concert ticket














SP Setlist 9/18/07:
 United States,
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
That's the way (My Love is)
Neverlost
Stand Inside your Love
Tonight Tonight
Tarantula
Starz
Zero
Glass & Ghost Children(jam)
Thirty-Three
Crying Tree of Mercury
Perfect
To Sheila
Starla
Hummer
Bring the Light
Cherub Rock
Heavy Metal Machine-jam
Encore: Jam-Doomsday Clock
Encore 2: Today

   


  "All we have is our music, our legions of fans, our millions of dollars and our youth!"
-Billy Corgan '96

I miss the concert jitters I used to get whenever a band I wanted to see was in town. The pomp and circumstance of getting ready and arriving at an arena ripe with the smell of $20 concert t-shirts and disenfranchised Gen-Xer's. I also grew up during the Arena Rock era, you know when people dressed up for shows? Things are quite different now days.  A decade later, it's $60+ tix, $35 shirts and aging hipsters.  

        Arriving at the lot to see an outrageous sign reading $8 for special event parking I park only to be accosted by a black kid selling bootleg SP tour shirts so old they had D'arcy and James on the front.  I'm the only one wearing a vintage 90's SP tour shirt. The merch table is almost desolate and no wonder, $35 for shirts that I wouldn't wear if they paid me thirty-five dollars.  Inside Hellride are finishing up their set and I notice that even the quality of the openers has dropped substantially.  The first time it was Garbage and the third was Queens of the Stoneage.  

        The show begins with United States, one of the tracks of the new cd.  The song is fine but wore out its welcome out after they dragged it out for 15 minutes.  The whole band is wearing white, Billy has a sleeveless tunic over a shirt with Freddy Kruger stripes. BWBW follows, returning an SP classic that didn't half bad (or half good for that matter).  

        The band plays more new material before going to Machina era for Stand Inside your Love. MCIS's Tonight, Tonight delights the crowd before being subjected to Tarantula and Starz (with a Z cuz Billy likes to keep it gangsta).  The band plays Zero and Ghost Children before leaving Billy on the stage for an acoustic break. 

        Mr.Corgan strums a 12string for a gorgeous rendition of Thirty-three definitely the highlight of the night.  Of course even this moment had to be ruined by two drunk fratboy types that kept trying to out yell "Billy" over each other.  Ten years ago those would've been teen girls, now the only "I love you's" came from dudes.  

        Billy plays acoustic versions of Crying Tree of Mercury, Perfect (Jimmy on tambourine) and To Sheila before the rest of his employees return to play the once-rare Starla. It seems Billy just hired the first chick bassist and chink guitarist he could find.  And while chicks and chinks are replaceable, it does not a Pumpkin show make.  

        I'm getting angsty over the lack of Siamese Dream material until the bassline for Hummer begins.  Finally, sixteen songs into the show I hear something from my fave Pumpkins CD. The follow with another new song before Cherub Rock ushers aural goodness.  

        The band half jams/half plays Heavy Metal Machine before leaving the stage. They encore with another jam that become Doomsday Clock. The crowd brings them back for a blistering crowd-sung performance of Today that made me feel like I was 18 again.   

        And that was worth the price of admission.    



relapse
[a perfect circle]
rehab
[pumpkins 5.19.00]

return
[get back where you belong]

reach
[we must never be apart]


release
[the doors of pumpkindom]