 - - - - - - - - - - - - - SUNDAY, MAY 16TH, 1999, ORPHEUM THEATER, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS By Heidi-Louise Ok, so I absolutely had to write to all of my friends (and fellow Hole fans) about the experience that I had this evening....absolutely unbe-fuckin-lievable!!!!!(please forgive the language...!!) I went to the HOLE concert tonite (Orpheum, Boston MA US.).....crazy concert, Courtney was OUTTA CONTROL!!!!!! She looked stunning!. No underwear (no surprise) Half naked but still a knock out! THey opened with Violet, five minutes into the show she was threatening to walk off stage, throwing her mike down, screaming at Eric Erlandson (guitarist), telling the sound guy to turn it up, and saying that "I don't have to be here, I could be making a fucking movie right now!",she climbed over an eight foot speaker set-up and climbed up to the balcony, singing to people up close and personal, telling them to "Help me" when she was losing her balance...she was insane...swearing at people, taking 10 minute "band meeting" breaks to "fix the fucked up set" etc etc. Naturally she was living up to her reputation. I loved it! I was to the very very left of the stage, in an "obstructed view" seat. Couldn't see a damn thing, so I ended up standing on the railing for the first few songs. It was such a spectacle, the crowd was going mad....and then stuff went way out of hand!!! She ran in to the audience and started dancing with a girl, she grabbed the girl by the hand and tried to take her onstage with her....but the bouncers at the front would not let the girl get up@!@ So Courtney starts swearing her head off, saying "Let her up you motherfuckers!!" "What I say goes!" "If you want this concert to go on, you better let her get up here!!!" Well, it was pure mayhem. I was screaming and just amazed at the situation, people were getting stupid. Courtney started grabbing people from the audience, pulling them onstage with her. At this point, EVERYONE RUSHED THE STAGE. I have never in my life seen anything like it. All of a sudden, the section that we were in was jammed with people, and I had nowhere to go but forward, SO I JUMPED INTO THE CROWD!!!!! CRAZY ?!?!?!? I lost my mind, I really did. This is not something that I would normally do , but I got so carried away in the moment. I found myself practically swimming through the crowd until I hit the chest of the bouncer at the front of the stage. This is when things got very scary. Absolutely everyone in the theatre was rushing the stage. All of a sudden I felt the weight of hundreds of people pushing up against me....I really thought I was going to die. I couldn't breathe. The bouncer had his hand on my throat and I was screaming at him to let go, to help. It was terrifying to be in the situation and not be able to move, or barely breath. The girl next to me was turning an awful purple color, the bounce next to me had his arm hooked around her neck, and was literally choking her. I was screaming at him and scratching him with my nails...trying to do ANYTHING just so that we could be freed of the craziness. I couldn't move my legs at all. I was definitely hyperventilating, and on the verge of blacking out. My vision was blurred and I felt like I was going to pass out any moment. I looked up at Courtney who was screaming at the bouncers , and trying to get people up and out of the first row.....she saw me, and I started crying....(*If this gets cheesy now, then I am sorry,but the next thing that happened was fucking scary and amazing all at the same time*) I was crying, and Courtney started walking over towards me....I mouthed the words "HELP" to her, and with that, she lunged forward and grabbed my right arm. She was pulling with all her strength to get me up on stage. The bouncer was pulling my left arm, so that I wouldn't be able to get up. Courtney had the microphone in her other hand and started hitting his shoulder with her mike. She was yelling at him to help me. she yelled into the mike "GET OFF OF HER, YOU BASTARD!!!" She was trying so hard to get me out of the madness....she kept saying "Hold onto me, I'm so sorry"...the bouncer was pulling me the other way, I couldn't breathe, and all I could do was cry because I felt like i was being ripped in two. She kept screaming at the bouncer, threatening him...it was the scariest moment of my life. Finally she yelled at him again to let me go.With that, he gave up, and let go of my arm, she pointed to one of her own guys who was on stage with her, and he came and desperately! tried to drag me up onstage. OH MY GOD. It was awful because the lower part of my body couldn't move, there were just so many people all pressed up against each other, and only the top part of my body was free. I had to use all of my strength to get up. I thought my legs were going to break.When I finally got onstage I crawled over to where all of the other "rescued" people were. Everyone was in shock, crying, shaking...it was a surreal experience. I looked to my left and Eric Erlandson was still playing....he looked down at me, I was in such a state of shock, he bent down and said "Are you ok?" I nodded, and he smiled......WOW!! Melissa Auf De Mauer had completely abandoned playing at this point, and was coming around to all of us with a bottle of Poland Springs water....patting our hair, telling us that we were "So fucking brave". There were about twenty of us onstage. Things never really calmed down at all. Courtney kept saying "This is America, EVERYONE gets to be on stage"..."I'm the teacher, what I say goes". She kept telling everyone to sit down, calm down, and behave...that she was going to get into trouble for this anyway, but that we all needed to calm down. She continued with the set. Singing to all of us, and still rescuing people from the audience. I was onstage, sitting next to Eric Erlandson for 7 songs!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole time i was just in a daze, I could not believe that it was happening...and looking up at the audience, the two floors of people who were looking down in amazement was so incredible. Courtney sang and sang. She was told repeatedly to stop the show, she told the officials repeatedly to fuck off. The show finally finished and everyone on stage got to hug Courtney. She told everyone that they were brave, meanwhile her bodyguards were trying to pull her away from the fans...she kept saying "FUck you, they aren't going to hurt me, look at what they just went through...look at their faces, these kids aren't about hurting anyone, they just wanna be here......" By the end of the show there were roughly 60 peopl onstage. The band thanked everyone and was ushered off .I am still reeling. I am completely black and blue from the waist down. And that my friends.........is rock'n'roll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! _Please excuse the language....you had to be there!!!!!! (I'll be checking websites, and newspapers for clippings!!!) - - - - - - - - - - - - - |