Ruminations on returning ‘home’
November 21st, 2008 by pinstags: news, tour, blogging, rant, analysis, live
So, after entering the Cone of Silence for 3 weeks in order to keep myself as surprised and open-minded as possible about the first 2 dates of the Pumpkins return to the “city by the lake,” the Chicago Theatre shows have rolled by, and here I sit, ready to review.
Only, I’m left entirely flummoxed by the whole ordeal. I could quibble about the song selection, or the performance itself, or Billy’s supposed “rant” Tuesday night, but really, is that remotely any different than any other show in the scheme of things? There’s nothing that was unique about Chicago, and really, that’s probably the main story itself. Chicago shows always used to have an extra jolt of electricity in the air, even if the performance itself was nothing special. Once upon a time the delivery of the “city by the lake” line would be drowned out by the roar of the crowd, but Tuesday was more of a reserved detachment, more of a “what have you done for me lately?” Tuesday’s crowd was especially lackluster, which may have had a lot to do with Billy’s comments by the end of the night. Felt more like a morgue than a rock show a lot of the time. Wednesday’s energy was better, but there was still something lacking, with the only thing making it uniquely Second City the Cubs/Sox discussion midshow.
There’s always been a little bit of a sense of joint experience, common mindset in shows past, but any goodwill Corgan and co. had engendered coming up through the Windy City has passed. It’s not the fault of the band, or the crowd, but too much time has elapsed, and the sense of ownership and the shared pathos has faded into nostalgia. We may both be from the same city, but we’re no longer from the same place.
Of course, that’s not a commentary on the shows themselves, but my (admittedly low-key) expectations coming in had me thinking these shows would be memorable. Positive or negative had yet to be determined, but unforgettable due to the homecoming at the least. What I’m left with is what was delivered, a dissociative clinical approach to making music, which in many ways is the modus operandi for Pumpkins 2.0 as it is.
So what do you want? What do you want from me? *laugh* I can tell you there were highs and lows throughout the two nights. I loved hearing “Soma” and “Mayo” again, and “Siva” and “Bodies” were great. I took full advantage of “United States” to grab a beer and check out the merch, and “Sounds of Silence” would have been better if I actually heard silence. “Ava Adore” and “Bullet” were their normal predictable selves, but “Landslide” and “Galapagos” were great surprises. I really enjoyed “99 Floors” and “March Hare” was entirely amusing, but “Gossamer” and “Heavy Metal Machine” couldn’t end soon enough. But everyone who sees a show will take away different things from the performance, and I’m not unique in that regard. And I’m not going to argue opinions on individual songs. Most of you know I’ve been pretty cynical to Pumpkins 2.0, and I have my reasons, whether they’ve been fully expressed or not (and no, it has nothing to do with the legitimacy of the “reunion”, but the quality of the work and my place in life compared to the band).
Stating all that, am I glad I went to the show? I enjoyed the spectacle and the performance. But walking out of the theatre each night left me feeling completely ambivalent to the entire ordeal. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy my time, or hate my time, depending on the night (Wednesday was worth way more than Tuesday for me), but I felt like I’d purely observed the two nights, detached from any emotion or feeling the minute the cold air hit my face upon opening the door. The line the Pumpkins have tried to straddle between old and new leaves me in limbo. In fact, I take away the periphery aspects more than the show itself. The friends and family I went to the shows with, the pre and post-show meetups with other cool friends, the chance for certain people to experience what used to be such a huge part of my life…those are the things I’m thankful for getting to be involved in.
And I won’t say I’ll never go see the band again, or that it’s a past chapter of my life. I love the music the Pumpkins once did. I hated Zeitgeist for the most part, but I hear flashes of what I once enjoyed that still percolate to the surface sometimes in the more recent material. But I’m comfortable with putting the band as a major entity in my life to rest (yes, some would argue that’s been done a long time ago, and not inaccurately). But walking out of the shows I didn’t feel elated, or disappointed, or really anything at all. It was nothing but a glimmer of thought, already fading to the back of my mind. And that’s probably where these shows deserve to be placed.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:37 am
I think other than the final two Pumpkins shows in 2000, at United Center and Metro, Wednesday’s “White Crosses” performances was one of the most high energy and well-played setlist I have ever seen. That was my 10th Pumpkins show and it was fucking amazing.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:00 am
this blog is just so … uhhhhh
cant believe what you wrote… the band is playing like 50 songs and you want more?
get real
November 21st, 2008 at 7:56 am
I saw them in Davenport, IA on that last theater tour and you perfectly described, in your last paragraph, the way that I felt when the show was over. I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and promptly forgot about it. I’ll always buy everything the SP and Corgan ever produce and I’m constantly listening to the recorded material and I’ve loved every minute of shows I’ve seen in Asheville (residency), Kansas City (Machina tour) and St. Paul (Machina tour) but this latest iteration of their live show is very, very weak in my opinion.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:04 am
maybe i just pay more attention to greater social contexts inseparable from the smaller ones in which these concerts are happening, but did anyone happen to notice that there’s an economic depression going on in this country affecting the majority of the working people in this country.
that may make a tiny little difference in how a crowd responds these days.
(of course no one discusses these kind of no small things IN RELATION TO music or the music industry these days - or how this may be affecting the “audience.” it’s like these realities will just “go away” if you don’t talk about them. just talk about “music” and marketing, marketing, marketing. keep your blinders on. and, yeah. blame the band - it must be their “fault.”)
November 21st, 2008 at 9:06 am
pay no attention pay no attention pay no attention pay no attention
November 21st, 2008 at 9:35 am
ryma has a great point but that aside, I just think it is a simple truth that you are moving on, the band is moving on and you are not moving onwards together. It is exactly what Townshend said in the documentary. Whatvever it was that you may have needed, wanted or received from the band in the past is something you just don’t need from them now and possibly, anymore. Whatever that desire was, you can get it somewhere else. I’m 39 and a lifelong music fan and there are some artists I was so devoted to that just don’t do it for me now. I’m thrilled that Sting, Elton John and bands like Rush and yes are still out there making music, but they are not making music for me anymore…and that’s OK. I still have my Police albums. I can still listen to 1970s Elton. When I need to return to my teen years, I can dig out my Rush albums. But, I find that I have no interest whatsoever in hearing Sting read Elizabethian poetry set to lute music–but, it’s his right to do just that.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
yes, let’s do move on - by all means. and WITH our memories. if you don’t have a past, you don’t have a future.
and some how i do feel that deep down inside corgan understands EVERYTHING i’ve just posted here AND ABOVE TOO - understands what is happening in this country and with the audience - and is somehow trying to get THAT exactly across on deaf eyes and blind ears.
and now i then, i can be a friend. i love john coltrane - though he’s “dead” in the past, and yet lives on whenever i need him.
i look forward to the future music he will nevertheless influence too - that would not exist without that.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:56 am
“that would not exist without that”
that = his influence.
lest we forget.
November 21st, 2008 at 10:56 am
Ryma, you make a point regarding the greater economic context, but if anything, I’d expect the crowd to be *more* into the show because of it. History has shown that in hard times people will turn to things like movies and music as a form of escapism from the harsh realities of real life. Though it’s certainly possible this is also resulting in the heckling or booing from certain crowds as well, since one may be more apt to express disappointment after shelling out big money in this environment.
Scott, you’re definitely right in terms of moving apart. In fact, the feeling I’m lamenting missing from these shows I felt in spades after seeing the Hold Steady last Friday. It’s just a change in preference. I’d almost equate seeing the Pumpkins nowadays to seeing a jazz performance. I do like jazz a lot, but seeing a jazz show is more an exercise in technique to me. I appreciate the artistry, the skill of the performer, and I like being in the moment, but it doesn’t stick with me in a profound way.
I still respect the effort Billy puts forth, even if I don’t always like the music, and the man is fiercely intelligent. I just like hearing him talk more than perform at this point, I think.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:49 pm
this is true - however, the current “technocratic, dumbed down, shallow marketed consumer mindset” that has strategically shaped human consciousness over the past few decades thanks to free-market fundamentalism in our schools is far different from the earlier consciousness to which you refer.
and that is not necessarily a “good” thing as we are seeing.
perhaps recognition of this will serve to wake us up.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
as a longtime student in the field of cultural studies - i’m not the only one who has been calling this out and giving warnings and rendering the critique.
but if you are “down in it” and have not been taught to see it - you will not. lest something comes to shift your consciousness.
November 21st, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Sorry to hear that the band just doesn’t do it for you anymore. At least you seem to still respect what the Pumpkins meant to you in the past. It’s refreshing to hear a fan move on amicably for a change instead of leaving with a grudge.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Well written pins. I still can’t wrap my head around how people dislike Zeitgeist so much (there are a few songs that don’t do much for me but the majority of it is great) but as you said, people change. I think this happens with most bands from album to album but since there was such a huge gap between Machina and Zeitgeist it’s even more pronounced.
There was quite a lot of the same sentiment surrounding Adore and Machina regarding the “direction” the band was headed in. And I wouldn’t give up on ever being into their new material. The Pumpkins have always changed dramatically from album to album so who knows what the future will bring. I’m sure that even the stuff we’re hearing now (Song for A Son, As Rome Burns, Owata) isn’t necessarily indicative of what the next “album” is going to sound like.
November 22nd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
its you that has changed pins. and you clearly admit that.
if you were to give the same emotional and musical commitment/investment to the new stuff, you would feel differently. i’m not blaming you, but you’re an adult not an adolescent and unless you have something in your life that helps “suck you in” you won’t be able to get over the sentiments you descrived above.
people have changed, and thats on top of crowds sucking more in general regardless of if its an old band or new. those things combined and the theater venues contribute to what you’re describing.
but as i can personally attest to, there’s pockets of people out there who still have a pulse and can still experience the completely vested experience that you have “moved on from”.
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
again pins, the comments you make to Ryma, its not just SP. its shows in general! I’ve seen shows like Tool, Flaming Lips, Chemical Bros, Beck, Ween, NIN, etc….bands where people used to just go apeshit.
but not anymore. crowds suck. they are lifeless and don’t know how to behave at a concert. they are self concious about showing any emotion thanks to the internet and the on-demand youtube world. thats why people don’t know how to behave in General Admission venues anymore, regardless of the band. And the shitty state of today’s popular music doesn’t really help much either.
i was once arguing with several ppl on netphoria who just couldn’t get how a show would be substantially different if they were in person, after the rock am ring pro audio/video webcast. they were sayign with great recodings there’s no reason to go. and it jjust blew my mind! the crowds, sweat and stink of a show…being there….how the music sounds, etc. was all lost on them. not to mention just living life in general.
even the younger crowds, generally, are more tame. not just the older attendees of shows for bands that have been around for a while. take your craziest fall out boy crowd and its basically on par with the energy you’d witness for good songs on the PA, in between bands, in the 90’s.
sad but true.
November 25th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
@davin. I agree with you. *Flashback* to a sweaty arena. My BFF and I swimming our way to the front of the stage at Springfield Civic Center while waiting for Aerosmith to take the stage — two hours late after battling through a snowstorm to the arena. We were almost as drunk and high as the band, and the crowd was completely ‘electrified’ when the Steven Tyler set foot on stage. No cell phones, blogging or sitting on your ass during this show. A lot of being swept off your feet, passing bottles and pipes, sweat, fights, people passing out, and one incredible show that lasted well past midnight was what ensued. (Other than the necessity for snowmobiles to get home) this was a typical GA rock show for me while in high school in the 80’s. Call me crazy, but I’d rather be crazy than experiencing live rock for the first time today… Sorry kids.