50 Minutes at a Hole Show
By John Russell
(Photos via courtney-love.org)
It's Tuesday night in
New York and every fag in the city is at Terminal 5 for the first of two
sold out Hole shows. And when I say every fag in the city, it's not
that much of an exaggeration, really. Even at the douchey sports bar on
50th and 10th Ave where the QxBxRx gang gathered for pre-show drinks
earlier I spotted gays who were clearly only there for cheap-ass shots
before walking over to Terminal 5.
I spot queer zinesters Max Steele and Daniel Portland with Jess Paps of
Brooklyn folk duo PAPS and we head into the thick of the crowd. Up on
the VIP balcony I can see Miss Guy with a bored looking Debbie Harry. To
the right of the stage I spot Ladyfag and Josh Sparber and Michael
Magnan with a bunch of those party boys who always seem to be hanging
around Amanda Lepore.
The crowd erupts into cheers of giddy anticipation when Hole's
backdrop—an oddly Ed Hard-esque design—unfurls behind the stage. But
that's nothing compared to when Courtney Love herself, dressed in a lacy
black number with Stevie Nicks sleeves and flanked by the backing band
she insists on calling Hole these days, struts onstage and launches into
"Pretty on the Inside," the Hole's standard show-opener since I don't
know when. From there the band segues into an abbreviated cover of The
Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" before playing their newest
single, "Skinny Little Bitch." It's a dizzying, and the Stones cover is
kind of unnecessary and forgettable. But all is soon forgiven when
Courtney starts flirting with the audience.
"Hi, New York. This is our date!"
Old school crowd pleasers "Miss World" and "Violet" from Hole's landmark
Live Through This follow, before new songs "Letter to God," "Pacific
Coast Highway," and "Someone Else's Bed" from the band's new album,
Nobody's Daughter. Through it all Courtney is on! She seems
self-possessed, playing (with) her guitar far more than I'd expected,
and never once forgetting her lyrics. She may be more subdued than the
Courtney of old, but the crowd is loving her nonetheless. There's even
crowd surfing! I look up during "Malibu" to see some girl held aloft by
the crowd, beaming the most transcendently luminous smile I think I've
ever seen.
But of all Hole's hits, it's "Celebrity Skin" that really rocks the
crowd. The surge in energy is more than obvious as the entire audience
starts bouncing, hands in the air, screaming every word. The band closes
the show with "Samantha" from Nobody's Daughter, before returning to
the stage for a surprisingly down-beat encore: "Play With Fire" (another
Stones cover), "Doll Parts", and the acoustic "Northern Star."
It's a short set, and you can tell the crowd wants more. But the
pre-show excitement, the sense that we've all just seen something none
of use quite expected to actually happen, is still there. Hopefully
it'll sustain us until Courtney Love returns again.
