When I was living in Buffalo many years ago, I went to a Hole show. Drew Barrymore stood by the stage holding Courtney Love’s daughter, Frances Bean, watching Hole do their thing. The pit became typically “boy-heavy,” and towards the end of the show, Love, I guess, was really feeling it, so she leapt into the raised hands of twenty five or so guys to be passed around.

Now, you’ve seen this phenomena in videos where the lead singer leaps into the crowd, and basically lying on the crowd, is passed around until he is safely returned to the stage. He even sings as the crowd keeps him raised and moving. Think back to Pearl Jam’s videos and Eddie Vedder’s happy face. Okay so, Love leaps into the crowd, only to find that those weren’t hands of support; her performance wasn’t “connecting” with the audience the way a man’s band can. Those hands began ripping and pulling at Love, in an attempt to take her clothes off and get a piece of … what? The straps of her bra stretched, her shirt was tearing … I’ll spare you. After several tormenting minutes, the guards got a severely-disheveled Love back to the stage. She immediately stopped the band, yelled something that I very vaguely recall along the lines of , “And that’s why I can’t do a show with small-minded guys,” and walked off.

That’s when the message became clear to me, thanks to women like Courtney Love and Kim Gordon: masculine arenas will fight “breaches” by belittling women who dare. The mosh pit is not a place for women. An elementary lesson for sure, but a lesson nonetheless: we aren’t supposed to have the same freedoms of expression, the same license to express as our male counterparts, and some groups, made up of men and women alike, will act as one unit against the idea of women daring to celebrate or perform publically with the same gusto as any unhindered guy might. Luckily, there are many people who don’t feel threated by women-who-dare and want to come celebrate right beside them:

Boog City’s Classic Albums Live presents Hole’s “Live Through This”

Next Thursday, Sept. 1, 7:00 p.m., $10

The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
NYC

10 NYC musical acts reinterpret this rock classic–in order, track-by-track. The album will be performed by:

Dream Bitches
Dan Fishback
GynoCult
Casey Holford
Kansas State Flower
Phoebe Kreutz
The Leader
Chris Maher
Pantsuit
Genan Zilkha

preceded by readings from:

Betsy Andrews
Amy King
Gillian McCain

We’ll also be celebrating Yoko Kikuchi of the Dream Bitches’ birthday

Hosted by Boog City editor and publisher, David Kirschenbaum

Directions: F train to Second Avenue, or 6 train to Bleecker Street.
Venue is at foot of 1st Street, between Houston and Bleecker streets, across from CBGBs.

Music