Leftover thoughts from a weekend with the Smashing Pumpkins
August 11th, 2008 by jjbtags: tour, analysis
After a lot of driving, lodging-arranging, and no Internet access, I am a bit frazzled — but I do have a full-size keyboard now. Here is some of the material that I lacked the patience to tap out on my cell phone:
The shows were fun — loose, loud and raucous like Billy said they would be. As usual, I considered myself a satisfied fan afterwards.- I think Billy went back to the drawing board to create a new set of moves that would work with his 41-year-old body. He was more physically lively last night than at any of the shows I saw last year, doing all sorts of stage-prowling and guitar-swinging things that I hadn’t seen before. It’s as if the last tour taught him (1) that he can’t jump like he used to and (2) without the jumping, his stage movement was pretty much nonexistent. Hopefully someone will up a video of “Transformer” from Davenport, that’s one time I remember him being particularly animated. UPDATE: Asked for and received:
- The sound was noticeably louder in Davenport than in Hammond; I wondered if the casino is trying out a decibel limit to reduce bleedthrough into the gaming area.
- Of all songs for Billy’s guitar to be lost in the mix, “Tarantula” was that song on both nights. This was disappointing.
- In descending order of crowd response in Hammond: Mayonaise > Siva > the three or four singles > everything else.
- In Davenport, the first several rows seemed to be filled with fans who wanted to hear the newer material. It seemed that those fans didn’t really engage with the show too much until “Superchrist” got underway.
- Meanwhile, with the festival seating in Hammond, “Siva” sparked a surge by some fans from the back toward the front — and “Superchrist”, coming after “Tonight, Tonight”, was the beginning of the end (sorry) of the excess excitement for those folks.
- “The Rose March” is a real tearjerker and made “Again, Again, Again” seem like the b-side it is…which is not to say the latter song is bad, necessarily…
- Said by me to Chris, after “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning” in Hammond: “Put that one in the ’surprisingly good’ category.” After the show my sister could not stop going on about how much she enjoyed Billy’s performance on this song.
- Paraphrase of my sister’s friend (first time seeing the band), on Ginger: “The bassist was like a character from ‘Guitar Hero’: a bit cartoonish, vaguely foreign, and just kind of there.”
- Billy was extremely complimentary of his bandmates during introductions, which came at the beginning of the acoustic mini-set each night.
- On less than a 24-hour turnaround between shows, the band tinkered significantly with the transition between “Heavy Metal Machine” and “Glass’ Theme”…and I expect more to come. “Set the Controls” also seemed to have undergone some work.
- Say what you will about “Superchrist”, “United States”, and “Heavy Metal Machine” being long, abrasive, and new or not true to the record or both — these songs all bring out a real vitality and fighting spirit in Billy that engages the crowd. Each of those songs has multiple moments that often evoke much spontaneous cheering, and so it was at these shows.
- As I told Jill on the phone, the rhythm pattern in the “United States” breakdown has been changed and no longer naturally incites the “hey!”, which I find sort of sad but sort of typical Billy (not wanting anything to be too easy or predictable). A lot of fans who remember the old version of the song did try to yell; I was one of them in Davenport, but in Hammond I moved past that to become an elitist of the post-”hey!”-in-”United States” variety. (Yes, Davin, one can still yell…the question is whether one should.) ;)
- During “Set the Controls” in Davenport, I heard a guy in back yelling “Play a song! Play a goddamn song!” But I can’t really say that “Set the Controls” lost the crowd there because it was already being lost by everything after “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”. In Hammond, “Set the Controls” didn’t seem to get any less of a crowd response than anything else after “Tonight, Tonight” did.
- Logically, then, the encore seemed to go over better in Hammond — lots of cheering, clapping and singing along. I think Davenport, where the crowd had been very patient and generous through most of the singles-sparse main set, deserved “Cherub Rock” instead of kazoos.
- Given these shows and the Adore tour, I am now under the impression that the title “An Evening with the Smashing Pumpkins” is meant to signal: “Plan just to be ‘with’ us, i.e., to be in our presence. Don’t count on us playing many of our 17 top-ten modern rock hits.”
August 11th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I actually like “Again, Again, Again” much better than “the Rose March” in its studio recording of it. Strangely, I thought “Again, Again, Again” was kind of forgettable at first listen. For me, it probably has to do with Corgan using himself as a choir a million times over. It’s a real powerful turn-off. Like he’s singing an ode to himself.
August 11th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Where’s fogelsong? Whoever has connections to that dude, tell him I love him.
He got a full recording of one of my favorite sp shows ever on archive.org
Smashing Pumpkins Live at Les Eurokeennes de Belfort Festival on 1997-07-04 (July 4, 1997)
August 11th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Oh, and I omitted this funny bit:
In Davenport, my friend Julia walks in before the show and finds a Jeff Schroeder pick on the ground, apparently left from rehearsal, and hands it to me. I take a picture of the pick in my hand.
In Hammond, Billy Corgan throws out a handful of picks at the end of the show. One of them hits Chris in the chest, and he then finds it on the ground in front of him. I take a picture of the pick in his hand.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
i also liked billy’s movements. the sultry lurking during tbiteitb….the angular movements and kicks during transformer….he did actually jump while ferociously strumming downward (like old school billy) once at hammond. but kinda stumbled back a bit…limited movement due to the skirt, it looked like. actually, he seemed to stumble several times with the skirt…even without jumping…..maybe a sign that his movements are less restricted than they were during the EU 08 shows. i.e. he’s getting more pumped up this tour, exposing the limitations of his skirt, lol.
i also like how he specifically played the US anthem/solo in darkness, without a spotlight on him…at both shows. nice touch.
Siva was longer with an extended breakdown in Hammond. And i’m extemely impressed with Jeff. during HMM he was a force. and Siva and Speed Kills.
Mayo sounded a lot more heartfelt than in Euro 08….though maybe its just being there for a song as special and nostaligic as that vs. hearing a recording.
the intros of the new members was great, and it was cool to see billy (finally) walk over and jam with ginger the way he does with Jeff. the set was all about ginger in a lot of ways — eye, glow, biteitb, and transformer all featured her…and she was “gettin’ the job done” (as billy would say).
long live the mighty SP!
August 11th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
oh and i also thought it was a funny moment when billy messed up the Today intro riff after his big speech in Davenport…as well as the ending of Mayo (which he was playing with a very cocky look on his face).
both times he turned to jeff and laughed. and it was a great moment of humility.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Damn I love those Zero picks, I’ve been eyeing them on eBay for awhile now.
Great review of the shows for us who couldn’t go. I’ve been watching videos all day (that alzeppelin guy who posted that Transformer video on YouTube has some great stuff) and I’d have to agree that Billy seems to have enhanced his stage presence. I love the way he was prowling around the stage in The Beginning is the End is the Beginning, almost like the Ava Adore video. Good stuff.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Another funny thing - on the road from Davenport to Hammond, I was behind an Alero with the license plate… well, you can see the picture:
Yep, “STARZ 67″. And I’d figured BC would take the tour bus with everyone else…
August 11th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
I’ll have to check out the TBITEITB video for some Ava Adore-ish moves. I love that video. Thanks for the recap, jjb…it’s the next best thing to being there ;)
August 12th, 2008 at 7:31 am
The Hammond show was a lot of fun. I’m really glad I went. When I saw the setlist from the Davenport show I wasn’t too excited about some of the choices and was sort of skeptical. But they really won me over, hearing it all live. And the kazoos and singalongs were a fantastic way to end the song. It’s too bad Set the Controls was lost on some people, because I thought it was very powerful and almost trance-inducing.
I know some people think that when the Pumpkins play non-hits or change the way they play the hits and play long heavy spacey jams that they are being self-indulgent, but I think they are just having fun with what they’re doing and giving their audience and fans a lot of credit and the benefit of the doubt. I think a band that thought less of their audience would just stick to playing the hits.
The band introduction choked me up a bit.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:09 am
“The sound was noticeably louder in Davenport than in Hammond; I wondered if the casino is trying out a decibel limit to reduce bleedthrough into the gaming area.”
This is because they used the house audio system in Hammond instead of their own.
August 12th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Monte: This is because they used the house audio system in Hammond instead of their own.
Okay. Why did they do that?
August 12th, 2008 at 9:06 am
That sounds like the whole thing was alot of fun.
August 12th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Yeah I actually prefer Again, Again, Again - and even Sunkissed - to the Rose March. I love the entire American Gothic EP, though.
Kickapoo becomes
August 12th, 2008 at 10:01 am
jjb I am not sure why they did. But when you looked around there GIANT stack of speakers wasn’t there.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
The best part of Transformer is Billy’s squiggly arm movements.
reCAPTCHA: enemy concerns
August 12th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
what a goofy looking dude when he dances around
doorway rental
August 13th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I felt like Billy was noticeably pissed off at the Hammond Show.. did anyone else?
August 13th, 2008 at 11:28 am
example : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jhH1X9qY24
August 17th, 2008 at 2:30 am
[…] got some cheers. Some good response when the riff to “Siva” hit, but not nearly as much as in Hammond a week ago. “Eye” went over about as well. As usual there was a pretty big response to […]