LIVE: Courtney Love, Perth 13 August 2014

LIVE: Courtney Love, Perth 13 August 2014
Courtney Love with The Tommyhawks, Metro City, Perth, Western Australia
Wednesday 13th August 2014
Reviewed by Kevin Curran
Photography by Stuart McKay

A Predominately female audience came out to see one of rock’s ballsiest front women visit Perth for the first time in 14 years.

Local opener, all girl indie-pop rock act The Tommyhawks opened proceedings with some delicate indie-pop songs fronted by front woman Addison. You can’t help but feel she is the creative force in this band in the sense that the songs come across like they would work in a solo setting very well also, the band’s sound was probably a bit lighter for what one would expect from an opener for Courtney Love but the cool delivery and snarl of Addison’s vocals definitely had a rock attitude to it that the crowd fed on and in turn gave the ladies a warm reception from the ever growing Perth crowd.

It wasn’t long until Courtney Love came to the stage with her band to huge applause, you could definitely feel a lot of those in attendance looked up to Love as a hero of some sort (or possibly an anti-hero), especially to the ladies. She’s someone who has done it tough and with her take no shit attitude I’m sure a lot of people admire her. This attitude was displayed early as she brought out the middle fingers, puffed her cigarette and took her iconic stance with one leg on the fold back speaker before breaking into Miss World early in the set , which got the crowd singing along.

Before starting I’m sure there were a few of those in attendance that may have thought this gig could go either way, that it could possibly be a train wreck? But I assure you, Love has her shit together and looked pretty damn good for 50, too! Her song choices tonight were spot on and it is no wonder that she has been receiving good reviews for this current tour.

She may not be the most amazing singer in the world but she has a wonderful knack of interacting with the crowd and essentially having them in the palm of her hand without much effort at all, she can get whip the crowd into a frenzy and holy hell she can scream like a woman possessed! Bottom line, like her or not, she has star power!

Several times during the night Love made it known her distaste for playing “old stuff” but luckily she is smart enough to know that’s what the people want to hear as she played hits like Malibu and crowd favorite Olympia from the Live Through This album

Love is at her best when she plays tracks filled with aggression and punk rock attitude and this was perfectly executed with Skinny Little Bitch from the Nobody’s Daughter album up next.

The highlight of the night came in form of Violet, from Live Through This, which plays to all of Love’s strengths before closing the set with her biggest hit Celebrity Skin.

After some coaxing for a “Courtney” chant from the bands drummer (possibly as an ego boost for her) Love made her way back on the stage with a blue sparkly dress to close the show out. She picked a more stripped back approach to finish things, which for me wasn’t the best choice to compliment her rough as nails voice, but luckily everything was ended on a high with Doll Parts.

Backed by her touring band, including guitarist Ginger Wildheart, Love put on a pretty good performance here tonight in Perth, and most importantly she knew her crowd and tailored the setlist directly to them.

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries