Here’s audio of a new Smashing Pumpkins song, performed by Billy Corgan in Denver on Friday night. The song title is given on the setlist as “Communion”.
Recording (again) by Netphoria user Diss N. Chanted!
ALSO: Patches (who provided the YouTube video clips from the concert) has uploaded a set of pictures to her Denver’s Live Music blog.
AND: Video of “Communion” (YouTube)
WKQX-FM employee Electra, who claims in her blog sidebar to be “a radio DJ” by trade, has marveled at the Smashing Pumpkins’ ability to choose music to play during their recent visit to that station’s studios:
During the takeover, I thought that Billy Corgan sounded like an articulate and frustrated man who is highly critical of many things, including himself. I appreciated his explanations for his behavior - it seems like it’s just as hard for him as it is for the fans that it’s no longer 1993 - and intrigued by some of his musical choices. Who’d have thunk that I’d ever hear ZZ Top, UFO and Scorpions on my station?
Q101.com has posted a recording of the band’s hourlong “takeover” in two parts (first half-hour, second half-hour).
While I’m finalizing my recordings of last night’s show at Mohegan Sun, here is a clip of Superchrist.
Enjoy. We’ll update when the recording is posted to the Live Music Archive.
Yesterday, SP.com featured LiveSmashingPumpkins.com’s newest offering: a bundle that includes download rights to all soundboard shows on the current tour. Sweet.
So I clicked through to this ad. And my jaw dropped.
This package includes 23 shows, 16 of which are the two-night Black Sunshine / White Crosses shows. And, I think the shock of the numbers speak for themselves. But you might wonder, how much would I be saving if I chose to buy all of these separately? Well, here’s the number-crunching:
Aside from the reported issues (like gaps, dissatisfaction with vocals, and repeated song segments), the recordings sound terrific. But for $350? Why not offer a more reasonable bundle, like a 5-pack download for $50? Or include a significant discount with concert ticket purchase?
Echoing remarks by blogger Matthew Perpetua, here’s Kyle Anderson of Rolling Stone:
New songs like “Song for a Son” and “As Rome Burns” got lost in the theater’s strange acoustics, while even favorites like “Disarm” lacked teeth. Clearly losing the crowd, Corgan invited a fan onto the stage to voice his opinion about Thursday’s show. The fan told him, “Last night’s show sucked,” and for a minute it looked like Corgan was going to take criticism in stride for once. But as the fan was walking back to his seat, Corgan shouted, “By the way, I liked that song you wrote. What was it called? ‘Take Your Dick Out of My Ass and Stick It in My Mouth’? That was a big hit in Europe.” For a guy who has made his money airing out his own tales of childhood torment and abuse, it seemed strange and hypocritical for him to resort to playground name-calling and juvenile homophobia.
Corgan then rewarded his devoted audience with the 20-plus minute prog jam “Gossamer” and an utterly ridiculous version of “The March Hare” that devolved into a percussion jam that channeled Stomp.
Thanks to concert taper and HU contributor Zach, you can listen to the exchange between Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and that young man. Somehow it wasn’t “lost in the theater’s strange acoustics”, and thus by listening we learn that the direct quotation Anderson attributes to Corgan is a reasonably accurate paraphrasing:
And no, I don’t know how Zach got such a clear recording of “As Rome Burns”…
…nor why his recording of “Gossamer” clocks in at less than 15 minutes.
Below: Partial video of the exchange. Anyone know who the young man is? (YouTube)
Audio for the Smashing Pumpkins 20th Anniversary series in NYC can now be found on the Smashing Pumpkins Live Music Archive. Check the recordings out via the links below.
tsp2008-11-06.dab.flac16 - Black Sunshine
tsp2008-11-07.mk4.flac16 - White Crosses
Photo below from the United Palace is by HU blogger Jill. Check out SP.com for more photos!
Hi, HU readers. I just got back from tonight’s Smashing Pumpkins performance at United Palace - oh yeah! Though I’m sure you were following along with the liveblog earlier, I doubt there’s much evidence yet to demonstrate what a great concert it was.
While I’m finalizing my recordings of tonight’s show, I thought I would share with you this clip of Tarantula. This song is truly at its live peak.
Enjoy. We’ll update when the recording is posted to the Live Music Archive.
Torrent download complete! Here are the more intriguing cuts, in rather high fidelity:
“Owata”
“Sunkissed”
“A Song for a Son” <– does this one sound somehow familiar to anyone else?
After listening to the unsafe-for-broadcast section of the Smashing Pumpkins’ set for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” provided in this post, previous descriptions of Jimmy Chamberlin’s drumming may seem insufficiently evocative.
“Superchrist” / “United States” (19:05)
(Recording by Netphoria user Diss N. Chanted.)
On one of the Ticketmaster presale pages today, I spied this box down below the order submission form:
It looks like the official website will be offering DRM-free mp3s of the live show recording for $16.22. (And the audiophiles weep. Ohhhh the agony of mp3s!!!1)
Is this a new program and will it be offered for the entire tour?
How will this affect the open-taping policy and the Live Music Archive?
Cool?!
Stage banter (mp3) from the Raleigh show:
We’re happy to be here with you tonight. Of course, we’re missing the badminton final…Michael Phelps going for his 900th medal…and by the way, I fucking hate Bob Costas, okay? Fuck Bob Costas. [cheering] Why do I have to deal with Bob Costas’s Olympic vision? That’s what I want to know. I just want to watch the fuckin’ Olympics. Bob Costas…plus, he’s from St. Louis, that pretty much seals it right there…the Cardinals…anyway, I’d like to introduce the band. On the geetar…
Here are four tracks from an outstanding audience recording (thanks to taper Robbie Dunn!) of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Sunday night concert at Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh, North Carolina:
“G.L.O.W.”:
“Speed Kills”:
“The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning”:
“Heavy Metal Machine”/”White Rabbit” into…is that the riff from Maiden’s “Ides of March”? and a bit of the Nuge there, “Stranglehold”? and it’s definitely a few lines from “Wild Thing”…into “Glass’ Theme”:
If you’re smooth with BitTorrent tech, you can find the entire show at etree.org.
The first audio tapes from the Smashing Pumpkins’ first two stops on their US tour were posted to the Live Music Archive recently, courtesy of taper Ryan Fisher. Make sure to listen to the new bassline Ginger rocks for “G.L.O.W.”! Check them out below:
2008.08.08 - Davenport, IA - The Adler Theatre (download / stream)
While there’s plenty of excitement surrounding tonight’s opening show of the Smashing Pumpkins’ new tour, there’s still many hours left in the day to kill. I noticed this morning that HU reader Fogelsong uploaded one of my favorite live shows to the Live Music Archive recently - one that’s appeared on HU and in our podcast before.
Stream the mellow 1998 show below or visit this page to download the goods. Enjoy the beautiful Friday and stay tuned for our live blog tonight from Davenport!
Stop the madness, please!
In his introductory post on sp.com, simon makes reference to his hometown of Vancouver having played host to one of the best Silverfucks of all time.
It’s a form of a statement that I see far too many times, regarding the glory of the 1/8/97 Mellon Collie show at GM Place. The reality is, there is nothing awe-inducing about the concert. The deification of this show needs to be brought back down to a more respectable level.
First, I get why people do laud the show. Due to the FM broadcast by CBC two months later, it’s the best recording representation fans have of the tail end of the Mellon Collie era. And Billy and co. seem to be in genial moods, as the show is the 4th after a 2-week holiday break and they’re just gearing back up for the final month. On top of that, it is a solid performance with a good crowd.
Now that that’s established, is there anything that makes this show stand out above any of the countless others from the Mellon Collie tour, or even more detailed, the Matt Walker era? Other than that impeccable sound quality?
Sound quality does not equal performance quality, people. And the performance is not legendary in the least.
The run of Southern California shows a month earlier had the band firing on all cylinders, with some of their strongest performances since the restart of the tour. Even the Seattle show from 2 days before is at least as good a performance, with the exact same setlist. Vancouver is good, but it’s entirely Pumpkin paint-by-numbers if you focus on the performance and not the strength of the recording. (more…)
At their February 29 (8th anniversary of Machina, dude!) show in Oslo, the Smashing Pumpkins attempted an encore performance of the Scorpions song “The Zoo”. Despite Jeff Schroeder’s considerable effort on the talkbox-augmented guitar, frontman Billy Corgan told the Norwegian audience that his band had just flopped:
Yeahhh. That was a song by the Scorpions. Do you feel all right, Jeff? …Honestly, that was the only song we were going to play, but that was so bad, we’re going to play another song. Well, actually, you don’t want to hear another song — thank you good night! …Now you want to hear another song. Would you like to hear a sensitive…sensitive song? Would you like to hear a ski-jumping song?!
Apparently there is a secret meaning to “Cherub Rock”, possibly to be revealed by Billy on the upcoming 15th anniversary of Siamese Dream…
Here’s freshly surfaced audio of the Pumpkins’ “Zoo”…
… and video of the Scorpions playing it on “Heavy Metal Day” of the 1983 US Festival (brought to us, truly, by that guy from Apple Computers).
