The band’s newly announced August 16 tour date in the Charlottesville Pavilion (above, photo by Chris Makarsky) looks to be the first outdoor date on their expanding U.S. summer tour, with another outdoor show three days later in Boca Raton’s Mizner Park.

Sorry we are a bit late this week, but I wanted to be sure to get Jason and Andrew on board to talk about the upcoming tour. We will hopefully be back to our regular schedule next week.

Listen to the whole show (1:05:49)

(download)(iTunes)

This week’s topics:

Panelists
-Chris, Jason, and Andrew

News
-The band is looking for Gish photos, and I dig out my box of film negatives from 1987. (2:06)

-It’s not X.Y.U., it’s not Mina Loy (M.O.H.), the new single is G.L.O.W. Jason takes a stab at the abbreviation and we reminisce about past song titles. (3:45)

In Depth Discussion: The Hammond Concert
-Is playing a concert at a casino any less acceptable than playing at a bar or national restaurant conglomerate? (8:50)

-Is playing a show 20 minutes from Chicago proof of some not-so-subtle vendetta Billy has against the Windy City? (6:16)

-The $83 ticket price: designed to lure hardcore fans? Determined by The Venue? Plus, Jason contrasts the Arising tour with Resume the Pose and comes to a not-so-surprising conclusion about which was better. (7:45)

-Despite, or perhaps because of, being the only show announced and on sale, tickets were slow to sell out. Does this spell the end of the band? Plus, Jason thinks we pay too much attention to the fringe crazies, and I’m still out of touch with the youth of today. (12:16)

Concert Review
-Moon; New Haven, CT July 21st, 1991. How does this concert supporting the release of Gish compare to a possible Gish-era tour? Plus, Jason rediscovers his love of music, and I finally start to convince him that the whole Gish-era tour thing is a good idea. (14:53)

This Week in Pumpkins History
-Jonathan Melvoin dies, Jimmy Chamberlin is fired, and the band is never the same again. (5:09)

Song of the Week
-Money, October 31, 1998

We appreciate your feedback and hope to have Jill back on the show very soon.

This week’s podcast will be a few days late, but in the meantime HU reader Davin did some reconaissance at the Horseshoe Casino in anticipation of the first? second show of the August tour. Despite some reservations by certain fans about this show, the casino staff seems to be excited for the arrival of the Pumpkins.

This is definitely a big deal. All night the dealers went on and on about the new boat this, the new boat that, and on multiple occasions they would openly “hype” and brag to players how both Bette Midler and SP are sold out for the opening weekend festivities. By “festivities” there’s going to be some dedicated low table limits and special promotions and shit going on, so I am expecting it to be quite a hectic weekend. They really are making a big deal out of it, at least the employees are. I couldn’t tell you how many times the “new boat” came up that night, the new theater, etc. Someone at my table even wanted to buy an SP ticket.

Some other details he managed to suss out of the staff:

-The casino will be closing on July 21st in order to prepare for the grand re-opening on August 8th, which includes not only The Venue but also an expanded parking garage and a new riverboat.
-The only entrance to The Venue is inside the casino proper, hence the 21 and over ticket policy.
-There is still a bit of confusion on where fans will line up to wait for doors to open, but employees seemed to think there would be a separate waiting area.

Read about Davin’s experience and some more details about the Venue’s policies after the jump.

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It was a hot, muggy night. Is it cliche to begin like that? Too bad, because it really was.

Last night, my compatriot and I set out to pay tribute, or pay respects, depending on your point of view. He picked me up at my three flat, playlist from the ipod at the ready and we headed off into the far reaches of the city. With plans to meet up with jjb at the appointed landmark to a certain few, we were on our way. Driving north up Cicero, he commented, “damn, this place is really out there. I’ve never even been to this part of the city,” as unknown neighborhoods flickered by the car window.

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Read her reaction to the Hammond concert announcement here.

SmashingPumpkins.com has the details and a photo of Billy Corgan’s appearance at Cheap Trick’s “Sgt. Pepper’s…Revisited” show last night with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in the Hollywood its eponymous Bowl:

The event included a vocal performance by Billy of the song “Julia” from the Beatles’ White Album. Billy also joined Rick Neilsen [sic] and co. for the Cheap Trick song “World’s Greatest Lover.”

One blogger/attendee out there dug it:

I want to go see the orchestra do classical now. It was ridiculously powerful and they weren’t even the stress of the concert. Cheap Trick was. And Billy Corgan, who’s a surprisingly great singer by the way.

No word if there was a special appearance by Matt Sweeney, whose band Chavez put on a legendary performance at the Bowl back in 1996:

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am currently in Las Vegas gearing up to write for the World Series of Poker.  Strangely enough, another of my fellow bloggers revealed to me this morning a fascinating fact - she used to work for a Lexington, Kentucky-based company called Big Ass Fans.

For the majority of you left scratching your heads, take a peek at this article about the Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina, where the Smashing Pumpkins played their residency nearly a year ago last summer.  I can’t speak for anyone else in attendance, but I fell in love with that fan at the same time as I was falling in love (for the second time) with the Pumpkins.

Talk about your strange coincidences!

The band‘s official site now agrees: the show’s at Festival Hall.

While the Smashing Pumpkins’ official site says the band is playing Rod Laver Arena on April 4, Ticketmaster is prepared to sell tickets — going onsale Friday morning — to an April 4 Pumpkins gig at West Melbourne’s Festival Hall. Festival Hall’s website also lists the show, while there is no mention of the Pumpkins on the Rod Laver Arena site.

Here’s the remainder (first part here) of cool DJ Zane Lowe’s brief BBC interview with the Smashing Pumpkins last Wednesday:

Zane Lowe: Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, we’re catching up with you right now. Of course you’ve got some more shows in the UK to get through - Nottingham Arena, Manchester M.E.N., and then London O2 Arena as well. Just quickly - how was Glasgow, was that fun?
Billy Corgan: We played in, like, a car factory or something? I joked during the show last night that maybe after the show we could all get together and build a green-sensitive car.
Jimmy Chamberlin: I think it was Jackie Stewart’s old garage or something where we played.
ZL: You need to talk to your promoter, guys.You need to have a word because you shouldn’t be playing those kinds of places. I was looking at the setlist that you guys had in Paris recently - one of the ones that was online. It really covers the length and breadth of your entire recording career. It must be quite difficult for you though to satisfy yourselves on a nightly basis, let alone the audience out there. You can never keep everybody 100% happy - there’s always going to be people who have favorites.
BC: Oh, that’s the Pumpkins though. Being in this band is to accept that somebody goes home unhappy. We used to get off on that, but now actually we feel sad about that. We wish there was a way to get the balance right, but it’s just impossible. But just to diverge for a second: what we are talking about doing, because we’re going to finally start releasing a lot of archival stuff at the end of this year, we’re going to start doing tours that are focused on particular periods. So we’ll go out and actually do a tour where we’ll say, “Okay, we’re only going to play songs from the beginning of the band through Gish.” We’ll probably play fairly small places and charge good tickets, so you’re going to have to be a fan if you want to come, but it will really be a great chance to revisit those times. We’re really excited about that. I think that’s going to be fantastic.
ZL: That sounds amazing, that sounds really amazing. Apart from that, in terms of future music as well, you’ve got American Gothic - we’re going to get to that in a second. Are you guys talking about a forthcoming album?
BC: Jimmy, you want to let any secrets out?
ZL: Yes, Jimmy, you do is the answer to that question.
JC: We’re actually pretty full-tilt into the future right now. We’re in the process of buying a space in Chicago. We’re going to build another…what would be “Pumpkinland 2.0.”
BC: What we’re talking about doing is, rather than go away for awhile and then release a pile of music, we’re actually going to release the album as we make it. So we’re talking about making an album, say, over the course of three years, and try to come up with a level of work of a Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie where we really go as far out as we can go and really explore all the different areas of the band. So we’ll sort of record for awhile, put some stuff out, tour a little bit, so that way we won’t disappear because we never liked that. We don’t like the disappearing for 18 months and scratching our heads wondering if anyone is even going to like what we’re doing.
ZL: The new EP is called American Gothic and we’re gonna play “The Rose March” right now. It’s been really nice catching up with you on the phone. Don’t be a stranger for so long again or else I’ll start to take it personally!
BC+JC: *laugh*, exeunt

User JRiordan at Netphoria dug up some scarily thorough details about the venue in Austria at which the Pumpkins are performing right now.

Austria’s largest events hall was built between 1954 and 1957 according to plans by the world famous architect Prof. Dr. Roland Rainer. The list of those who have performed in front of several thousand people in the past decades reads like a who-is-who of the international sports, culture and entertainment scene. More than a million people per year visit the event hall on Vogelweidplatz.

This led me to wonder who is this “world famous architect” of whom I have never heard? Well, for those (three) of you (that might be) interested (because you have nothing better to do at work), I dug up a bio:

Roland RAINER (1910-2004)
Austrian architect, urban planner, writer and teacher. He studied architecture (1928–33) at the Technische Universität, Vienna, and then worked from 1937 at the Deutsche Akademie für Städtebau in Berlin. After World War II he began writing books that proposed solutions to urban planning and housing problems. He also established a practice as an independent architect in Vienna, working mainly in the functionalist tradition. During his career he completed more than 50 projects of the most diverse kinds and scale: office buildings, schools, kindergartens, swimming-baths, churches, multi-purpose halls, factories, a radio and television centre and numerous residential buildings including an influential estate of prefabricated detached houses (1954; with Carl Auböck), Vienna, that served as a model for much post-war reconstruction work in Austria. Other well-known examples of his work are his multi-purpose halls: the Stadthalle (1952–8), Vienna, the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle (1962–5), Ludwigshafen am Rhein, and the Stadthalle (1963–4), Bremen, incorporating new construction techniques such as steel suspension and concrete shell roofs. The Puchenau garden city (1964–7) near Linz, also received international recognition. With its houses built round central courts or in terraces, it follows the tradition of the Viennese garden city movement after World War I and is an example of building adapted to the needs of living.

From 1958 to 1961 Rainer was chief urban planner for the city of Vienna, producing the first comprehensive plan for the city in the 20th century. He was also an influential teacher, particularly in his work (1956–80) at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna, where he trained a generation of architects. Of great significance for his teaching was his interest in the vernacular buildings of all countries and periods; he analysed similar types, studying functional order, scale and other elements that characterize them as successful examples of humane architecture. In his 1972 book Livable Environments, Rainer stated that architecture should be integrated with landscape, even subordinated to it, by building with local materials, and making buildings “so unobtrusive that they, in effect, disappear.” Rainer made a significant contribution to the development of Austrian building and architecture after 1945. In 1980 he became president of the Austrian Kunstsenat, a state advisory body.

So, was Rainer the Frank Lloyd Wright of Austria? His design is actually quite pretty and functional; you can purchase a set of stackable chairs for $4200 here, a set of chairs from the Vienna City Hall for an unnamed price here, or an iron-clad minimalist wardrobe for 5,000 Euro here.

In 2004, Billy Corgan spent six days recording live for an audience at a Chicago venue called — or, at least, referred to by fans as — “The Temple”. However, “the Temple” is not a well-known music or arts venue in Chicago, and elementary web searches (e.g., “‘The Temple’ Chicago” at google.com) turn up little. Prior to today, I had not seen or heard of anyone linking to or specifying the exact nature of this “Temple” other than to say it was formerly a church.

Today, however, HU research has found “The Temple”. It is located at 1350 W. Erie St.; Israel Samuel AME appears to have been an occupying congregation; and it is the home of Dimitre Photography Incorporated. Dimitre was the tenant in 2004, and Dimitre not only hosted the performances then but also continues to host on its servers a collection of (often stunning) photos.

Below: Billy at “The Temple”, Chicago, April 2004 (Dimitre Photography)

The Smashing Pumpkins will head upstairs after tonight’s Vegas gig for an Offical Concert After Party at “Moon”, “the New Nightclub at the Palms”. Is this appropriate? Check the Moon website:

Upon entering Moon, guests immediately notice they have arrived at a dramatic, surreal environment unlike any other in Las Vegas or the world. The floor is covered with shimmering glass tiles of various shapes and sizes, which change color via a computerized lighting system as guests move about them, while a curtain of glass beads, upon which videos are projected, hang over the majestic floor-to-ceiling windows.

A celestial palette of gold, yellow, nickel and silver give the club a sexy, sultry sheen, while a VIP room is ensconced in a translucent yellow glass mosaic that generates the kind of mystical lunar vision one could not possibly find on street level.

A computerized lighting system? Translucent glass? And yeah, “Moon”? This band should immediately notice that they feel right at home.

Following its disgusting pseudo-event at the Palms Las Vegas, the soul-killing cable network MTV is packing up and making way for our heroes:

[Palms owner] George Maloof added: “We will be completely back to normal within hours. We have to be because we have The Smashing Pumpkins coming in to do their concert on Thursday. Sets will be dismantled in the Pearl and all the seats – nearly 1,000 - that had to be removed will be re-installed.”

“We’ve also called in inspectors from the CDC, as well as spiritual counselors from across the nation,” Maloof added, pausing only to remove a bottle of hand sanitizer from his pocket and slather its contents over both arms. “It is our hope that by Thursday the sun will rise again.”

Maloof then started as if to fall on his knees in prayer, only to recoil at the last second from the carpet. “What have we done?! My God, it’s practically alive!” he yelled, shuddering at the teeming mass of microorganisms underfoot.

Okay, I made up the last two paragraphs…which may nevertheless be a reasonable approximation of reality.