Eric Erlandson - Guitar Improv - Letters To Kurt in SF 4-26-12

Eric Erlandson - Guitar Improv - San Francisco, Live, Thurs. 4-26-12. After reading from his book of prose poems ’Letters to Kurt’, the former Hole guitarist played a little improv for the audience, first with the banjo, then the guitar. He also did a nice Q&A followed by a book signing. Some of the Q&A Highlights: - When asked about what he remembered about playing in SF with Hole, he mentioned the performance at the Cow Palace with Mariyln Manson, and how they were wierded-out by Manson’s antics. They later removed themselves from the co-headlining tour back in 1999. For example, that night in SF, Eric revealed that Mariyln’s dressing room caught fire, presumably because of all the satanic candles.. and Eric jokingly wondered if later in the tour if they would start seeing goat horns strewn about. Then, of course, Courtney Love, who played first, told the audience what special effects to expect for Manson’s show, thereby spoiling the surprise. Good times :P - Kurt Cobain was not the type of guy to do Twitter. :P - He was also not the type of guy who would have been interested in exploring different diets, such as a raw foods diet, to help alleviate his stomach problems. - When asked if he did any jam sessions with Kurt, he said that Courtney often told him to go away, but there was one time when he played with him and they actually taped it on a cassette. However, after Eric went to Cobain’s house to help organize all his personal items left behind, Erlandson found that cassette, but much to his dismay, he discovered that Kurt had taped over it! :P - Eric said he didn’t intend for the book to champion against the cultural stigma of suicide and that it just happened that do so. - Buddhism has been great for him. - He is also planning to release a musical score to go along with the book. - Before he played some banjo improv to give some mood for the next readings, Eric remarked that ~“Since Hole is so well-known for its Appalachian music, I wanted to keep it in that tradition..“ The reading was done at The City Lights Bookstore, an official historic SF landmark made famous by Allen Ginsberg and the Beatnik era of anti-authoritarian politics and insurgent thinking. Eric avoided any political discussion in the Q&A, other than to say that progress will come through people changing, and not so much through changing laws, remarking that that’s like putting the cart before the horse. Eric also avoided revealing any dirt about Hole, even when prodded by some women in the audience to ’dish some things to us about Hole’. Perhaps the reason why is because there’s still some optimism of putting together some kind of reunion tour/show like they did in NYC. However, as Eric told me when he signed my book, some things need to change, but change is happening! Readings at City Lights Bookstore Eric Erlandson In conversation with Andi Mudd, managing editor of The Believer Thursday, April 26, 2012, 7:00 P.M. (Eric jokingly asked Andi if she was just a fan because Hole did a song about Olympia, WA, the city which Mudd is from. She replied that the song ’Rock Star’ was actually used for her high school graduation video soundtrack, which was funny to all of us, including Eric, since it doesn’t exactly paint the city in a good light, lol.)