Venue: House of Blues
Location: Boston, MA
Band Lineup: Courtney Love (Guitar/Vocals), Micko Larkin (Guitar), Invisible Dave (Guitar/Keyboard), Shawn Dailey (Bass), and Stuart Fisher (Drums).
CL: Sorry I’m late. (Fake Boston accent) I was teaching my class at Harvard.
CL: (Singing) Down by the river, down by the river Charles. Oh, I love that dirty water. Boston, you’re my home.
– PRETTY ON THE INSIDE
– SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL
– SKINNY LITTLE BITCH
CL: ?? I have to chant every day.
CL: Oldie.
– MISS WORLD
During the song, she turns the mic on the audience and lets them sing, “Suck me under.”
CL: I like that song. You know I wrote Doll Parts in Boston.
Audience screams.
CL: I’ll play it later maybe, if you’re good, but I wrote it in Boston at this girl Joyce’s house. Does anyone know Joyce?
Audience screams.
CL: I don’t know, she was in the Harvard night school with ?? who stole all those people’s money. Uh, Joyce Finemaker, whatever. Anyway, she had a dog and so there’s a line in there ‘Dog beg’, ’cause the dog was begging me, but I’m not gonna play it now. Instead we’re going to play…
– VIOLET
– INSTRUMENTAL JAM
CL: Hold on, I want to make this right. I’m just jamming. Shut up. I’m indulging myself. Hold on.
– PRETTY YOUR WHOLE LIFE
CL: That…there’s no need to clap. That was me jerking off, but hold on. I wanna jerk off in a good way now.
CL: It might be really weird, but did anybody see my Behind the Music?
Audience screams.
CL: I thought the first half was fine. I thought the second half was really dumb, like…right? Like, like, let’s talk about Kat Bjelland being snippy, I mean. I don’t know, I just thought the second part should be, like, you know, um, you know, I don’t know, women going ‘She was funny’ or something. I don’t fucking know. I liked the first part. It made me cry. Did it make you cry?
Audience cheers.
CL: Yeah, it got like the most ratings that VH1 has had, like, in ever, but that’s upsetting ’cause I have to re-edit it and if you don’t do it (Laughs)…really, really, I know a lot of you go to nice schools and they tell you this all the time…I’m 45, almost 46, if you don’t do it yourself, it truly will not get done. That’s all.
CL: We’re doing this song. I didn’t write it, but hey, I could have.
– CLOSER
Courtney takes off her white shirt during the song and ties it around her waist.
– THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY
CL: Where’s my gays?
Audience screams.
CL: Ok, I did some Judy right now…that was my little Judy Garland tribute, with a little Trent…and Trent and Judy Garland and…I included, you know, that’s a good song…and to the little bitch over there that said, “Let’s go”, go see fucking, uh, Panic at the Disco! If I want to do a fucking Nine Inch Nails/Judy Garland cover, I will, because I don’t have that many other things in life to enjoy except being on this stage with my band. Actually, that’s really sad – and sex. Sex.
CL: Um, we should change the order because that next song is, um, slow. Uh, should we do ??
Girl in Crowd: Old Age!
CL: Can you guys actually do that song?
Girl in Crowd: Old Age!
CL: We’re gonna do a song off Celebrity Skin ?? Uh, I will give, um, ?? I will give my water to whoever can guess what song we’re gonna do. Who said what? I know. Wait.
Audience screams.
CL: It’s like the best song on the record.
CL: Alright, bitches. You can play this shit? Alright, Larkin, I trust you.
Opening chords to Awful.
CL: A little faster though. Harder.
– AWFUL
CL: (Singing) With the lights on it’s less dangerous, here we are now, entertain us.
Guy in Crowd: I love you, Courtney!
CL: Ok, I have to tell you why I sing that, because part of the song yes, was about Gavin Rossdale, but it was only the part that was “He’s drunk, he tastes like candy, he’s so beautiful” and…and, he was 22, man. Dude, that guy was hot, so the whole song is not about Gavin Rossdale and also, if you notice I say “Dirty water” in it. Ok, I’m making a reference to ??because my producer wouldn’t let me say “Icky”, which I’m still kind of…look what Jack White has done with the word icky. I was right. I say “If the world is so wrong, you can change it all with one song.” I still believe that, don’t you?
Audience screams.
CL: And maybe this is it.
Opening chords to Letter to God.
Courtney picks up a bra that’s been thrown on stage and swings it around.
– LETTER TO GOD
CL: Thanks.
Girl in Crowd: We love you!
CL: No, I am not singing Teenage Whore, thank you.
Girl in Crowd: Old Age!
CL: Occasionally I hear something and I take a request. What was that?
Girl in Crowd: Old Age!
CL: No, let her talk. Shut up.
Girl in Crowd: You shut up.
CL: This is the cradle of civilization in the fucking country, let her talk. What?
Guy in Crowd: Best Sunday Dress!
CL: Best Sunday Dress? Oh, see…
Girl in Crowd: Yes!
CL: The thing is, there’s a high note in there that I actually can’t get. It took me 20 years to write that song.
Guy in Crowd: Sing your heart out!
CL: I love it, but it’s not gonna happen, but it’s a good idea. The what? The what?
Girl in Crowd: Northern Star!
CL: Green T-shirt, what?
Guy in Crowd: 20 Years in the Dakota!
CL: I wish 20 Years in the Dakota. (To the band) Have you guys learned 20 Years in the Dakota yet? No. Can we try that tomorrow in New Jersey?
CL: It’s just a thing with me. I like that song. I just wanna…see, they know almost everything, but…I would say 20 Years…no, you know, it’s you and me, it’s you and me against the world on 20 Years in the Dakota. My friend just played it for Yoko Ono the other day for the first time and she loved it.
CL: Ok, this is a song about a town that has 33,000 people in it and I keep writing about the place and…and one time the Sheriff gave my driver a beat down and said I had two weeks to get out of town and I still write about, but…but it’s a love song and…and I want to dedicate this song to someone I love so much. I love them so much and I’m so in pain about it and this song seems to be about this person, but not who you think.
Opening chords to PCH.
Girl in Crowd: Boys On the Radio. It’s Boys On the Radio…see, watch it. This is why I hate it.
– PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY
During the song, Courtney says, “What happens now?” She turns the mic on the audience, letting them sing, “The whole wide world is in my hands.”
CL: I really do love him.
CL: (Gesturing to someone in the audience) Yo, screaming old boyfriends from Behind the Music – this is nobody you know of.
CL: I…I happen to think that, um, I’m an ok lyricist and this next song is I think, lyrically, I think Nobody’s Daughter is the best lyrics to a song, but this song, which is off Celebrity Skin, is like, if you look at it on the page, it’s really warped. Ok, here it is.
– REASONS TO BE BEAUTIFUL
CL: Thank you. You hear that little cracking in my voice? See, Philadelphia got my good voice, you’re getting my dying voice, which means New Jersey gets my shitty voice.
Audience screams.
CL: So, right when it’s dying, like now, is when it’s best. Actually…yeah, no now. You know when I’m squeaky a little? Love the moment.
CL: Alright. Um, we’re gonna do a Leonard Cohen song right now and we’re not doing Halle-fucking-lujah. Enough with Hallelujah, please.
Micko plays some chords to the next song.
CL: Wait, no, no…what Leonard Cohen song do you think I would do? Like Chelsea Hotel, right? No. What?
Guy in Crowd: Everybody Knows!
CL: It’s not a Led Zeppelin song, it’s a Leonard Cohen song. Do you know who that is?
Girl in Crowd: She’s so attractive.
CL: Ok. Leonard Cohen is this guy from Canada and my very first record was called Leonard Cohen, Leonard Cohen, and he’s this…he’s…he’s..very about being Jewish and sexual and he’s probably the best lyricist…he’s better than Dylan, like consensus, and he’s also really fucked up, so his lyrics are, like, dark as shit. So…so yeah, like, he played Coachella and, like, half the kids didn’t know who the fuck he was, which is insane. No, but I will play a Zeppelin song if you want. I’ll play Tangerine. You know what, Kurt…Kurt used to do Tangerine and instead of Tangerine he’d say Frances Bean. (Pretending to strum a guitar) So he’d go, “Frances Bean.”
Audience: Awwwww.
CL: I know. Uh…but that’s ’cause it’s the only song I have the range for, but no, we’re gonna do this song. Ok, ready?
– TAKE THIS LONGING
During the song, Courtney takes one of her shirts off (there’s another one underneath).
CL: Want a surprise?
Audience screams.
CL: You toot that fucking shit. That was good, I think.
Audience screams.
CL: Alright, you haven’t heard this in a long time and neither have I. They learned it on me behind my back. By the way, do you know, this is not a rent-a-band, we’ve actually been together five years, living together, which is more than I can say for anyone, in the…in the 16 different people who have been in Hole. That’s Micko Larkin.
Audience screams.
CL: We went into a Starbucks and they asked him his name and he said “Dragon”, so you can call him Dragon. That’s Stuart Fisher – five years he’s put up with my ass. Five years. No, I want to hear a little more. Five years of putting up with me.
Audience screams.
CL: And that’s Shawn, he’s kinda cute, but apparently he’s the greatest fuck in the world – and we’ve lived in the same house for five years, ok, so, like, shut up.
– PLUMP
– IMPROV
– MALIBU
CL: Merci.
Girl in Crowd: OLD AGE! I’ll keep trying.
Girl in Crowd: What was she for Valentine’s?!
CL: Micko, I don’t want to do both of those songs next to each other. This set…this set was ?? Do you want to do Dirty Girls…Dirty just to fuck ’em up? Yeah, that’d be fun, right? Not like 2 hits next to each other, let’s do it. Ok, this song is like, totally 5 minutes long, it’s fucking, if PJ Harvey’s not gonna do her job, I’ll do it. No, I mean the ’91 job. It’s really hard to play. It has three chords, but it hurts your hand. It’s called How Dirty Girls Get Clean.
– HOW DIRTY GIRLS GET CLEAN
CL: Isn’t that a kind of fun song? Not exactly a hit single. HAHA. I swear to God, whenever we play that song, I feel like I’m having sex, like…but like, like, you know, not tender. Oh, I’m not gonna to tell you guys what I feel. Can’t you tell? It’s all sex. There’s nothing about…there’s no money, there’s no fame, there’s no you, there’s no me, there’s no death, there’s no birth, there’s nothing but sex.
Audience screams.
CL: Everything we do, we do to get laid. I know I’m right (Laughs). It’s certainly true for me.
– CELEBRITY SKIN
CL: We’re totally doing a crazy, surprise thing. It’s our last song and we’re doing this. If you want an encore, it better be really loud, ’cause ??
CL: Please, Stevie, forgive me for what I’m about to do to you.
– GOLD DUST WOMAN
During the song, Courtney takes off her shirt (she still has a bra on).
CL: (Singing) Down by the river, down by the river Charles.
CL: I love you, Boston, and most of all, I love people from Boston.
(Encore break)
Man: You want more or not?
Audience screams.
CL: (Singing) I love that dirty water.
CL: See, I like that song better than you. Oh, oh, I wrote this song here. I actually wrote that… I don’t know why it’s a big deal, but can I show you my $800 underwear?
She lifts her dress.
Audience screams.
CL: (Pointing to someone in the audience) You like that. Agent couture. (She pronounces Agent the French way). I’ve never figured out why people like this song actually. I mean, I like it alright, but…
CL: (To Micko) I do know how to play it, but I appreciate the concern. I’m just gonna whip out, you know, Lithium or something. Come on.
CL: No. That was a really gallows humor joke. Stop it. You have to be quite arch to have caught…got that on the level it was meant. I want every inch of this show Youtube’d, ’cause I won’t have a voice tomorrow and I looked for songs we did last night and they weren’t on, so who’s got the best camera? Who should I pose for? Draggy? Alright, I see Draggy, I see one of my gays, one of my girls. Alright. Three chords, chicks.
The song starts and then stops.
CL: Oh, I started it wrong. I started on E, my bad, so sorry.
The song resumes.
– DOLL PARTS
During the song, Courtney says, “Film. Film. Alright, I’m not posing for you. Who’s filming?”
After “Someday you will ache like I ache”, she says “I don’t think so.”
She turns the mic to the audience to let them sing, “Someday you will ache like I ache.”
– BURN BLACK
CL: I don’t know what that was. That could be something. (Singing) I want it now he said, I want it now he said.
CL: That could be good, right?
Audience screams.
CL: Like, (Singing) (Her voice is a croak) I want it now he said.
CL: My voice is shitty though, alright.
Guy in Crowd: Beautiful Son!
Guy in Crowd: Coming through, this is a family concert.
Opening chords to Play With Fire.
CL: This is for all you spoiled little fucking princesses with rich Daddys out there. That means you, Draggy. Bitches.
– PLAY WITH FIRE
Guy in Crowd: Get your tits out!
CL: Let’s go.
Guy in Crowd: Tits out!
– BOYS ON THE RADIO
CL: Youtube that shit. That was good. I put a…I put a lot into that. Just thinking about things.
CL: This song did not make the album and you might have heard it in a demo, if you’re, like, hardcore, but I haven’t done it in forever.
Guy in Crowd #1: Well, I went to school!
Guy in Crowd #2: In Olympia!
CL: I wrote it, it’s like 4 chords.
Guy in Crowd #1: Well, I went to school!
Guy in Crowd #2: In Olympia!
CL: Do you remember? ??
– STAND UP MOTHERFUCKER
During the song, she says, “Hold on. Shut up. I know it,” and then “Shut up. Wait. Hold on.”
CL: I tried. Ok, first line that ??
CL: You’re looking for an eightball of power and prestige. It’s a little pretentious, but I like it.
– THIRTEEN
CL: I’d like to dedicate this set to Boston. I love people from Boston. Let me see you. I want house lights. You’re so cute. All of you. All you’ve got to say to me in a bar is “I’m from Boston” and panties…goodnight.