Courtney Love at the Enmore Theatre - 24/8/14 - Live Review

When I grow up, I want to be Courtney Love.

Born Courtney Michelle Harrison (Love she adopted), in California, 1964. All American girl, musician, actress, model, mother, and most infamously, spouse of Nirvana frontman, the late Kurt Cobain.

She has stripped for a living, leant her vocals to Faith No More, and fronted indie punk rock band, Hole – all while raising a daughter, fighting with Dave Grohl and most importantly, making music.

Her behaviour has no filter; her words speak louder than her actions! But, for a 50 year old, whose career, and personal life in the limelight has been drenched in controversy and chaos, her show at the Enmore theatre in Sydney last Sunday night, bringing her whirlwind Australian tour to an end, rendered unbelievable expectations.

Apparently Love prefers her support acts to be a healthy dose of female rockers - don’t you love her stance on feminism? So it was no wonder Melbourne band The Mercy Kills, met her requirements perfectly. A quartet made up of two female vocalists / guitarists, Nathalie Gelle and Jen Costello, and lead singer Mark E, with Josh Black on drums, opened the show for Love. They smashed out their set, with high energy and enthusiasm, preparing the crowds ears for a night of heavy rock and hard-core screaming.

A princess moseys on stage. Donning a tiara, dressed (only just) like an agent provocateur model, meets ex-junkie in silk. “Hello Sydney, what’s up you little shits?” The husky tone of her voice, her big lips and messy blonde tresses expose that famous face we had all been dying to see. She sips on her ‘kale’ juice and lets us soak up the essence of her presence.

New material ‘Wedding Day’ was first up, then ‘Violet’ and a rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Gold Dust Woman’ followed. Backed by her highly able band, they introduce ‘Malibu’, cult hit from Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’ album. This track evidently sat well with the audience, an old favourite from their 1998 record. The crowd singing along, as if to reminisce about their teen days, or for the oldies in the mix, their mid-life crisis days, and what this era of music meant to them.

Soon into the set, bras were flying at the stage! Love, excited by this, promised that if the ladies of Sydney beat the Miami ‘bras on stage record’, she would stage dive, and do a Springsteen length set. She asked, and she received.

Her mic covered in lace and lingerie, puffs of smoke escaping her mouth as she drags hard on her ciggy, she mutters under her breathe “I wanna fuck you like an animal” and dishes on her ‘fling’ with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, adding that “It wasn’t that great”. Roars of laughter echoed throughout the theatre. There’s that “no filter” I mentioned earlier.

Reassuring her connection with the crowd, she seeks approval from her fans, the

response being reasonable, but not to Love’s standards, she shrieks again, “I’ve got a Hollywood ego, ARE YOU HAVING A GOOD TIME SYDNEY”? Better this time, cheers loud enough to raise the roof and give her the attention she so deserved.

She exerts herself in ‘Jennifer’s Body’, then introduces a new track ‘Honour’, that she and Ginger Wildheart, her second guitarist, co-wrote. Love and her lead guitarist, British rocker Micko Larkin, whom has been with Love’s band since 2007, shared many cheeky moments throughout the night. Encouraging him to speak in an ‘Oostralian eccent’ and giving him the occasional nipple cripple and sculling his refreshments.

Showing no fatigue, they went on to play ‘Skinny Little Bitch’ and ‘Asking for it’ before the much anticipated ‘Celebrity Skin’. It sounded as perfect as it did on the record and the crowd loved every second. It was grungy, noisy, reckless - and delivered to perfection.

Dressed in a white lace gown, the picture of a perfectly poised corpse bride, carrying a bunch of roses and a satisfying grin on her face, she was back for one last dose of attention. Extending the already 80 minute show by three more tracks, they closed from encore with ‘Northern Star’, ‘Dying’ and ‘Doll Parts’.

On a whole (eep there’s my non intended pun again), the music was beautiful, her voice at times, Melancholy and soft, at others, screechy and aggressive. There were sex references a plenty, clouds of ciggy smoke, profanities, tongue in cheek comments and potty mouth banter bad enough that if you weren’t a fan, it would piss you off, but for the fans? It was seamless dialogue - funny at times, shocking at others – but ever so fitting of that indie-punk-rock scene.

If you didn’t catch her show, know this; Courtney Love has lived one crazy existence. But, above all of that, she is a talented rock ‘n’ roll lady-noise-making-goddess, running with her inner bitch and not giving a fuck what anyone thinks. Go put on your prettiest lacy bra and dance around to ‘Celebrity Skin’ and set your inner crazy free. God knows, she probably still is.

Review by Georgina Lochhead

Photos by Peter Sharp view more here

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