After a blistering two and a half hour set on Tuesday night, I was more then ready for another dose of Smashing Pumpkins. I was lucky enough back in the day to see them at the Kezar Pavillion in San Francisco for the Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness club tour when they opened for themselves with an hour acoustic set followed by a two hour electric set that ranks in my top ten of all time concerts. I was hoping to hear "Cherub Rock", "Hummer", "33" and "Geek U.S.A" tonight. Would I be lucky enough?
Moving Units opened with their dance, post punk, electro rock music. I enjoyed their Moving Units EP which showed some promise but was a little disappointed with their full length "Dangerous Dreams" due to the poor production of the abum. Blake Miller (Vocals/Guitars) was so drunk on this particular night that he fell off the stage during the first song. If you have a chance to open for the Smashing Pumpkins I think you should probably lay off the sauce. The real star of this band is Johan (Bass) who was giving Peter Hook a run for his money with all the high bass notes he was playing. Their new album "Hexes for Exes" is due on October 9th.
Billy Corgan (Vocals/Guitars) opened the night with the wistful new ballad "Peace+Love". "Tonight,Tonight" featured some excellent keyboard work from Lisa Harriton. "Cherub Rock" was as smoking as I rembered it and Billy dropped the bombs on the solo part. "Starla" was a pleasant surprise with its intricate riffing and jamming solos. The ten ton hammer of "Superchrist" and "Doomsday Clock" completely slays and will leave your eardrums bleeding for more. Billy played "33" acoustically and I got the goosebumps. "Tarantula" is a sonic blast live and has Billy doing mulitple finger slides on the solo portion of the song which had me shaking my head in disbelief. "Death From Above" is one of the extra tracks off of Zeitgeist and was performed by Billy with piano parts by Lisa. "Hummer" was everything I wanted it to be and more. "Muzzle" sounded blissful and was a stirring song to cap my two nights of Smashing Pumpkins. Jeff Schroeder did admirable tonight and I spotted his Hughes and Kettner Amp heads along with a ton of rack gear including a Dunlop Wah rack. Both Billy and Jeff had a Rocktron MIDI pedal switcher. Billy Corgan was switching between his Fender Stratocasters with Lace sensor pickups, Gibson Toni Iommi SG and Schecter guitars. One of the coolest pieces of merchandise I have ever purchased was a large Smashing Pumpkins Flag that is adorned with the SP logo in black and white with stripes, It currently is across my guitar cabinet for added inspiration. I am counting the days untill Sept 13th when the Smashing Pumpkins play the gorgeous Pearl theatre at the Palms.
Smashing Pumpkins setlist at the Fillmore (7/25/07)
"Peace+Love"
"99 Floors"
"With Every Light"
"Tonight, Tonight"
"Starz"
"Cherub Rock"
"Starla"
"Superchrist"
"Doomsday Clock"
"Neverlost"
"United States"
"33"
"The Leaving Lament"
"To Shelia"
"Blue Skies Bring Tears"
"Bullet With Butterfly Wings"
"Tarantula"
"Today"
"Hummer"
"Shame"
"That's The Way"
"Heavy Metal Machine"
"Death From Above"
"Muzzle"
1 comment:
Actually I was sober as a judge on this particular occaison. It wasn't the first time I've eaten shit living the rock 'n roll dream. I doubt it will be the last.
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