The last time I caught a glimpse of Courtney Love in the flesh, she was leaning precariously out of a window above Brixton Academy in south London, throwing items of clothing to a gig-dazed crowd below. Eleven years on and no less a stranger to acts of provocation, tonight sees Courtney (or rather, a reincarnation of Hole consisting of the lady herself plus a talented new band of three thrashing with her) playing to an audience that reaches almost to the rafters of the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Expectations are diverse; the atmosphere stifling and volatile. Reportedly, two people faint before the second support act has finished.
When the lights dim the crowd is already seething; as Courtney strides on from the wings and takes up her Rickenbacker the surge towards the barrier takes your breath away. The menacing opening chords of ‘Pretty On The Inside’ from Hole’s eponymous debut play out and the entire crowd is screaming to her, but we barely get past the chorus before it changes pace and becomes a cut-up version of ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, then screeches to a halt. Welcome back, Courtney.
Having anticipated a night comprised of mostly newer material (she has, after all, got an album coming out in the next few months), the audience is treated to a varied set, with songs plucked from her solo offerings as well as all three Hole albums, the latter comprising mostly of the singles – ‘Violet’, ‘Miss World’, ‘Malibu’, and ‘Celebrity Skin’, with the delicate addition of ‘Doll Parts’ and ‘Northern Star’ as an acoustic encore.
Old-style ferocity
If Courtney appears uncharacteristically nervous onstage tonight – and it certainly seems so from her interactions with the crowd – she has nothing to fear from her new material; even with the use of a teleprompter during the performance and complaining of bleeding fingers the old-school ferocity is still there. New tracks ‘Samantha’, ‘Skinny Little Bitch’ and ‘Honey’ meet with greedy enthusiasm, proving that even with a few kinks in the playing (‘Not bad for an old lady’, she notes wryly), Courtney can still impress.
There may be less drama to her actions onstage now, but she remains very much a formidable presence. Several years of sobriety may have at least part-bled the devil out of Courtney Love, but you can’t shake it out of her music.
The set list:
Pretty On The Inside/Sympathy For The Devil
Skinny Little Bitch
Miss World
Honey
Violet
Letter To God
Pacific Coast Highway
Reasons To Be Beautiful
Nobody’s Daughter
How Dirty Girls Get Clean
Malibu
Celebrity Skin
Samantha
Acoustic encore:
Doll Parts
Northern Star
Never Go Hungry Again
Pic by www.laylasmethurst.com