That Time Courtney Love Sang Just to Me… For Real
Photo is from another time, seeing Courtney Love in Santa Barbara.
In the fall of 2015, Courtney Love was appearing in a two-person musical at the Kirk Douglas Theater in Culver City called Kansas City Choir Boy. I bought tickets for the wife and I to go. My dad was in town, he watched our daughter, we walked to the Wallace for dinner and then returned to the Wallace for a night cap after the show.
The Kirk Douglas is a small theater where the stage is the floor and the seats surround it on three sides. Wikipedia says the theater holds 317 people, but that seems like it’s high. This particular Saturday night, the seats at the front of the stage were half-full, the seats to the right of the stage had a few people and the two of us were the only two sitting to the left of the stage. I’m guessing there was a lot less than 100 people there that night.
The show itself was okay. Definitely not the worst play I’ve ever seen. The dude, the guy who wrote it, was talented and Courtney is far more talented as a musician and actress than she’s given credit for. However, if not for one moment, that lasted about ten to fifteen seconds, I wouldn’t remember anything about it.
About half-way through the play, she’s in the middle of a song. She’s wearing a bra and some loose, light colored jeans and barefoot. We’re in the first row and she turns and comes over to us and locks eyes with me as she sings. She holds my gaze for, again, about ten seconds or so but it felt like a lot longer. This was not when you’re at a concert and you swear the singer looked at you. She was standing so close to me our feet were practically touching.
In spite of her proximity and the fact there was no one else sitting over there besides us, I asked my wife, “that happened right? I didn’t imagine that?” She just said, “well there was no one else there and she wasn’t looking at me.”
Strange, little weird moment that only happens in a place like Los Angeles. I’m a big fan of Hole, I wish I could have met her after the show but she did not come out. Oh well, we’ll always have that moment!!