Hole has been touring hard this summer. The band is now in Minneapolis, then heading for Japan, then playing some west coast dates. Early on, the words "disaster" were being used-but by the time they got to Texas, the reports we were hearing were "amazing." Our chief Chicagoland correspondent reports in.

I woke up early the morning that the tickets for the Hole concert went on sale just in case the show sold out. The idea of seeing Courtney Love-a for-real rock icon-live made me freak out. I didn't bother to make plans with friends to see the show; I assumed that I'd know a handful of people [...]

Last evening, Marisa Meltzer and Doree Shafrir went to the 2010 PEN Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History and then made their way to Terminal 5 to see a performance by the rock group Hole.

Doree: I feel like last night was sort of a quintessential weird New York night. I had so much fun.

Marisa: Me too. I was sick all weekend And then I was like, "Oh, I'll just go out and have one glass of wine. Maybe two!" And then I ended up having like six and getting home at 3 AM.

Doree: And next thing you know you're at a party [...]

Was last night's three-hour, hiccup-filled Hole show in Washington, D.C., the best concert ever or a complete trainwreck? "Of the nearly 30 songs (or song fragments), not even a handful were completed without some minor disaster," reports the Washington Post's David Malitz — although there are commenters claiming that the show was great! There's much, much more; my favorite bits are about the attaché of Courtney Love's who was onstage shooting the show with an iPhone for the entire night.

In the latest example of the technology of 2010 shining too bright a light on the private lives of people who make songs we think fondly of, former collaborators and alt-rock titans Billy Corgan and Courtney Love are engaging in a feud via Twitter. Billy: "maybe you should go someone nice+live off your husband's money, u know the money he made for writing all those great songs." (And some vaguely spiritual things.) Courtney: he coughs up this spiritual shit like bile and lives none of it, i really think its truly creepy how jealous and obsessed w FBC he isGROSS" (And a ream of supportive messages from fans.) [...]

Seth Colter Walls: Maura, has it been a good first third of 2010, music-wise? What were the highlights? And what depressed the shit out of you? Maura Johnston: 2010 has actually been a great year for music. So far! And there's more to come!! Seth: Really? Because I've felt slightly… underwhelmed. (Though I'm glad you are confirming that the rest of calendar year 2010 is still to come.) Maura: Well, I know the whole existence of the future has been a cause for worry recently. But I am optimistic!

Courtney Love is giving it [Ed Note: "it" being her career, in this instance.] another go, releasing a new Hole album, with a whole new band (hey!), through Mercury/Island Def Jam in April. She went on the British TV show Friday Night With Jonathan Ross last week, and debuted a new song, "Samantha," that sounds somewhat like something that might have been left off Hole's classic 1994 album, Live Through This. Which means it sounds better than much of the music she's made since, but also makes you wonder who wrote it and when.