Courtney Love’s Militant Muddle
October 1, 1994, by Mark Jenkins

She’s a “militant feminist,” chain-smoking Hole singer-guitarist Courtney Love told the audience at a packed Radio Music Hall Wednesday night, but she doesn’t like “girls who complain.” The performance of Love and her band was militant enough, but it’s hard to credit the feminist part. From the baby-doll dress she wore to the gesture of briefly bringing out her little daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, Love’s stance was as incoherent as it was confrontational.

Hole depends on confrontation. Without it, the quartet’s show would have been a merely energetic account of material from its recent album “Live Through This.” Eric Erlandson’s rhythm-guitar rampages and Love’s half-shouted vocals were forceful, but such squalling rockers as “Jennifers Body” and “She Walks on Me” didn’t surpass the intensity of the recorded versions. Even such autobiographical songs as “Rock Star” seemed no more vital than Love’s taunt — after a partial rendition of “Hungry Like the Wolf” — that the audience was full of closet Duran Duran fans.