21-02-2010 Hole

Venue: Paradiso, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Enfant terrible Courtney Love had recently decided to put her band Hole back on track. The band that originally started in 1989 had always known rumors and abrupt lineup changes. Guitarist Micko Larkin, bassist Shawn Dailey and drummer Stu Fischer are taken with her on the road for the three concerts that are announced. London, Milan and Amsterdam. Rumours about summer festivals are on the streets as well.

The streets are filled before the venue opens. An official sold out was never mentioned, but it can’t be much far from that. Seems like that Courtney still has a lot of credibility from her fans. In April the new album “Nobody’s Daughter” will be released, but the show of today was more around the successes from the past. Even though it were mainly the singles that have been played the band performed raw and sometimes a bit chaotic. In the start of the set it appeared a bit static. On stage as well offstage, but Courtney breaks the ice by conversation quite some in between songs. See clearly seems to enjoy herself, but her band seemed to have a hard time. The band seemed more to care for playing it all right as how it should be while Courtney often changes things a bit and improvises here and there.

After about an hour she hardly finished her last note before she rushed offstage. A return came, a brilliant close with “Northern Star” and even after that she hardly took a second to collect her applause. Interesting to see the grunge coming back to live in a reunion concert like this. What the plans of Hole towards the future are is all unsure and as usual rumored about. This band will always be spoken of, as well as this concert. For the fans of Hole this was an interesting night out and an opportunity to see their favorite back after such a long time of absence.