"Did you guys guess? No? We played the K-ROQ showcase. We suck at this." Guess who? After ripping down the heavily guarded shroud of mystery, Hole took that stage at the London club the Forum and treated 500 contest winners to the raging title track from their latest album, Celebrity Skin. The show, sponsored by beer company Miller Genuine Draft, was a "Blind Date" affair, where the mystery rockers could be any number of A-list acts, however, few were expecting Courtney Love and company, who have been making noise of late about auditioning new guitarists, to deliver a full live show so quickly. Hole went on to play "Miss World" and "Doll Parts" from their classic sophomore release Live Through This, though not before Love noted that one lucky audience member looked like Monica Lewinsky. The proud California native asked: "Are there a lot of Americans here? English people with their class system--I love the British but they just seem to forget that we won the war." Love pulled up her already transparent top and flashed the crowd before launching into "Asking For It," providing Blind Date headliners the Cure with a seriously hard act to follow. They rose to the challenge with a crowd- pleasing set of classic material such as "Boys Don't Cry," "Love Song," "Just Like Heaven," "In Between Days," and "Killing An Arab." Sadly, Robert Smith and company didn't preview any new material from their upcoming, as-yet-untitled disc (due next Spring).
 
 
 

Spin Online, 1998