear, when she started covering “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails, but she
professionally finished the song and then told her politely to go see
“Panic at The Disco” or something if she didn’t like it. The crowd was
more with her than against her for a change it seemed. Like I said
earlier, some slugs did toss stuff at her to see if they could get
under her Celebrity Skin, but she ignored them. One gigantic dude,
dressed in heels and full Courtney Love regalia got her attention during
one of her numbers and
Courtney laughed and smiled like you rarely see her it seems. She had a
nice rapport with both the audience and her band which, according to
Wikipedia, consists these days of Micko Larkin on lead guitar, Shawn
Dailey on bass and Stu Fisher on drums. All were excellent.
Apparently, we learned in another one of Love’s chatty moments, there
have been 16 members of Hole over the years.
I
have to tell you, I was expecting an uneven performance and what I got
was my money’s worth. Most of her new record, Nobody’s Daughter, was
played and several of those tracks, such as “Pacific Coast Highway,”
complete with its own intro about a relationship with a city (presumably
Malibu) and or individual that has gone sour, were very well received.
For me personally though, “Letter To God” with its tear your heart out
lyrics, is really a step in the right direction for Love. I don’t know
if she’ll ever be completely healed, but she seems relatively coherent
and friendly these days. The covers of Big Star’s “Thirteen,” Fleetwood
Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” and Nine Inch Nails “Closer” were a blast. I
am rooting for her to succeed. I don’t care what she’s done, who she’s
done, what her politics are or what people think of her; she rocks.
She’s in New Jersey tonight, but if you get a chance go and see her when
she shows up in your town. Her band is tight and she’s soldiering on
nicely. If you are a Hole fan you won’t be disappointed. And, as in my
case, you might be pleasantly surprised.
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