Smashing Pumpkins @ United Palace
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Artist:
Having waited about 14 years since last seeing the Smashing Pumpkins live, my anticipation soared last Thursday night at the United Palace. See, Billy Corgan and crew played an integral role in my formative years. The Lollapalooza show a million years ago was my first concert and I effectively took guitar lessons from Billy Corgan, learning power chords from Today, neck chords from Disarm, and octaves from Cherub Rock. While most of my friends were deep into Pearl Jam or dipping their toes into the Dead and Phish, I roamed around record stores and sketchy bootleg swap meets at the local Howard Johnson digging up recordings of the Smashing Pumpkins.
Not long after, I realized that while the Pumpkins were a truly fantastic band with a sound all their own, they were not a very reliable live act for a deep dive. While they always maintained a deep repertoire, shifted the sets around and cranked out quality fuzz, the sound often sucked and Billy Corgan's voice was roughly as reliable as Sex Panther Cologne.
Some things haven't changed. The show Thursday night left me with horribly polarized feelings. As per the yoosh, Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlain and the other "Smashing Pumpkins" sans original bassist D'arcy and guitarist James Iha cranked up the sound and put on a freaking rock show. Yet, the basis for the unsettling and unsatisfying sentiments was that Corgan was hell bent on raging on his guitar with a result that sounded more like a bad Guns N' Roses set.
READ ON for the rest of Rupert's Smashing Pumpkins review…
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Comments (1)
"Or maybe it was just not the same band." -- well said. it should the be called "the BC project" (BC 4 billly corigan)