The Tampa Tribune
March 13, 1995, Monday,
Correction Appended FINAL EDITION
BYLINE: CURTIS ROSS; Tribune Staff Writer


That's the way Love goes




You probably could write a book, and Lord knows someone probably has or
will, about the past year of Courtney Love's life without once mentioning
that she made the best rock album of 1994, "Live Through This." Or that her
band, Hole, is a sharp little rock 'n' roll outfit. Such is the price of
scandal-hungry celebrity.

And she plays into it well, regularly shooting off her mouth at just the
wrong moment and generally giving the self-righteous a sizable target.
Since the April suicide of her husband, Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain, about
the nicest thing Love's been called is "Yoko Ono."

All this would be of scant interest to any but the most devoted readers of
Us magazine if Love didn't have the talent to back it up. Before a
two-thirds-full crowd at the University of South Florida's Special Events
Center on Sunday night, the Widow Cobain acquitted herself nicely in both
the obnoxious celeb and rocker roles.

For the former, she doused the audience with Evian, waded into the crowd to
confront a heckler and tossed lit cigarettes to young hands all too willing
to snag them. Not to mention singing a few lines of Stevie Nicks' "Gold
Dust Woman."

For the latter, she and Hole gave each number a brilliance and tension
unmatched by the recorded versions. Drawing from both "Live Through This"
and the 1991 debut, "Pretty on the Inside" (along with a handful of
unrecorded tunes), Love revealed the tough but brittle poignancy that's so
often overshadowed by her reputation.

Nailed in the noggin by a paper cup during "Asking For It," Love responded
with a delivery that was beyond seething. The crowd overwhelmed her vocals
on the chorus of "Miss World." And "Pretty on the Inside" was frightening
in its brutal power.

The encore featured covers of Donovan's "Season of the Witch" and Carole
King's "He Hit Me (and It Felt Like a Kiss)," as well as Love removing her
undergarments and tossing them into the audience. ("I can't believe I did
that. Don't tell anyone.")

Love's the drunken floozy who banishes every last vestige of shame and
gains empowerment from sheer brazenness. She'll trash your party with no
apologies. And you'll invite her back because her carnage is so damned
fascinating. Staff writer Rommie Johnson contributed to this report.

CORRECTION:
According to University of South Florida officials, Sunday night's Hole
concert at the 1,950-capacity Special Events Center was sold out. A Tribune
review which ran Monday stated otherwise.