Town Hall Seattle and the Office of Mayor Wilson present
A Town Hall on Security and Surveillance
With Mayor Katie Wilson and Florangela Davila
Melissa Auf der Maur
Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A '90s Rock Memoir
EVENT NOTES
Doors for this event will open at 6:30 PM. Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.
Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A ‘90s Rock Memoir presents an intimate look behind the scenes of an iconic era through the ever-reflective lens of musician Melissa Auf der Maur. In this debut memoir, Auf der Maur chronicles her journey through alternative music — from staffing ticket windows at local venues to navigating era-defining triumphs and turmoil under global spotlights.
A bohemian upbringing in Montreal and an early connection to music led her to put down roots in the local scene, working as a cassette DJ and showing up for bands like Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, Pavement, and Sonic Youth. A serendipitous sequence sets the stage for the next big step — a thrown beer bottle at a show, a long-shot fan letter to a PO Box, and before you know it Auf der Maur’s band Tinker is opening for The Smashing Pumpkins and Billy Corgan is passing along a personal recommendation to Courtney Love.
In a whirlwind of life-changing moments, Auf der Maur joins Hole for their 1994 Live Through This world tour just after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and Hole’s previous bassist Kristen Pfaff. Auf der Maur is swiftly flung into the eye of a hurricane, becoming part of a band plowing through grief by way of art on a brutally global stage. Auf der Maur offers a backstage view to the raw reality of this tour, her relationship with Courtney Love in the wake of tragedy, and what kept Hole from spinning out of control.
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And the show goes on from there – messy and unwieldy, but bringing compassionate nuance to the nostalgia of the ‘90s alternative era and Auf der Maur’s personal journey to the other side of it. Part rock memoir, part travel diary, part psychedelic scrapbook – Even the Good Girls Will Cry stacks rockstar stories of the last analog decade alongside the intensely intimate musings of an artist who lived through the chaos.
Melissa Auf der Maur is an artist, producer, and musician known for her time as the bassist of the bands Hole and The Smashing Pumpkins. She is the co-founder and director of Basilica Hudson, a nonprofit multidisciplinary art center known for music festivals, film screenings, artist-in-residence programs, and community involvement. Her other projects include the solo albums Auf der Maur and Out of Our Minds, as well as photography collections shown by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and featured in publications including Spin, Elle, and Nylon.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle.
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