Live Review: Courtney Love

Courtney Love has racked up more column inches of late speculating on missing plane MH370 and confessing to blowing the majority of her Nirvana inheritance than for any fresh music, aside from a thrashy pair of new songs. However, the crowd is buzzing early – the venue feels like a place of worship with a split right down the middle of punters – current corporate types, all grown up (perhaps) yet revisiting their youth, and those clearly forever stuck in 1996. Perhaps it’s the artist in question but these aren’t fans, they are worshippers, and it seems what happens in the Temple of Courtney stays in the Temple of Courtney.

Briefly acknowledging the adoration before her, Courtney Love and a four-piece band of guitars and drums leap right into Wedding Day, a thrashy tune that not only serves as one of two new songs for the night, but also reveals right away Love’s fine vocal form, far from the train wreck many seemed to have expected. Tonight’s show is a little off-kilter – a no-gimmicks affair with a wobbly Love screaming like a banshee and pulling together a wet-dream of a setlist. And yes, she plays Hole songs. Miss World is the second track of the night and by this early stage, everything seems to fall into place, with Love hitting her stride – all potty-mouthed and somewhat shambolic while not abandoning her traditional wardrobe despite being 50, every inch the riot grrrl still.

An enthusiastic roadie meets her requests of tequila one minute, an iced-latte the next, and Love sporadically flings roses into the audience, even singling out a 50-something “wood cutter” type at one point who pushes through people to collect his. The set itself is incredible, pulling from all eras of the Hole catalogue – Plump, Honey and Reasons To Be Beautiful follow closely before a defining cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman. Malibu, Skinny Little Bitch, Asking For It, Violet and Use Once & Destroy follow and by this stage it’s a celebration, a vibe that’s only raised when the closing Celebrity Skin emerges from nowhere, sending the already-frothing crowd into a frenzy. The encore is largely a stripped-back affair – she throws Dying or Petals to the people; Dying wins and is played with a stunning cover of The Crystals’ He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) and the closing Doll Parts.

Love is her own version of impeccable tonight; she’s lovingly self-depreciating in some places, the ultimate rock chick overall. Tonight’s show is so rooted in the ‘90s, it’s hard not to long for the original line-up of Hole on these songs, but for now Love completely owns, sending the couples, the 30-something women holding hands and the downright nostalgic home with a big smile.