Courtney Love

Manchester Academy

5/5

COURTNEY Love may have been delivering diminishing returns since the release of Live Through This 20 years ago. 

But tonight she proves she still has ample charisma and talent.

The former kinderwhore and professional widow walks on stage to the dramatic strains of Ravel’s Bolero, puffing on an e-cigarette and talking about Black Grape in a cod-Mancunian accent.

Her magnetic presence extends over the next hour and 45 minutes during which she resoundingly reclaims the talent from the caricature while making jokes, imparting nuggets of pop trivia, creating intimacy with comments on her newly shorn hair — “I look like Kerry Katona!” — and repeatedly reminding the audience of her impressive back catalogue. 

The 21-song set list is as revealing for what she omits as for what she plays. Despite teasers that she’d been rehearsing with former members of the classic Hole line-up, none have actually taken to the road for her first British tour since 2010. Despite this, the material itself eschews any solo work with the exception of her new double A-side.

Opening with Wedding Day, a throwback to the heyday of grunge, the new single captures the visceral energy of her prime. Following her typical style of pop-punk holler and ravaged vocals, it’s a formula that staggers into near perfection on the fast and frantic Olympia and Plump, whose blazing melody is matched by smart lyrics that reference body image.

It’s these kind of lyrics, together with her fierce ambition, that made her the love-hate queen of Riot Grrrl. At her best,  as on the self-referential Reasons To Be Beautiful “Love hangs herself” — and Celebrity Skin — “My name is never was” — she’s hard to match as a clever, at times prescient, lyricist who deals with feminism and manipulated self-image. 

On Violet and Malibu she’s hard to match as a rock star, the latter tearing strips out of grunge’s favourite sons while the latter repopularised AM rock long before HAIM emerged on the scene. 

Love’s stripped-back acoustic encore of Dying is the closest she comes to a ballad, lowering the pace to reveal a vulnerability as she confesses that she’s “had enough.” 

This desire to straddle rock star, commercial artist and serious artist is reflected in the clutch of cover versions she plays. Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman is a clear touchstone on the soft-rock of Pacific Coast Highway while one-hit wonder K Choice’s Not An Addict plugs into her genuine passion for music and Leonard Cohen’s Take This Longing demonstrates her love of semi-confessional wordplay.

In terms of sheer visceral thrill and life-affirming energy this is going to take some beating as gig of the year.

Susan Darlington