At Perez Hilton’s annual unofficial SXSW bash in Austin, TX, Courtney Love took the stage to cap tonight show. Here she is about 25 minutes ago performing “Northern Star”—from Hole’s Celebrity Skin album—as an encore.
Hiton asked her for only hits tonight, but she opened her set with covers of Alex Chilton and Rolling Stones’ tunes and also included a number of new songs on her set list inside the cavernous, but crowded warehouse space in downtown Austin.
“Your my best friend. And then you died,” moaned Jonathan Pierce, on stage after 1 a.m. at SXSW last night, singing a song that he said was about his best friend. The track is called, simply, “Best Friend.” In person, his voice sounded deeper than it plays on the video (below), giving it an almost Peter Murphy quality. Of course the tune plays against that, despite its darker literal and figurative themes.
Either way, there’s certainly an 80s influence that’s quite pronounced in the songs the staged and performed last night. It was a strong, brief set. The band will be on the bill tonight at Stubb’s here in Austin, effectively opening for Scissor Sisters.
Evoking the early to mid 90s, Courtney Love took the stage this afternoon at SXSW, fronting a band that she boldly branded, “Hole.”
Either willfully or playfully, Love was defiant about the new lineup for her group, despite the absence of her co-founder Eric Erlandson and others. In fact, former Hole member Melissa Auf der Maur is also in Austin this week but is not on the new “Hole” lineup.
“We’re Hole whether you like it or not you little suck shits,” Courtney Love said today, in between a set of old and news songs during a 45 minute gig at SPIN Magazine’s private day party for thousands at Stubb’s in Austin. “This is the way its going to be for a long time so fucking get used to it,” Love prodded the crowd, shortly after introducing her band. At one point she appeared a bit confused by who was backing her on stage today. Love seemed to start to introduce a guitarist and then, looking a bit puzzled, stopped and said that the guy wasn’t actually on stage.
“Hole” was the headliner and when she took the stage this afternoon, Love looked a lot like Stevie Nicks. The audience was with her, standing in the sun drinking beer from cans and singing along and cheering her on.
For fans of Hole’s first decade, like myself, the show was an terrificly entertaining blast. Courtney and her band dusted off hits like “Miss World,” “Violet,” and “Reasons to be Beautiful,” songs that gained Hole international attention in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994. She wailed at times in that distinctive way that she has for years. At times her voice sounded solid, the in other moments it seemed a bit off. But, no matter. The set was a lot of fun.
In between songs Courtney kept the crowd laughing with any number of raunchy references and jokes. The set passed quickly and the end seemed to even catch Love herself by surprise. From off stage she was told there was time for just one more tune.
“Yo, make that go away, I’m in the mood,” she said, egging on the cheering crowd and almost begging to play longer.
“I was gonna bring it,” she added, pausing. “I’m not bringing it now if we have one more song…who do they talk to? Seriously?” Love paused, “Hey you know what, so what. We’ll play a really good song, it’s called ‘Samantha’. Fuck you.”
“I’d stage dive but I’m far too elderly,” Courtney Love said when her last song ended. She then curtsied with two middle fingers raised to the crowd. And with that she left the stage to another round of cheers.
Tomorrow night, Courtney Love and “Hole” will play a set at Perez Hilton’s annual private SXSW bash. She said that he’s asked her to only play the hits.
A fan of their self-titled first album, I was curious to see how the lush aural experience of their music would translate to a live experience. They were terrific. Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim are up front for the band, backed by Jamie Smith (all pictured here). Save for a dramatic flourish to end the set, like Depeche Mode back in the Black Celebration era, the trio stay rather stationary, but their sound last night was pervasive and powerful.
It was a great - dare I say, at times moving - set. More soon, gotta run to the SPIN day show…
Sarah Negahdari (center) fronts Happy Hollows, an L.A. band that powered through an early Wednesday night set here at SXSW. Alongside her is Charlie Mahoney, with Chris Hernandez (no relation) on drums.
Asked to describe their sound, in a Spinner interview, Mahoney said, “I think it’s fairly aggressive and minimal but also melodic and sort of nonlinear with respect to the structure of the songs. And it’s got female-fronted vocals—sort of high, ethereal vocals with crunchy guitar riffs.”
That and occasional screams and on stage writhing by Sarah Negahdari make them a compelling live act.
“DO NOT MISS THIS,” a friend in L.A. emailed me the other day, “It will be one of the best shows you see there.” He’s right, its among the tops of the week, for sheer intensity of performance.
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