*Articles*

From the San Francisco Examiner
Friday, December 11, 1998 

LOVE LOOKS HOT, BUT ROCKETH NOT

At Live-105 extravaganza, Garbage is hot
By Craig Marine Examiner staff critic

    San Jose-A beautiful, powder blue Fender Stratocaster electric
guitar 
sailed through the cramped, stuffy air of the Events Center Thursday
night, 
with Courtney Love onstage screaming at the crowd to ensure that only a

female audience member took home her spontaneous gift.  At one point,
it 
seemed as though Love, lead singer for the band Hole, was about to
launch 
herself into the crowd to take the prize away from anyone checking in
too 
high on the testosterone level.
    While it was one of the finest moments of any rock concert in these
parts 
ever, it also may have been the finest moment of Hole's performance,
which 
was disappointingly staid and predictable.  Rancid was the final band
at the 
LIVE-105 "Not So Silent Night" benefit concert on the San Jose State 
University campus, but Hole was the band most of the crowd came to see.
 At 
least, they came to see Love, who has become bigger than the band,
largely 
through her own grandiosity.
    The big question with Courtney Love, largely unasked, is whether
she 
would ever have been a rock star if she had not married the late Kurt
Cobain, 
Nirvana's troubled driving force.  The even bigger question, especially
not 
asked, initially out of respect for Cobain's suicidal demise, was
whether 
Love would be as big a rock star if Cobain had not exited this mortal
plain 
in such a dramatic fashion.  Early rock star deaths, horrific as they
may be, 
make instant legends.  
    The answer to the first question, based on Hole's performance
Thursday, 
is yes-she certainly has unmistakable star quality.  The answer to the
second 
question is no-truthfully, watching the audience and gauging the band's

proficiency, no one would be paying this much attention to her under 
different circumstances.  Hey, somebody had to say it.  
    Love is a current media darling.  Her unquestionable beauty-amply 
displayed Thursday is a tight-fitting, low-cut gown-and her excellent
movie 
portrayal as the drug addicted wife of magazine publisher Larry Flynt,
have 
put her on endless magazine covers.  And Hole's latest album,
"Celebrity 
Skin," is filled with gems. 
    But if you wanna be a rock 'n' roll star-especially if you are
going to 
include a surly attitude into the mix, you better be able to bring it
alive.  
And that's where Love and Hole drop the ball.  There was way too much 
posturing and way too little musical explosion.  At times, like with
the 
alternately lilting and slashing "Malibu," Hole clicked with the crowd.
 But 
too often the songs seemed too drone on while the audience headed for
the 
nacho vendors.
    LIVE-105 always has the best of the radio station mixed-bag
concerts, 
because the station has been so instrumental in giving air play to
otherwise 
unheard-of bands on the way up.  Thursday night's line-up was no
exception, 
with bands like Offspring and garbage and Soul Coughing and Cake and
Everlast 
taking half an hour to 45-minute stage slots.
    Each of these bands could probably sell out a concert at the
Fillmore 
Auditorium on its own, so seeing them together made the show a hot
ticket.  
And while Hole was a great attraction, it was bands like Soul Coughing,
and 
especially Garbage, that really lit the audience's fuse.
    Ironically, Garbage's driving force and guitar player is Butch Vig,
who 
produced Nirvana's breakthrough record, "Nevermind."  With singer
Shirley 
Manson leading the band through a raucous set, Garbage far and away won
the 
battle of the bands.  Manson, the Scottish firebrand, is an interesting

contrast to Love.
    While Love's sex appeal is based largely on her looks and angry, 
take-no-prisoners reputation, Manson is able to convey an equally
captivating 
stage presence without resorting to revealing gowns-not that there's
much to 
reveal, quite honestly.  The energy she brings to her singing is the
same 
energy Love often wastes yelling at photographers and demanding that
the 
crowd form a mosh pit, both of which she did Thursday.  Love may be a
victim 
of her own unrelenting self-promotion, but a good band just rocks the
place, 
and it was Garbage who owned the crowd Thursday on the basis of their 
musicianship.
    Another group that faired well in their limited set was Offspring,
the 
psuedo-punk popsters who had the crowd bopping non-stop through their
catchy 
and ultimately forgettable tunes.  If there is anyone alive in 20 years
not 
related to the band who who can name three Offspring tunes, they can
look me 
up and get three free passes to take me off my life-support system. 
Which 
isn't to say the music isn't good, it's just not much of anything-the
way you 
can eat a tub of movie popcorn and want to go out to dinner afterward.
    Thursday night was an evening of Garbage's triumph, Hole's
unmasking and 
a satisfying blend of some of the best ear-candy out there.  Give me
the real 
deal every time.

....... submitted by ~dea~    

From San Francisco Chronicle     
Saturday, August 19, 1995

LOVE LOSES IT AT LOLLAPALOOZA

Hole's Shoreline set cut short when Courtney scuffles with fans
By Sam Whiting Chronicle staff writer

An emotional and defiant Courtney Love jolted alive a heat-stricken 
Lollapalooza last night by leaving the Shoreline Amphitheatre stage
twice to 
challenge members of the audience before she was finally carried away
in the 
arms of a security guard. 
    On her daughter Frances Bean's third birthday, she first went after
two 
men, flipping them off, then jumped off the stage after them,
apparently 
because they were showing insufficient enthusiasm.  
    After she was carried out of the arena, the music of Nirvana, her
late 
husband, Kurt Cobain's, band, was piped in on the grounds, his voice
singing, 
"All alone is all we all are."
    Love had been in tears for much of her set.  Clad in a black
leather 
miniskirt and matching sleeveless vest, with a black fishnet-stockinged
leg 
placed atop a speaker monitor, she strummed an aqua guitar at high
voltage, 
backed by her band Hole.  
    It was four screaming songs before she took a long pull of a
cigarette, 
and addressed the crowd, "Let's hear some respect for elastica," she 
exhorted, then, "louder, you fucking pussies."  The crowd responded as
much 
out of fear as appreciation, but the best response of all came to her
plea 
for, "respect for Frances Bean Cobain, who's 3-years-old today."  Then
she 
led a happy-birthday sing-along.

Love in Tears
    Love's glittery, emotional set-she was noticeably crying through
much of 
it-was like a cool breeze against the hot wind that blew the
rock-and-grunge 
road show into Mountain View for its fifth-annual visit-at least until
things 
got bizarre.  
    Sonic Youth closed the show with its particular brand of spacey 
reverb-heavy rock.  Even with an elaborate psychedelic light show
behind 
them, Youth couldn't match the spectacle of Love's histrionics.
    The absence of a major-name headliner didn't shrink the crowd,
which 
arrived through the afternoon and into the night in what was predicted
to be 
a sellout by the time Courtney Love and Hole took the stage promptly at
8:25.
    The top-billed act was Sonic Youth, but it was clear that Hole was
the 
main draw, followed by Elastica, a female British pop-punk band that
replaced 
Sinead O'Connor, who withdrew midtour due to pregnancy.  
    "I came because of Hole, but then I found out Elastica was playing,
which 
was even better," said Lisa Burke, 12, of Mountain View, who bopped and

swayed in her seat throughout Elastica's tight 40-mnute set.     
    Yesterday was the final stop on the nationwide summer tour, and the

artists seemed as if they'd had enough.  David Yow of Jesus Lizard sang
one 
song while lounging in a seat in the audience, six rows up.  At the end
of 
the set, he introduced the following act: "Next up is Beck to fuck you
in the 
face."
    No one could be sure if he was joking; the tour has been marked by 
back-biting and online sniping between bands.  

......submtitted by ~dea~