Auf der Maur was clearly thrilled to be onstage, tossing picks to fans and sassing right back at Corgan after he pointed out some of her bass flubs in "Today."
"Some people make mistakes, but they're really nice and talented anyway," Auf Der Maur pointed out sweetly.
"What's this hippie shit you're spouting?" Corgan grinned back.

I don't actually have a tattoo of a Canadian flag, but I feel like I do," she says. "I have to make a Canadian reference about everything. Jim Carrey? He's Canadian. I'm the obsessive reminder that Canada is the place to be."

Playing Edgefest, she goes on, is "an honour. I'm secretly hoping that the Canadian content law applies and that I'm the one that's making it possible for Hole being able to close the show. I know the whole band is looking forward to it."

"When I joined the band," Auf der Maur says, "I was honouring the fact that I was taking a very emotionally sensitive spot, and I was going to do everything I could to offer hope and rebirth after death. And that's kind of dictated a lot of what I do in this band."

living in Los Angeles has made her appreciate Canada all the more.
"I'm glad I spent a chapter of my life there to really get to know the ugly beauty of the American dream."

Oh my god, things were rough then," says Auf der Maur matter-of-factly about Love's "altercation" with rival riot grrrl Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill

"That still happens," she laughs, before clarifying. "The ranting part definitely. Not the bandaged arm though. I think we've come a long way since all that stuff."

Billy's been huge musical influence in my life, from being a 19-year-old when Gish (the Pumpkins' debut) changed my life and made me start playing the bass to the fact Billy was the one who got me in this band."

There's so much baggage that comes along with this band that a fast edible pop record doesn't have. Be it the dark lyrics within it or the history of the personality

"We're not a pop sensation that's going to become huge overnight like Alanis Morissette. We hope it's going to be a life-long, generation-long, selling things versus an overnight 6 million records and then gone tomorrow.
"We're definitely working for the long-term."

"I've been waiting very patiently all these years to go across Canada," she says. "I've never been to Calgary or Winnipeg or anywhere like that. I'm very much looking forward to it. And what better way to go than with a bunch of Canadians and Canadian bands. I've never even heard of some of them but I can't wait to get to know them all."

"I was going to get a master's in New York in photography," she says. "Instead, I ended up getting a master's degree in being in a rock band."

I've been learning about the science of being in a rock group, about travelling the world, about how to work with record producers, how to make music, how to deal with negative publicity, how to deal with publicists, with the media ... just everything. I've been given one big taste of everything really, really quickly."

"I'm a Pisces, so I guess I was astrologically predestined to be in Hole."

Eight years ago, my aspirations musically were maybe to do a nice van tour of Canada and maybe a lo-fi van tour of Europe,"

"My father's funeral was the biggest day of my life," Melissa recalls. "It was almost like a rock concert, in that I gave the eulogy in front of 3,000 people and on TV and on the radio. It was the most intimate and the most public thing that I have ever done, and the second I got up to speak it was just me and my father.
"That was the most inspirational moment of my life -- the most pure moment I've ever had. As a creative person I will always refer to that moment."

"And I cannot wait to go to Saskatoon and go, 'Hello Saskatoon! I love you!' I've never been there before."

"I'm so excited about celebrating Canada Day here," said Auf Der Mar. "I've even got Maple Leaf flags to drape over our amps."

"I consider myself kind of an outsider and an insider," added Auf der Maur, who left her native Montreal to join Hole after Live Through This came out. "I followed Hole's career and then I became part of it, but it seems very natural to me."

My ninety-five-year-old grandmother is always pounding my heritage down my throat -- reminding me that I'm the last one in North America to further the name. Lately, I've been thinking about the kind of man who will father my children. He'll have to have no connection to his family heritage, because there's no way I can give up my name.

Billy Corgan -- he's not so huggable, but I love him.

Rufus' mother and my father have been partying together for, like, forty years. We grew up in a very small English-speaking community in a wild French world. Both our families were very much in love with the Quebecois fire for life. They're the biggest partyers. I grew up not even knowing that AA or NA existed. I moved to L.A. and I was like, "What? People have drinking problems?"

:"My favourite part of our rock shows is meeting the young adolescent kid who loves music the same way I did. If there's an opportunity to talk to a young girl, I'll always tell her things that I would've wanted to hear, or give her some kind of express-yourself-feminist-be-true-to-yourself-get-to-know-yourself-remember- you-have-everything-you-need-inside-of-you kind of speech."

I'll be a spokesperson and a mother one day. And I look forward to that. This lifestyle is sort of coming to an end. The world tours, you know, they take years off your life. I've aged in ways that I wouldn't have if I'd stayed in Montreal. Once I'm done with the Pumpkins it will have been six fine years of travelling the world in other people's bands

In this band I have no idea where the songs came from, so I may be overcompensating with the live show. It's like playing in the perfect metal band. I do kicks. Someone even compared me to the guy from Iron Maiden. It's not like I'm trying. I'm not practising in front of a mirror, but it's happening. This music has released the rock animal in me."

This is the second time I've joined an already-set family that has gone through a lot of stuff together, and I seem to be good at adapting to difficult, personal, intricate structures. Which I think even reflects why I'm a bass player, because bass players have that role musically. I can slide my way into a complex structure and be sensitive to who's standing there before me. It's like I'm a stepchild all of a sudden. Believe me, I've reviewed my strange destiny in rock music, in terms of "Why do I find myself in this role?" For it to happen twice is a little funny.

In a lot of ways I get very excited and see it as my homecoming, and feel very proud and sentimental. I don't live here anymore and every time I come back, I say, "When will I live in Montreal and have access to all this wonderful food and culture again?"

While watching my mother cook when I was very very young, I enjoyed her cookbooks and the glossy photographs of food made me wonder about the science of photography. Then at 15, my mother introduced me to an incredible Quebequoi photographer who gave me lessons and basically told me that whatever I saw was worthy of a photograph.And he'd send me out on little walks through the city taking pictures of everything I saw, and I became obsessed with taking photographs of everything I see.

"Who am I to affect and inspire young people?" she asks. "I honor it and cherish it. If I've made people feel good about themselves, I know I've done a good job."

"(That) band, for me in lots of ways, is something I'm very proud of, as a female in music. There was a lot of political charge in it that really appealed to me. And I participated so much more in that band vocally - harmonizing like the pretty angel behind Courtney's rants."

Though it may have shocked some fans that auf der Maur left Hole last fall, the 28-year-old says it was her plan all along.

"When I was approached (to join), I said yes thinking that it would be an education like a college education -- a chance to learn about a lifestyle, an opportunity to see the world and to learn more about music -- and I said I would give it five years," she says. "Well, the five years were coming up and by the time Edgefest crossed Canada last year (Hole was the headliner on that bill), I knew I would be leaving soon."

"Musically, I've been writing a lot but I want to keep it pure and minimalist for the moment. I've been working with the notion of 'must have album' and 'must have hit' for so long that I want to keep it fresh," she says. Photography is also a passion -- she likes to "document something every day" -- so a photo book is also a possibility, as are gallery shows. "To be honest, though, I'm in a touring mode right now, so until I'm actually free of this commitment I'm not exactly sure what direction I'll go in. All I know is I'm looking forward to it."

" After these two high profile gigs, Auf Der Maur is ready to do her own thing creatively: "A non glossy, Velvet Underground/Smiths/psychedelic jam thing."

"When I became my own team, it was all about the Smiths for the depressed days; Blondie for the "I want to be a woman in rock days". It was Jam when I wanted to be a mod. It was the Ramones when I wanted to live in NY." - on her influences

"The alley way is sure to be expanded to the entire street to do our strange name justice." - on the alley in Montreal dedicated to her father.

"There's nothing scary about Brian and company. I've known them for years, fresh out of high-school in their Halloween costumes. And it was a pulling pig-tails fest." - on Marilyn Manson.