Courtney Love in Living Color

On the eve of the MacDaddy cardinal cross Capricorn Full Moon eclipse last Friday night, I did the unthinkable -- public transportation to Jersey to see finally see my beloved-- legend of rock's loose-cannondom, Courtney Love in living color at the Wellmont in Montclair.

Hole has and always will be one of my favorite bands. I'll never grow tired of "Turptentine," "My beautiful son" or anything off of Live Through This. Feels grossly dishonest to say I saw "Hole" since the original band has been replaced by some young random hipster lads who I swore must have been Craigslist recruits -- band chemistry was nil.

The theater was unbelievably empty, we could easily just waltz right up to the stage. Were we at the right place -- the NYC shows were packed. Jersey! No complaints -- I live for the awesomely cozy small venue feel reminiscent of seeing bands at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit in the '80s. After hearing the Boston crowd was made to wait three hours for Court's "fashionably late" arrival, once the dramatic classical pre-show music carried on for what seemed an eternity, I started having flashbacks to The Rose.

From the sound of this tour's reviews ranging from a disengaged Courtney to calling the show a train wreck, either I am a huge deluded fan or we got the magic bullet from the Courtney roulette Friday night. Then again, the timing couldn't have been more auspicious for drama -- a double Cancer (Sun and Moon) with Libra Rising screaming her guts out on the eve of the Full Moon in Capricorn (shining brightly at the top of her chart). The energetically flat opening where she entered donning a grandma cardigan, Debbie Harry bob, and a "to hell with it" stagger induced a momentary "oh no burnt-out-washed-up rock star" dread.

Her rendition of "Sympathy for the Devil" was eerily perfect under the devil Full Moon, but still something was off. Then, something amazing transpired as soon as she removed the cardigan: Courtney went straight into magical archetypal rock star zone and everything changed. The haggard look on her face was replaced by an eternally youthful, full-on raw emotional power and she was a pure, articulate channel.

Whatever you want to say about Courtney, as Kurt Cobain's biographer said on the VH1 "Behind The Music" special, when she's on, there's hardly anyone better. And after witnessing everything that woman has had to endure in her forty-five years on this planet, not to sound like "leave Britney alone" but cut the woman some slack. Narcissistic wounds aside, Courtney can still channel the angels and the demons like few can. Case in point: the perfect, poetic raging storms of "Violet" and "Reasons To Be Beautiful" from the guts of her guts on Friday night. Timelessness and chills.

And it wouldn't be Courtney without rants and confessions that expose her complete disregard for boundaries: like spilling that the lyric "like a liar at a witch trial, you look good for your age" from "Plump" was written about Kim Gordon (although now she claims they are all kiss-kiss whenever they run into each other at Marc Jacobs); her current heartbreak by some "chicken-shit boy"; and proudly proclaiming that "Violet" was indeed written about now Twitter-rival Billy Corgan right after he gave her a Vicodin one night.

For her birthday, on July 9, I'll delve into her psychological/astrological profile.

Nobody’s daughter, she never was, she never will

Be beholden to anyone she cannot kill

You don’t understand how damaged we really are

You don’t understand how evil we really are

And I will dig my own grave

I’m miss begotten

I am the last one you save here

Of course I’ll sleep forever and forever

Anesthetize all your horrors away

We live inside this black web that you have spun

Greed, your bile is miles away

Don’t tell me I have I lost when clearly I’ve won

I want to see you stretched out on the floor

The world broken doll

The world’s shattered whore

And you you can’t walk

But you you can crawl

Come on infect us all…

Asphyxiate all your pain away

Don’t try to win it will only end in disgrace

Translucetize the cold light of day

It’s glorious, its terrible god I need it

It’s beautiful it’s ravenous; I’ll just feed it

Setlist from the 6.25.2010 show at the Wellmont
Sympathy For The Devil (partial)
Skinny Little Bitch
Miss World
Closer
The Man Who Got Away
Violet
Letter To God
Pacific Coast Highway
Stand Up M*****F*****
Plump
Take This Longing
Awful
Malibu
Because You're Worthless
Doll Parts
ENCORE
Celebrity Skin
Never Go Hungry Again
Play With Fire
Boys On The Radio
Thirteen