måndag 6 Sep 2010, 19:44
Bahhhhaha… finally saw Hole last night at Bumbershoot. Wanted to get this written down while it's fresh in my mind so that I can keep tabs on my best concert experience ever.
A friend of mine had told me before I left for Seattle that Courtney Love was pissed about an illustration of her in the Seattle Weekly, to the point where she was considering pulling out of the event, which she was headlining with Weezer. I saw it online, and it wasn't funny— it was basically a cartoon version of her, face plump and eyes swollen and drooping, as she injected botox into her lips via a handheld version of the Space Needle. Clever but offensive, and besides, that was so 5 years ago. She's back to resembling her older self. Once I got to the Seattle Center, though, I started to worry that she may in fact not show— there were newspaper bins and tables at the gates with copies of the newspaper! Not cool, especially for someone who is headlining a festival.
Nonetheless, I waited for the mainstage to open that afternoon, and got in early to stand through the Rise Against show before Hole came on. Waited for about an hour sitting at the base of the stage with a bunch of people, and then spent the following hour and fifteen minutes fighting my way through a conglomeration of rabid 15 year old Rise Against fans, while trying my best to avoid the hardcore mosh pits. It was worth it, though. Before Hole came onstage, a local female radio DJ came to the mic and said something about not knowing what to expect from Courtney, and that we would "all wait patiently for Miss Love" (code for Courtney is running late). Turned out she wasn't too late, because about 5 minutes later she was onstage, asking how we've been, greeting with "Hello, home" - everyone was cheering. She joked with us by harmonizing the opening lines of "Buddy Holly" by Weezer, followed by "oh, wait, I'm not in that band!".
She then opened with "Pretty on the Inside", as an interlude into the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil". About 1/4 into the show, she asked for a cigarette, and kept on going. She had a good mix of songs— "Samantha", "Skinny Little Bitch", "Pacific Coast Highway", and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean"— a song that she wrote "In the spa", which we all knew was code for rehab. "I don't have to kid around with you guys, I was in rehab— I just tell everyone in the Hamptons that I was at a spa", she said.
As for the old favorites, we got "Miss World" (which she wrote in Seattle, she says), a faster version of "Doll Parts", "Celebrity Skin", "Violet", "Malibu" (I can't be near you, the light just radiates— the song's closing line which she repeated roughly 10 times, telling us she could "do that all day"), "Reasons to Be Beautiful", "Asking for It", and "Plump" (which I was surprised to see them play- "your milk's in my mouth… WHAT?").
Midway through the show, she turned to Micko, current guitarist, asking "should we do that one thing"? That "one thing" turned out to be a cover of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy", which she all informed us she had played in Paris prior, and felt it was appropriate as the song had been written in Seattle. "We suck at it", she let us all know. "We're charmingly awkward at best, and I'm gonna bury this song here— never gonna do it again, but I've gotta get it out of my system… check this out, I suck at it". She actually didn't suck at all; it was a good cover.
They finished their set in just under the allotted hour and fifteen minutes, and Courtney jumped down off the stage to greet some fans on the far right before disappearing.
Overall, it was the best concert experience I've had, and I'm so happy to say that I got to see her live. Granted, since it was Seattle, there were quite a few Nirvana fans who were there to boo her; one girl behind me kept screaming "Fuck you!", which was repeated by several people in front of me. She looked at them, started laughing, and just gave them the finger right back. At the beginning of the show she flipped us all off, which I and many others returned out of respect (only in Courtney's world).
So, minus almost getting locked in a parking garage, everything was wonderful.