 - - - - - - - - - - - - - FRIDAY, JANUARY 29TH, 1999, BIG DAY OUT, ADELAIDE SHOWGROUNDS, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA By Coedy This was the first time (and hopefully not the last time) I had seen Hole live. It was at the Big Day Out, and I was ecstatic that I was going to see Hole and Marilyn Manson on the same day. All up, the BDO went for about 12 or 13 hours. Bands there (other than Hole and Manson) included Korn, Soulfly, Sean Lennon, Fat Boy Slim, Ash and a whole heap of Australian bands. I waited all day, having to sit through a lot of shitty bands (although Sean Lennon was awesome) until 8:30, when Manson came on (which is another story all together!). Finally, at 9:30 (unfortunately, the sets only lasted for an hour) Hole came on. Courtney walked on-stage, and after saying "Hello", yelled at someone on the side of the stage that "I can't play a rock show unless my gear is fucking working!". She then looked into the crowd and blurted, "Stop wearing all this Korn shit! Wear us! Now they're gonna get rich, 'cos you bought their shirt. And they wouldn't have been nice to you in high school- I would have!" The first song they played was Violet, which sounded great. When the song finished, Courtney said something about one of her friends from Korn was backstage, told him to "Fuck off", and threatened to "come and sit on your head". I think just about every second male in the audience shouted out, "You can come sit on my face, baby", or something as typical as that. Then she screamed something again about her gear not working. Next song was Playing Your Song. It was obvious here why she was complaining, you could hardly hear her for the first verse, but despite that, I was delighted that they played it. She asked us what song we wanted to hear, everybody called something out. I called out Softer, Softest, but they didn't play it! Obviously happy with the response she got, Courtney said "I wanna hear all the girls to scream- and no boys!", naturally, all the girls screamed, and Pretty On The Inside started, which was straight away followed by Heaven Tonight, which was automatically followed by Miss World. Again, throughout the song, Courtney's vocals kept cutting out. Courtney apologized for being so "unpro-fucking-fessional", then yelled at a guy in the mosh pit wearing a Korn shirt, "Stop it! Get outta there! You, Korn-head, don't beat up the girls. You had your turn in the mosh pit now get out! Go on, or I'll kick your ass!" Awful followed. The next song was Malibu, and before playing she said, "This next song is Malibu, and it's about drugs. No, it's not! No, it's not!" She sang the start of it dancing, posing as if she was surfing. At the end of the song, when they play the slow part, the guy bought her guitar out too soon, and she waved him away and seemed quite pissed. For the last lines of the song, she replaced the words with "An Australian bug just bit me really hard." When the music finished she started saying, "I'm not joking you guys, a bug just bit me really hard. I'm gonna die. What fucking bug was that? Where was it, was it on my arm?" She started to really freak out. "Oh my God, it was a bug and it was this big." She started saying something and then screamed at the top of her voice, saying that she was scared of them. "What kind of bugs do you have here? I'm really scared. I'm sorry for being so unprofessional, but I'm really serious. A bug just bit me and it hurts." At first I thought she was putting it on, but she was really freaking out! "OK, well, if I die, you guys have our last show! I'm gonna die from a bug, I guess it's kinda funny." They started playing Plump, which I was really getting into when Courtney stopped after one verse. "OK, stop you guys, I'm gonna do something really dramatic.I have to see a doctor about my arm. (To the crowd) I'm really sorry, you guys, but I have to see a doctor, 'cos my arms gone numb." Eric and Melissa looked at each other dumbfounded once Courtney had left. Melissa started talking, "Well, it looks like we will be taking a long break! I hope none of you get sick by that bug that bit her. She got bit by a bug, so... uh... we're not sure what we're gonna do here." She walked over and talked to Eric, then came back and said, "We're going to play an Australian pop song now." And they launched into a cover of The Lemonhead's Confetti, with Melissa doing quite a good job on vocals. Cortney came back out, and Eric asked her if she was OK, to which she replyed, "No, I'm not OK. I'm sorry Adelaide, I'm gonna give all of you your money back. I'm gonna die from one of your crazy Australian bugs. But we'll play though. Get me a guitar!" Then she started complaining that the medics didn't have any antihistimines. Both Eric and Melissa said something to her, and she replyed, "I'm gonna play, yeah." And Doll Parts started. "You know, tonight, Korn had a good show, Manson had a good show, and all through the tour they've sucked, but this is the first time we've sucked. I'm really sorry. You have my humble apologies. One of your crazy-ass bugs bit me. One night a year, I'm sorry it's you Adelaide, but we'll come back and make it up." Everyone cheered. Then Celebrity Skin started. I think it was the only time on the whole BDO tour that she played it without her tits hanging out!! When it was over, Courtney started playing the intro to She Walks On Me, but Eric stopped her. She threw her guitar down, thanked the crowd and left. Just like that. Although I sympathised with Courtney I was pissed that the show was cut short, they were only on for about 35 minutes, and Hole usually played over their hour on the tour, since they were the last act to go on. I was pretty wrecked. I hadn't had a drink for about 5 hours, so my friend and I ran to get a drink. We were walking along, about 10 minutes later, talking about how great the day was, when I heard Northern Star in the background. I immediately knew that Hole had come back on, and literally ran back to the stage area. Most of the people had left, there was only about 1000 people left out of the 40,000 that were there before (many people had gone to watch Ash at another stage). Although we were right up the back, we were still pretty close. More people came back as they played two more songs (She Walks On Me and Paradise City). Then Courtney thanked us and apologized again, and it was over. I was very glad that they came back out, though. Courtney promised to come back to Adelaide, and make it up, and I'm patiently waiting for their return! - - - - - - - - - - - - - |