 - - - - - - - - - - - - - SUNDAY, JUNE 20TH, 1999, HEINEKEN JAMMIN FESTIVAL, IMOLA, ITALY By Fabio Around 19:30, in front to 40-50.000 people and under a big sun (for the first time in the festival after two rainy days), Hole enterend the stage while bashing away their guitars, generating an hell of noise that served as introduction to Violet. Courtney assumed immediately her classic leg over monitor pose. In this song the screamed parts "take everything" were sung in a more melodic way. Second song was Awful, and at this point Courtney let loose the stage fury that she is, dropped her guitar and jumped down the stage to touch the hands of the people in the front row. There were tv cameras following Courtney so, even if she was down the stage, people distant from the from the front rows could still see her on the big screen over, and of course all went crazy from seeing her craziness :). Another funny moment was when Courtney climbed back into the stage, at one point while climbing up she spreaded her legs to the camera. Before starting the next song, Courtney asked the people to sing the Italian national hymn for her. The reaction was confused since many didn't understand her request, but Courtney said that she was leaving if people didn't sing the hymn and she did: the band left the stage. A man from the stage was called in to repeat the request in italian: but after few seconds of a very confused and out of time national hymn, followed a very loud stadium anthem that in english means something like "let you show us your pussy, let you touch your pussy". Then Courtney returned on stage with a big smile, it wasn't clear if she understood that she was tricked, but she was visibly happy about it and said something like "I love you all". The most emotional moment was during Northern Star: at the beginning of the song Courtney disappeared while keeping to sing, with people asking were she was gone. Well, she appeared in a small stage that normally was used for the TV cameras, just a few inches from the crowd! After a while of Northern Star the intensity went very high, everyone was silent staring at her singing over this platform, and while singing she had a kind of glowing mother-godness presence. The moment i remember best is when, before returning to the stage, she stretched out from the platform to touch for the last time the hands of the fans, difficult to explain this but the emotions proved were strong. All over the concert, Courtney always dominated the stage, always provoking or joking with the crowd and speaking a lot in between songs, even if most of her speaks were not always understood by the italian people. Melissa plays really heavy, as Samantha, and her harmony vocals are beautiful and perfect. Eric seems to stay away from the spotlight, but he does a massive guitar work, many times filling for Courtney's parts while she is running in and out from the stage. Another thing about Eric that impressed me is that when Courtney is talking to the people, he does very strange noises with his guitar to punctuate her sentences, and the effect is almost dramatic at times. For the record, Courtney said something about Marilyn Manson (the festival headliner) but i didn't catch it. During his show later in the evening, Manson made some comments about Love: the first time referring to the word "drugs" as "the most loved Courtney Love english word", and the second saying "it's sad that a child cannot celebrate his father day because his mother killed him". Celebrity Skin closed the very short show (Hole started an half-hour late due to delays with the previous acts), not more than an hour, too bad that few songs were played but even so it was a great hour! Songs played were (cant remember the order): violet awful pretty on the inside dying heaven tonight doll parts northern star malibu miss world celebrity skin - - - - - - - - - - - - - |