Let me start off by saying that the Enmore Theatre is a great venue. It’s small and has fine acoustics, so not only are you incredibly close to the stage regardless of where you are, but the sound is fantastic as well.

Okay, so, as per usual the Litany girls played their support gig with two of their band members “doped up on cordazone” because they’d lost their voices, but they still sounded good – despite being heckled by screams of, “We want Hole!” and “Courtney! Courtney! Cooouuuurrrrtttneeeey!!!” 😉

Hole arrived later than usual and Courtney commented on how it was great to be in a small venue finally. Melissa seemed kind of anti-social, spending the majority of the show in the shadows at the back of the stage. Eric wandered about and Sam didn’t falter once – as much as I love Patty, Sam really is an awesome drummer.

Courtney was wearing (surprise, surprise) black leather pedal pushers, stilettos and a pretty silvery mid-drift top. She also had heaps and heaps of glitter all over her. Melissa wore all black – a short black skirt with a split that came up to the top of her thigh, black top and black cat ears on her head.

Courtney screamed at Sam to, “Stand up and take a bow, bitch!” after Courtney praised her for being “so fast” and “so good”. Sam complied.

Courtney then had a bit of trouble lighting up her cigarette and goes, “When I’m a big rockstar I’m going to have someone light my cigarettes for me .. wouldn’t that be a fun job?” she laughed. The stage-hands must have been listening ’cause later in the show they were handing Courtney lit cigarettes 😉

Like their other shows, they opened with Violet, followed by Awful. And again like their other shows, Courtney wanted girls to sit on the stage. About ten or twelve girls got up onto the stage and sat towards the front. Courtney turned around and screamed, “I don’t want to see you! Get back!” and she ushered them back with a fist yelling, “Back! Back! Further!”. “I’m teaching you about capitalism.” she said.

A few more songs and Courtney was checking the setlist. “Eric, did you take Drag off the setlist?” She got mad at him and asked the audience if they’d rather hear the Malibu b-side or something off Live Through This. “I love Drag,” she said, “That’s mine and Melissa’s song … those songs (off LTT) make me angry ..” She ended up playing Plump and at the end announces, “Well now I’m angry!” then Eric started the intro to Dying and Courtney rolled her eyes and laughed, “Now I’m gonna be depressed.”

Another smoke break and Courtney starts harrassing Melissa again to say “fuck”. Melissa retorts the same line from Brisbane, “I do fuck, but I don’t use the word fuck ..” Courtney won’t give up, “Oh come on, please Melissa … if you say ‘fuck’ (really loud) I’ll change places with you,” Melissa doesn’t budge. Courtney asks everyone to scream, “Melissa!” to encourage her, and we do. Melissa shrinks to the back of the stage covering her ears. Courtney tries her last resort, “If you say ‘fuck’ into the microphone I’ll show em’ my tits .. while I still -can-, before they fall.”

Everyone cheered and Eric even came over and gave Melissa a hug from behind which made her laugh, but alas, Melissa wasn’t going to say ‘fuck’, so Courtney didn’t show us her tits 😉 “Melissa wouldn’t say fuck, she’d say ‘making love’,” scoffed Courtney. “Speaking of making love, “said Melissa, “This is the part of the show where we do a song written by an Australian …” The song once again, was “Into Your Arms” and Courtney and Melissa started talking about Evan Dando and then Courtney points off stage and goes, “Well, he’s right there!”.

Twiggy Ramirez from Marilyn Manson came out and gave her a hug and looked like he wanted to play her guitar, fiddling with it, but Courtney told him,”You can’t play this. This is a pop song.” Eventually Evan left and Courtney said they’d give him a lesson in pop and the girls on the stage a lesson in capitalism. They played “Into Your Arms” (quickly becoming one of my favourite live Hole songs) and when they’d finished Courtney told us that that song makes her happy. She did a mock-up of the first line of Teenage Whore and said, “See, that makes me depressed, but (sings) ‘into your arms ..’ that makes me happy.” She recieved a mediocre response. “Oh god, you are so jaded,” she told off the audience, “I took my top off in Brisbane because they weren’t jaded.”

They played Use Once And Destroy, “Melissa basically wrote this song .. we don’t really know what it’s about.”

Courtney spotted some guy in the audience who looked out of place,”What are you doing here?” she asked. Then she kind of giggled and said even though she’d just bagged him out, she’d probably go out with him 😉

Courtney took the microphone down to the moshpit and asked people what they wanted to hear. Some girl said Boys on the Radio and I could have screamed ’cause I mean this -is- the Celebrity Skin tour and there’s more than a 75% chance that they would play that anyway, so couldn’t she have asked for something more obscure? Er .. sorry .. I’ll come off my soap box now and return to the review 😉

“You guys look sad,” Courtney said to those in the mosh-pit, “I don’t have any presents.” she told them before doing this great big diva huff, turning sharply on her heel. It was rather amusing 😉

Courtney said that she was going to teach us all something with a “really old song” (Bob Dylan’s It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue) and Melissa said that she was still learning heaps from it.

Once again they closed the official part of the show with Celebrity Skin, but returned for an encore about ten minutes later. Courtney came out in something that was a cross between the cabaret number from the Brisbane show and a Playboy Bunny outfit – it had a kind of frilly attachment to the back. Courtney and Eric played a beautiful version of Hide Your Love Away, followed by the cigarette-lighter-waving-inducing Northern Star, before they were joined by Melissa and Sam again for Paradise City. Courtney went over to Melissa and hugged her from behind for ages and they looked really cute together, singing and smiling. When they finished Courtney goes, “Australia is a little bit of paradise. It’s a paradise city and I like it …” Followed by, “Australians are very healthy … look at that guy in the Faith No More shirt’s teeth! I was in that band you know ..”

Melissa thanked the audience and told everyone to come and see them again, “We’ll be here all week,” before they played their final piece, the lines from Good Sister/Bad Sister. Courtney then pointed to some girl in a white dress and told her to come backstage, “You can have my guitar. I choose you.” followed by, “But if you give it to a guy I’m going to shave your fucking head!”

A stagehand threw out free Hole t-shirts (Courtney did it herself at Brisbane) Hole departed and the night was done.

The Sydney gig was an excellent show, but Courtney seemed to be slightly distracted (perhaps it was Evan or Marilyn Manson awaiting her backstage? 😉 Nonetheless, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Till next time ….