City Square, Milan, Italy
by Massimo Scabbia

English Translation

Courtney, the widow of Kurt Cobain, is a character in her own right. There was no need for tonight’s concert in Milan to realize it. Arrived in Italy on the sad anniversary of her husband’s death, Miss Love, together with her Hole, proposed the expected concert in Milan.

In the setting of City Square, after an evanescent performance by the very young Miranda Sex Garden, in front of a heterogeneous audience made up largely of a lot of girls who adore and imitate her, Courtney unveiled her repertoire made up not only of songs. Winks with the public, small, spontaneous dramas typical of the character and a lot of rock, of good rock.

It starts with a powerful instrumental that highlights the character’s wildness, then Miss Hole shows herself in all its complexity. The girl is visibly sedated by sedatives and more, the apathetic smile on her lips, the desire to communicate, the fire inside her that never leaves her. Like when she gives in to the temptation to let herself go into the hands of the wild audience in the front rows (something like that had cost her dearly a few days ago in France: a bad fall and nothing, expected, Parisian concert), immediately rescued by security; like when she gets angry at the merciless objects that crash into her slender body wrapped in a school dress, thrown by the same audience to which she pours out plenty of water to cool the boils of the torrid environment. It is at this point that Courtney decides to leave, but to return to the stage for another half hour of “noise” (her definition) ten minutes later.

Embraced by her beautiful guitars, saddened by her intoxicated gaze, Courtney is an excellent instrumentalist who pounds hard on the strings of the instrument, well assisted by the new bassist Melissa, the other guitarist Eric and the drummer Patti (the only one to come from Seattle) . A tough band. accustomed to the excesses of their leader. Courtney no longer wants to hear about grunge: “it’s dead” – she says. The appreciations for the fellow travelers of the past are not the most generous: “fuck Nirvana, fuck Pearl Jam, fuck Mudhoney and fuck you with the grunge shirt” – she says angrily to the audience. Bye bye sweet miss Love, au revoir.