Thanks to Fadestarz@aol.com for this review!

I was extremely lucky to be able to see hole for the second time this year.  I saw them earlier in San Francisco and was impressed, but not so much since i wasn’t really into them at that time.  But after that show, I was converted into a die hard fan.  So, on June 3rd I flew down from San Francisco to catch their show at the San Diego State open-air theatre.  I basically ignored the opening band, because i was so anxious to see one of the best bands take the stage.  After the opening band finished, it started to rain. My two friends and I were sitting in rain, getting drenched ( but it was all worth it).  Well, an hour later, the “Old Age” intro began, and the crowd began to cheer in excitement as they took stage.  We were pretty far back but we could still make out the faces.  Courtney, in pure rock n’ roll fashion, came on with a cigarette in her mouth and blasted into a raging version of Violet.  After this song, I was simply enthralled because I had been anticipating this moment for over three months! After Violet, she began cursing out Coca-Cola for buying up half of the theatre’s seats, which were empty (It was assigned seating). So, she told the entire crowd to move as close to the stage as possible.  She kept on saying “Don’t worry about the security, i’ll protect you.  They work for me.”  So, my friends and I ran down to stage and advanced from the third tier seats to fifth row seats right in front of Eric.  The group played an awesome version of “Awful” which was less “poppish” and much harsher as Courtney sang her heart out.  Afterwards, she kept telling people in the back to move up.  She even threatened not to play until everyone moved up.  Throughout the concert, she brought on stage at least twenty girls and a couple of guys.  One guy bum-rushed the stage and knocked over Courtney’s mike stand as she was singing the intro to Miss World which got her really pissed off.  She said, “You’re one of those jocks that beats up one people.  Actually, you’re a freak!  Why don’t you go make a pipe bomb and blow something up! … Actually, don’t blow anything up….I bet you don’t even know how to have sex!”  Earlier, Courtney kept going on about jocks and freaks and how they should get along.  At one point she said, “If me and Ben Affleck can be friends, you freaks and jocks should be able to get along.” In terms of appearance, everyone looked awesome. Courtney had a quasi-Doll Parts outfit consisting of  a tutu over red hot pants over black fish net stocking and a tight red top. Melissa wore a full-scarlet dress, which made her look like she was from the 17th century and was stunning.  Sam wore brown pants and a blue tank top, and i forgot what eric wore. In the encore, Courtney changed into a small, white tank top  and had a pair of fairy wings. Throughout the performance, Courtney brought more people onto stage.  At one point, she complained that there were too many white people and she needed some non-whites.  So, she brought a black girl on stage and asked her if it sucked to live in San Diego since it had so conservative which I thought was hilarious since I’m from Bezerkely.  The girl responded, which I couldn’t hear, and Courtney suddenly kissed the girl smack on the lips!  In terms of performance, the band sounded tight.  Of course , there were a few times where Courtney forgot the lines, or just did not sing into the mike. At one point, during Boys on the Radio, she went towards the backstage area and emerged towards the side of us.  Chaos ensued, as a whole bunch of us chased after her and security scrambled to protect her.  I must have been at least three feet away from her and was simply mesmerized.  I kept shouting trying to get here attention and actually did when she looked directly at me, as she was being pulled by the security guards.  The band kept on playing during this whole time Courtney was not singing because she was being mobbed by fans and security.  But it was still so awesome, to actually see her close up.  (she ‘s shorter than i thought) Well , after the song, Melissa said something to the extent of “how do we put up with her?” Mellissa conversed a bit during the concert, and said stuff like “ the rain is here to cleanse us, and to sit through this, you must really like us”.  As they walked off the stage, Courtney criticized San Diego again, and said “stop being so fucking right-wing.” As for the encore, Courtney came out with fairy wings, a small white tank top, and the same hot pants.  She and Eric performed Northern Star, which is probably my favorite track, and she wailed her heart out towards the end of the song.  Then, they decided to play 20 Years in the Dakota, which was a pleasant surprise.  Before the song, courtney asked the roadie to take the guitar away because she probably didn’t remember the music or the lyrics. She then made a facicous remark  that Cameron Diaz wrote the song and Matt Dillon stole it.  During a powerful rendition of celebrity skin, where courtney repeated the first bridge,  she shouted “let’s riot!” Of course, that was difficult with the security guards in the way.  When the show was over, Courtney wanted to hand her mic off, and asked, “whose a leader?”  The twenty some odd people who were on the stage mobbed her which I thought was pretty funny.  As she walked off, to the male audience’s pleasure, she lifted up her shirt and exposed her breasts. The entire crowd seemed like it wanted a second encore.  The music, coupled with courtney’s comical and incessant interaction with the crowd helped fuel the audience’s reaction of wanting more.

Thanks to Nora Lesovsky (http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Theater/3432/) for this review!

It was cold, rainy and windy. Not the type of weather you want for an outdoor concert. So my husband and I bundled up extra warm and trekked out to San Diego State University's outdoor arena for the Hole concert.

It was a small arena and was shaped like a half of a cup, very steep seating with the stage at the bottom.

The opener was a band called the Queens of the Stone Age. I had never heard of them prior to the show and I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

Well, they came out and it was like watching one of my old friend's band play. There was too much of one kind of lighting, either an annoying blinking black light, flashing on the band members white jeans, or this weird green light that seemed to make everything blurry, which either way just hurt my eyes after a while.

The band might have potential if they stopped using the same guitar work in EVERY SINGLE SONG. They kept using these grinding keyboard sounds that you could feel in your intestines.

At one point I really thought the noise would make my teeth fall out.

Queens of the Stone Age played for an hour maybe playing 6 songs, and then the wait began.

And we waited.

As we waited the weather began going back and forth from pouring rain to slight misting.

Girls dolled up in their glitter and hair dye were now drippy, blue, shiny messes. The security guard in front of us gave his poncho to a girl in the audience; it was a sweet thing to see.

And we waited, not wanting to move in the slightest to keep our seats from getting wet.

The stadium was still half-empty when the band started and everyone seated in the front had been standing in front of the stage for over an hour.

Apparently a bunch of the seats were bought by a soda company and there was some confusion about why, so Courtney Love immediately told us all to move forward and come to the front.

I climbed and climbed and climbed until I was maybe at the 10th row. I now have all of these huge bruises from leaping over all of the seats.

Courtney had on a red halter top, shiny red tap pants with a tutu on the back and mary-jane's, she looked like a more sheek version of the old Courtney-it was GREAT!

All through the show she was pulling people onto the stage to sit and learn how to be a rock star, kissing people who came up and dancing with them.

At one point she came out the side door where I was standing and I got so close to her I could see the glitter in her eye-shadow, but I wasn’t close enough to be grabbed and thrown on stage.

It felt like the fans were the most important thing to the band and it was awesome to watch.

They played a lot of their new stuff, like Celebrity Skin, Awful and Malibu, but there was also a lot of their old stuff like Violet, Miss World, Credit in the Straight World, and Doll Parts. The encore was a beautiful version of Northern Star.

The sound was good except a few times it seemed like the mic wasn’t working or the guitars were screwed up, but what can you expect in the pouring rain?

At one point, during the song Dying, a mass of glitter was thrown onto the audience. It was the coolest thing to look up and have a sea of glitter over your head.

The show felt intimate and honest. All the fans were nice to each other, one guy even held a seat open for me to stand on while I was climbing from row to row. There was a great vibe all night and the show was definitely worth waiting the extra hour for and the cold and rain didn’t matter when the show began.

I would stand in the rain again for a show like this, BUT next time I would make sure I got up on the stage.