Courtney Love - Live Show at Hiro Ballroom Thursdsay (Event Over)

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/ind...

7/13/07, 11:53 am EST

Courtney Love Fans Pack New York Club For Raw Show


Chain-smoking and sporting a pack of burly security guards, a dangerously skinny Courtney Love took the stage at New York’s Hiro Ballroom last night at midnight for an hour and a half gig sponsored by Rolling Stone during which she showcased material from her upcoming Nobody’s Daughter and played a few classics, including “Malibu,” “Celebrity Skin” and “Doll Parts” and “Northern Star.” Love mumbled candidly to the crowd in between new tracks, which were mostly mid-tempo and based around strummed acoustic guitar, comparing one fresh song to Lynyrd Skynyrd and another to Bon Jovi. When she wasn’t telling her band she was going to “fuck up another song,” she was shushing the crowd so she could tune her guitar, rambling about her “eating disorder,” complaining that feedback from the bass amp was making “fart sounds,” announcing that she’d worked with Linda Perry, dedicating songs to good pals in the audience (which was filled with hipsters, curiosity seekers, die-hard fans and old-school New York scenesters) and adjusting her outfit, which she described as a “onesie.” Love’s always raspy voice sounded even more distressed, as though she’d rubbed her vocal cords on a chainsaw shortly before taking the stage, and she screamed out melodies, skipping the higher notes while her young band struggled to keep up with her. The crowd, which began lining up outside the venue hours earlier, thinned as the night dragged on, perhaps because Love warned everyone she wouldn’t be playing too many “oldies” (”so don’t get your hopes up”). She focused instead on fresh work like “Pacific Coast Highway,” “Samantha,” “Dirty Girls” and “Stand Up Motherfucker,” returning for a short encore during which she performed the emotional “Never Go Hungry Again” alone. There were none of the usual Courtney fireworks — nobody got smacked with a mic stand or chastised by the notoriously cantankerous singer — but when she broke out in the chorus of “Miss World” earlier in the night, there were flashes of the old, defiant, electric Love as she shrieked, “I made my bed, I’ll die in it.”

Tina Paul/ CP/ Retna

-- Caryn Ganz

Yea, I noticed that too. I was telling my friend--(who also went to the concert) about your post and she couldn't find it. Kinda fugged up. My Anna Nicole Smith post stayed tho---lol

The deleting of the posts was super weak. Good look on posting the ish back up.

I think I am still having bad dreams from her singing, Her singing was bad enough she looked like she was half dead In fact if they where to make another movie Night of the living dead I would suggest her as the queen, Freddie & jason combined has nothinng or can't come close to this woman terrifying kids.

I discovered that I left the http://Going.com windows open with the posts that were deleted. I'm reposting them. In the interests of anti-censorship I'll continue reposting them for a while at least as often as is necessary. Christine's and Minty's were collapsed so there's only part of them. Sorry. Here they are:

Damn... capcity
Minty at 2007-07-13 16:32:47

Floor Plan

Size
Square Footage - 3600'
Dimension - 75’ x 48’

Capacity
Seated - 180
Buffet with Seating - 400
Theater Style - 250

http://www.themaritimehotel.com/hiroB...

RE: Damn... capcity
Ed at 2007-07-13 17:33:40

So they overbooked by over 10 f*****g times the capacity! What wonderful organizers. Wonderful human beings.

Complete waste of time
Ed said "There were two kinds of people there last night. Those wh..."
Last post 3 mins ago 3 posts 64 views

Complete waste of time
Ed at 2007-07-13 11:59:09

There were two kinds of people there last night. Those who got in because they were on line since 3 or 4 in the afternoon and those who didn't get in because they thought getting there by 9 was adequate for something where the doors were supposed to open at 10. (They didn't open until about 40 minutes later and then the line moved at a crawl.) I was in the second group. Both groups wasted a huge amount of time. Congrats to those who got in, I guess. Was it worth all the hours in line just to get into an extremely overcrowded venue? Maybe it's sour grapes on my part, but I can say this: I'm never going to even attempt to get into one of these free events ever again. It's always a zoo. I waited nearly 4 hours from just after 9 until 1am, by which time the show was nearly over, only to get TO the door, but not inside all the while watching the aptly named event promoter, Cheeky Bastard, allow D list "VIPs" in and ignoring the people who had waited so long to get in. I didn't recognize a single person who was let in from that pool of "VIPs". They certainly didn't look any different than the people on line. One guy came up at the very last minute and had the audacity to ask if he could go in with me when he didn't know about the event until he saw the line, didn't RSVP and was unaware of the http://Going.com website until I told him. Somehow this chump was able to talk his way in! I couldn't f*****g believe it! He ratcheted up his audacity by mocking us on the line as he went in. It wasn't enough for him to slither in. He had to rub it in. The girls behind me wanted to get in just to find this guy and give him the beating he so richly deserved. Unfortunately they didn't get in. To add insult to injury at the end when Courtney had maybe 10 minutes left on stage Cheeky Bastard was letting people in to the upstairs area only -- for $10 bucks a pop to the "FREE" event. A buck a f*cking minute. I can only hope karma gets those two. The venue holds about 500 people. The RSVP list wasn't closed until it had about 3000 people on it. I could understand overbooking the event slightly to account for no-shows, but that's ridiculous. What should happen for these events to be fair to everyone is that there should be a link to print a ticket for the first whatever the capacity of the venue is and after that you can no longer get to the link. That way you don't end up with twice as many people pointlessly waiting to get into a venue than can fit in it. By the time most people gave up, there wasn't even time to make a back up plan for the night. All you could do was turn around and go home.

RE: Complete waste of time
Caren at 2007-07-13 15:11:14

I do think you have some good points Ed...but i also think it is sour grapes on your part. If you are going to a "not so secret" - "secret show" not a real tour...a preview of a not yet released album...a warm up for someone who has not toured in 7 years...one of 4 shows in the WORLD...held in Paris, London, NYC and next LA....in a tiny venue....and its listed as "free"...do you actually think signing up for any "list" would guarantee you anything? Only if it was the Rolling Stone list, or Courtney's personal one. Showing up at 9pm and expecting to get in at 10pm & then being upset you didnt..is a little ridiculous for a show of this respect. It's not like Courtney is around all the time...she has die hards that are going to show up at 3pm....It was absolutely a media event...it was absolutely set up to attract more people then could actually get in. And knowing that going in, i don't understand why you are so mad that you couldn't? The actions of the people around you are certainly a reason...but not to this site or the event guy. The reason i dont "get" this site is because...Even if the venue held 500...or 1000 and it's a free event..i mean people from where-ever can sign up and say yes i am going....kids under 21, people just to be on the site saying they like that artist could say yes...even if you printed tickets...theres no guarantee that the people who sign up to SAY they are going...ARE going. So as many people as want to can RSVP...but it will be first come, first serve..that's the way i took it. i came all the way from Atlantic City...i was in the first 7-8 people...i did get in....but i made plans and adjusted my schedule so i COULD get there @ 3pm. Because i WANTED to be SURE i got in...and because i knew it would be first come first serve with 2000+ people RSVPing, plus a Rolling Stone list, a Courtney list, a CourtneyLove.com list. Best part is...this RSVP list didnt matter....they checked our IDs for our age....that was IT. the REAL lists..the VIP (RS, CLove lists) were there because those people were getting in regardless....so i am sure their names WERE checked....ANYWAY, to answer your question, was it worth it...YES. It was an awesome show,,,and i really wish you could have seen it.

RE: Complete waste of time
Ed at 2007-07-13 17:30:30

I know that I didn't know she only had four shows in the world. I doubt many people did. I didn't have the impression that I had guaranteed entry. I don't think many people knew about the "real" lists. I know I didn't. I don't blame http://Going.com at all. I blame the organizers and in particular Mr. Bastard. Bottom line is there was no need for the organizers to treat people like crap, but that's what they did. I wonder if they did this independently or with Courtney's blessing. Can somebody explain to me how the way they did this is a good thing? Because I don't know how deliberately pissing a lot of people off could fall in that category.

I understand and respect your point, Caren, about how anyone could RSVP regardless of whether they were underage or whatever, but I still think that 6x capacity (or 3x if it holds 1000 people) is a ridiculous degree of overbooking to compensate for no-shows. Even 2x would have been too much. I think maybe 1.25x to 1.5x would have been reasonable. If they had used the ticketing system I suggested I believe that few of those who had the tickets would not show, for whatever reason. After the people that did show up with tickets were admitted then non-ticketed people on a waiting list (or the line) could have been admitted on a first come first serve basis. This would have given those people a much better idea of when to give up on getting in because the gate people would have been able to say fairly quickly we have x number or spots available count back on the line and tell the people more than x number of spots back to go home that there was absolutely 0 chance of them getting in.

I also still think that even those people who did what they had to do to get in by getting on line SO early wasted a lot of time. Nothing no matter how fantastic is worth that amount of waiting. I can't believe I was there for even 4 hours let alone the 7+ hours some people waited. This is not what I'd call reasonable behavior. I won't be doing it again, I know that. I should have left much earlier. I don't know why I was holding out hope. If I had left earlier like some people did I would have been able to salvage the evening instead of having to go home having done nothing but wait on line. What I should have done, really, is not even bothered and gone to the Ron Sexsmith show at Castle Clinton in Battery Park. Then I would have been home by 1AM and sleeping for several hours instead of just setting out to go home. 20/20 hindsight.

Thank you, Caren, for your wishes that I could have seen the show. I think you're sincere in saying that. I'm glad the show was great for those who got to see it, except for that snake who talked his way in and rubbed everybody else's face in it.

ed is right
christine said "hiro actually holds 1,000. i go there alot, for both free and paying shows."
Last post 2 hours ago

I got an email from http://Going.com notifying me that Todd had replied to something I posted to this message board and I couldn't help but notice that the three posts of mine where I criticized the handling of this event including that one have been deleted. But it wasn't enough that MY posts were deleted, which was somewhat to be expected, no, even the posts of the people to whom I responded were deleted along with Christine's under the subject "Ed is right" and Caren's was even somewhat sympathetic to the opposing point of view. I know this post will probably only spend about a microsecond on the board before it too is deleted, but to any one seeing it, well I think my point has been more than adequately demonstrated. Censorship -- it isn't pretty, but it IS what this country has come to lately. Opposing points of view to those in control simply won't be tolerated. It's just so sad to witness it so often and so blatantly.

Totally agree Caren. Haters---the crowd went insane, I think that was pretty much a sign that she rocked.

She was great...her set was pretty long, voice was pretty much on as well.

DID U SEE THAT LINE???

what the hell is that supposed to mean? did you go to SEE her play cause you like her music or did you go simply for the trainwreck you DIDNT get? Go be scene away from C Love. She doesnt need your negative vibes!