May 19th
New York, NY:Roseland Ballroom
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SET LIST
� Violet
Review donated by Nancy K
I don't know how last night's show was, but this was one of the best shows
by one of the best bands around right now, and anyone who was there would
agree with me. Hopefully this will be somewhat coherent, as it has been a
long though "wholly" gratifying day (pun intended).
Following Imperial Teen's not-bad set, Hole opened with Violet followed (in
no particular order cuz it's all a blur right now) with Awful, Playing Your
Song, Heaven Tonight, Boys on the Radio (during which the intrepid Courtney
climbed atop a 9 foot speaker and cut her leg in a few places jumping down),
Doll Parts, Dying, Use Once and Destroy, Malibu, Northern Star, She Walks On
Me, Pretty On The Inside, a short version of All Tomorrow's Parties, and
Reasons to Be Beautiful.
For encores, they did, among others, Cum On Feel the Noize and Celebrity
Skin
In between and during these numbers Courtney invited anyone who surfed up to
the front onstage, and pretty soon there was a multitude of mostly girls up
there, filling in the spaces behind the band, myself included. From that
perspective the show was ratcheted up a notch from just merely awesome to
fucking incredibly what-are-you-nuts? awesome. Courtney was all over the
stage, when not mini-surfing down front she was pulling girls up herself out
of the crowd, and, ever-gracious, thanking us for handing her bottled water
and lighting her cigs (Merits). She and Melissa even gave away their
full-size butterfly wings to a couple of cuties and Courtney planted a big
wet kiss on a probably now-comatose guy who didn't see it coming. As if
that weren't enough, Courtney gave away her guitar during Celebrity Skin and
she and Melissa handed out guitar picks to us on stage. She also sprayed
the oxygen-deprived crowd with water periodically and had security do
likewise. Then she , Eric and Melissa donated all their organs to the NYU
Medical Center. (okay, that last part isn't true, but for chrissakes, it may
as well have been for all the benevolence that was flowing from that stage
tonight and the blood that Courtney shed scaling speaker towers for her
adoring fans). Note to Courtney: When attempting to climb atop speakers,
wear proper footwear, silver lame shoes are not Sierra Club-approved as far
as I know.
And the performers? They were spot-on tonight, from the amazing Eric
squeezing every last note out of every last guitar to the "glue" that is
Melissa Auf Der Maur and of course the other half of that rhythm section,
the incredible Samantha, who provided the girls on stage with enough
backbeat to sustain us until we next replenish our D-cells.
I'll leave it to others who were there to fill in more details, as I am
running on fumes and adreneline at this late hour. All I can say is, if you
haven't already, run to your nearest ticket broker and pray that they have a
pair left for when Hole arrives on your doorstep during this tour, you won't
be sorry.
FYI, on the way out, a crew member pulled a small group of us aside,and we
were led to a "meet and greet" area, where the band was hanging out after
the show. Liv Tyler, Claire Danes (with boyfriend Ben Lee) and others were
there paying homage, while Courtney worked the room, serving up homemade
crab puffs. (okay, that last part didn't happen, but she did earn all the
brownie points for showing her fans a good, make that great, make that
unbelievably fucking great time). I was half expecting a bouquet of flowers
from Hole when I arrived home tonight, but, alas, my fairy tale had come to
a sweet end.
P.S. A Hole crew member I chatted with officially confirmed that the band
is doing Lilith dates in August, and thought that Jones Beach might be one
of them, but wasn't 100 percent certain. Taking no chances, my ticket is
already in hand, since by August I just may be recovering from this May
show...
Nancy K
Review donated by Lisa
I read later in the New York Daily News that Courtney supposedly made
Roseland do extra security, 'frisking fans at the door', was how they
described it. They thought she was being hostile to her fans. I thought if
it was even true that Courtney asked for special precautions (nothing was
really unusual for a mid-size NYC venue) she was probably more afraid that
one of those idiots expressing their personality disorder by blaming her for
everything that went wrong in Kurt's life after his folks' divorce might
leave their parent's basement on a mission. Security didn't do much more
than look inside of my purse (missing my stash, or not caring, during the
show everyone toward the back of the open space seemed to be smoking pot).
They did pat my boyfriend down and make him show the insides of all his
jacket pockets. They mentioned metal detectors in the paper (the Daily News
reviewed Tuesday's show in Thursdays' issue), but I didn't notice any.
I bought a shirt and a sticker. The shirt had Melissa, Courtney and Eric (a
'between drummers' shot, apparently) on the front and "Celebrity Skin-World
tour" on the back with dates. Not being able to read the dates from where
the shirts were hung for display, it wasn't until after I bought it that I
realized they were the dates for the aborted tour with Manson-including the
4/3 DC show I got a refund for after they canceled. My boyfriend suggested
crossing that one out and writing in '5/19 NYC'. The sticker was sparkly and
said "HOLE" with a new logoish thing going on with the "O." They also had a
shirt with a picture of Courtney on the front, and "Just Shut Up, You're Only
16" written on the back, another saying "Just Shut Up" on the back and, I
think "Celebrity Skin-World Tour 1999", baby tees & hats with "Hole" on the
front, and a few other things I'm forgetting.
During most of the opening act I was either smoking on the couch in the
ladies room or standing on the line. Hole went on a little after 9:30. They
opened with "Violet," and Courtney was wearing a blue dress with fairy?
angel? butterfly? wings. Melissa was a wearing a gorgeous red outfit. "I
thought New Yorkers were supposed to be jaded" she brayed at the crowd.
"People say 'Oh, you can't play New York' and I say fuck that!"
This is the set list, as best as I can remember. I won't swear to the order,
except that "Violet" was first and "Celebrity Skin" was last. There were
also a few covers I don't know the names of:
� Violet
The crowd was more racially mixed than I expected, but still overwhelmingly
white. Largely college/high school age, it seemed, though not exclusively,
even besides my boyfriend and me. In the ladies's room I chatted with a
Hispanic woman wearing a T-shirt that said 'Phillies Cunt", who was also
thirty. I saw unreconstructed punks, young girls in baby barrettes, skinny
guys in Kurt T-shirts and one older man in a suit who was probably someone's
dad. I read later than Joey Ramone had been in the VIP section.
At one point people were apparently chanting "MANSON SUCKS." Courtney asked
them not to say that, indicating that just she wants the sniping over with.
"I'm really sorry guys," she said about the previous plans to tour with
them-"What can I say? I made a mistake." Another thing I read in the paper
about Tuesday's show was that she called someone an asshole jock. Wednesday,
she advised that "us freaks should make friends with the jocks," referencing
Columbine without mentioning it directly. She dropped Ben Afflick's name,
saying "He's a jock, and I'm really good friends with him." (I pondered how
the mainstream media can't tell our kind of freak from the Manson crowd, and
how easy it would be to make friends with someone afraid you're going to kill
them.) Going to the subway after the show ended, a very drunk gay guy
complimented me on my retro cats-eye glasses and I asked him if he thought we
could make friends with jocks. He fluttered his eyelashes and said,
queenily, "I can."
I had read online about Courtney bringing lots of girls onstage, sometimes
dodging the security guys to do it. By the show I saw there was a routine
worked out: the person (I had heard just girls, but Courtney made a point of
saying "Anyone, male or female, under six feet tall, who can make it in the
pit can come onstage." It seemed to be mostly girls) coming on stage would
get in half a victory jump before the stagehands would grab their shoulders
and sit them down. When the band came back for the encore, Courtney said
"Seriously, I want like twenty more people on this stage." She came out into
the audience a few other times in addition to during "Doll Parts." The
stagehands were working pretty hard between following her and watching the
fans that were on stage. As they prepared to leave the stage for good, the
audience members who made it up clustered around Courtney and I heard her
say, "You guys inspire me so much every day."
� Dying
� Malibu
� Pretty On The Inside
� Awful
� Boys On The Radio
� Doll Parts
� Reasons To Be Beautiful
� Use Once And Destroy
� She Walks Over Me
� Heaven Tonight
� Playing Your Song
� Northern Star
� Cum On, Feel The Noize
� Celebrity Skin
� Dying
� Malibu (Large silvery tinsel rained on the audience during this. I was too
clumsy to catch it and then too embarrassed to scoop it off the floor.
Fortunately, my more-coordinated better half caught some for me.)
� Pretty On The Inside
� Awful
� Boys On The Radio (Courtney had the stagehands hoist her on top of an amp
during part of this song. She was then completely blocked by the speakers
for at least half of the audience. Coming down she slipped a little, but
didn't lose the lyrics.)
� Doll Parts (Courtney came down off the stage, abandoning her guitar, and
for several choruses sang "I fake it so real I am beyond fake" then thrust
the microphone at the audience for "And someday you will ache like I ache")
� Reasons To Be Beautiful
� Use Once And Destroy
� She Walks Over Me (Courtney introduced this with "This is the only real
guitar riff I've ever written. I'm the world's shittiest guitarist.")
� Heaven Tonight
� Playing Your Song
� Northern Star
� Cum On, Feel The Noize ("Sam really wants to do this song," Courtney said.
I remember Quiet Riot's original from my early adolescence when the 80's the
party-boy-metal music thing was big. It was a song I sort of liked, despite
being most definitively not 'my kind of music'.)
� Celebrity Skin