St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
March 13, 1995, Monday, City Edition
BYLINE: RICK GERSHMAN


Love's band vital and fierce live




The only question that remained with the release of Hole's latest album,
Live Through This, was whether Courtney Love's band could capture that
album's fearsome energy and emotional chaos live.

Judging from Hole's performance Sunday at the USF Special Events Center,
the answer is yes, and then some. Love was fascinating and frightening in
leading the band through the compelling, caustic rock assault that proved
her one of the most engagingly confrontational performers in pop music
today.

Love set the tone from the first second, opening the show by cartwheeling
onto stage in a leather jacket with a cigarette between her fingers. She
would go through a lot of cigarettes and a lot of fierce emotions during
the night.

Though Love confronted, offended and provoked in an overt manner throughout
the show, she didn't need to do anything but strum the opening chord of
the devastating Plump to send a couple hundred fans down from their seats
to flood the opening rows of stands where they were separated from the
floor.

It was on Live Through This' harder cuts, such as Plump, Jennifer's Body
and Violet that Love's band improved on the album and showcased how
well-suited the songs to be played live, composed to build intensity
quickly and squeeze out every drop of power. Whatever the critics thought
before, Love has come into her own in incredible fashion.

Far less successful was opening act Catherine, five guys whose attempt to
blend grunge dirges with Sonic Youth-like distortion effects didn't work
well, but also didn't deserve the complete enmity showed them by the
audience.

A tiny mosh pit began on the band's fourth song, but it vanished quickly
and never resumed, while cries for Hole remained steady throughout the
set. The dislike was reciprocated by the band through numerous obscene
statements and gestures.