nice to meat you
i am: Feminist - Queer - Plus size
Interested in: Sex Work activism - Queer politics - Healthcare - Sewing - Fashion - Graphic and Product design
delicatetbone @ gmail
Hole- Violet/He Hit Me… (Saturday Night Live 1994)
I had been looking for this video on Youtube to show my sister, and couldn’t find it, probably due to how SNL flags any of their content on youtube, but luckily I remembered I had downloaded it years ago and found it hidden on my external hard drive.
This is a thunderous performance of Violet, and one of the things that’s so striking about it is how none of the anger in it feels artificial or put-on. This isn’t Courtney going through the motions and playing her big hit because it keeps the crowd happy, there’s real rage and fire behind it that’s just burning her up. That moment :30 in when Courtney swings her guitar behind her and throws her leg up on the amp is perfect. This video also made me miss Melissa Auf Der Mar too. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new guys, but there’s something special about seeing Melissa throwing her body around as she plays bass and provides back-up vocals that isn’t there anymore.
The other special thing about this video is the small bit of He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss) at the end. After the fury of the previous 2:45, Courtney shows some vulnerability to the audience, with a pained but powerful vocal and alternating between staring directly out in wide-eyed defiance and keeping her eyes tightly shut to the world. This thirty second snippet of the song, for me at least, expresses much more than Hole’s full cover of the song and works as a perfect coda to Violet.
Damn.
Team Courtney 4eva.
There were two siblings that lived down the road from me and my brother, and the four of us were close enough in age that we would hang out together. The only time I ever saw 90210 was at their house, and when they were at our house we could stay up late and watch SNL.
I fell asleep during this episode, with all of the lights on in the living room and sleepover detritus everywhere, and woke up to this woman ripping the SHIT out of this song. I had seen her once on the cover of a Sassy magazine, but I’d never heard her music, and seeing her perform made me feel weird.
DID I SAY WEIRD? I MEAN QUEER. I just didn’t know it at the time. It took me another 6 years to put it together.
She used to be.. she USED TO BE…
forever and ever, amen.
This performance is so explosive and vulnerable and amazing. Faaack. So good.