Friday, July 16, 2010
Local Review: Smashing Pumpkins
Words Jesse Scaccia
Photos jESiO
Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
It dawned on me as I was downing the last of my pre-show beer:
The chances of Courtney Love and Billy Corgan both putting on non-sad, kick ass shows at the NorVa within two weeks of each other is basically non-existent. It just was. It’s a karma, ying-yang, even Steven thing.
Ohhh Billy.
Courtney was a genuine rock star. Last night Billy Corgan came off like a man going through a midlife crisis.
My evidence, I must admit, is fairly meager. He still has those same slacker-stooped shoulders. But instead of looking iconoclast cool, he just looks like he has early-onset scoliosis. He was wearing a military-inspired shirt, something middle-aged men only do if they’re trying way too hard to look cool. He had these giant, mirror mosaic windmills on the stage that only spun now and again (Quixote much?). They were like bling meets tchochke meets miniature golf course.
But the worst part was how he looked at the crowd with that chubby, mousy face of his. How he stood. He held his guitar with some kind of uncertainty. It felt like watching a man have sex with a prostitute, a man of such arrogance and delusion that he’s convinced himself that the lady is actually having an orgasm.
How he almost seemed to be gloating, like he was on tour again as Smashing Pumpkins to prove something to somebody better off ignored.
Evidence I didn't just make up that windmill stuff.
That he’s touring as Smashing Pumpkins and not as himself or some other cooked up band name says a lot in and of itself. He is the only original Smashing Pumpkin currently in the Smashing Pumpkins. Really, Billy? Losers like Axl Rose do that kind of thing. And that he even got himself another cute female bass player… It was all just so dating-someone-that-looks-like-your ex.
Would you believe me if I told you it was kind of a great show anyway? This show wasn’t about the music so much as it was the nostalgic place the Smashing Pumpkins’ music takes anyone born between, roughly, 1975 and 1985. It’s a completely cliche thing to say, but if you were born in the suburbs between those years, the Pumpkins created at least a few tracks of the soundtrack to your life. So last night when he played “Today” and “Tonight,” I was back in high school, getting in trouble, trying beer, trying girls, trying stealing, trying to deal with my parents’ divorce (and the actions that led to it), trying unsuccessfully to not hate every single adult in my life, trying to figure out how to make it through this shitstorm we call life without losing my mind.
That’s the power of music. Nothing else has that kind of juice.
It’s why the show was sold out. It’s why when my friend Nichole found out I had an extra ticket five minutes before the show she dropped everything and sprinted to the NorVa. It’s why half the crowd was happily dripping in sweat even though the performance was mediocre, at best.
The heat. (Photo | Nichole Ashikis)
Give me that heat. Give me that wetness. Give me those wide eyes. Give me those bodies pressed together. Give me the screams and the singing and the dangerous heartache of it all.
Our physical selves might have been on Monticello, but the rest of us were in that space between heaven and a memory.
[Editor's Note: Fucking A do I love music.]
“Life’s a bummer / When you’re a hummer / Life’s a drag,” Billy sang last night, from “Hummer.”
There was a time that I related to that lyric?! That’s awesome and horrible! I might never have remembered that particular version of me if I hadn’t gone to the show last night.
Billy Corgan, possibly mid-midlife crisis, stood alone on the stage at the end of the show and bowed, taking it all in. I think he remembered that time too. And we all were very happy.
Some reviewy stuff:
- From what I’m told, he played nothing from “Gish.”
- To my ears his new stuff is schlocky. If he wasn’t Billy Corgan I’m doubtful he could get a record deal.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Jesse is the editor in chief of AltDaily, and he's going to take this bio seriously, but not so seriously that he's going to continue in the third person. I've been involved with a bunch of local projects and civic groups in various roles, including: Hampton Roads, The Canvas; Art | Everywhere, Street Performance in Norfolk; Survive Norfolk; Hampton Roads Pride/Out in the Park; Bike Norfolk; re:Vision Norfolk, and such.
I originally came to Norfolk as a Perry Morgan fellow in ODU's creative writing program. Before that I bummed around quite a bit, writing stacks of books that never got published, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, riding the Greyhound up down and back across this country. Some of my favorite jobs and volunteer gigs have included working on organic farms in Ireland; being first mate on an old sail boat in Holland; working at a long-term home for young men in South Africa; being a journalist and high school teacher in New York and California; washing dishes in Yosemite National Park; teaching English in DC and swimming in Florida; and interning at ESPN in Bristol, which was much less cool that you'd want it to be. My career highlights have been having three of my op-eds run in the New York Times, and being the executive producer of a six-part docu-drama on BET. Because school is cool I have three master's degrees (ODU for MFA, NYU for magazine journalism, University of Connecticut for secondary English education). I live in Norfolk because I believe in its potential. Email your ideas or nicely couched criticism to jesse@altdaily.com.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
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Wow…I thought it was a great show. I have been a big fan for 15 years, saw him 12 years ago, then last night. There was some arrogance, but he deserves it. He’s made rockin’ music for years. Billy played for 2 hours straight, and when the drums were getting worked on, they graced us with 2 epic bonus songs. The crowd was really stoked on the show, until that encore I would say. Last night was an experience, even though he has new members, they rocked the show too.
Proving yet again that no one can review anything that Billy Corgan does without spending 75% of the review talking about what they think of Billy Corgan. There are three songs mentioned in this article. This is not a concert review.
BK, I have no idea who you are, but for some reason I hate to disappoint you. I mentioned those three songs with you, specifically, in mind. But in the end, I’m never going to write the kind of reviews you’re looking for. It’s not who I am as a person or writer. With you in mind, though, next time I do a review I promise to mention at least five songs… Actually, if I included a whole set list, would that be cool? (I can probably do that.)
Oh, I completely agree with your sentiment — the Pumpkins filled much the same role for me when I was a teenager and I felt much the same way when I saw the “Pumpkins” back in ’07. There’s definitely a place for a personal reaction to a concert, or for the way a major touchstone of our adolescence seems to us as adults. But those aren’t really concert reviews. Did they play a lot of new stuff? Did he say anything interesting while he was onstage? Band rapport? How did the new drummer compare to Chamberlin? Did it change the flavor of the music? What about the much-heralded early-arrival soundcheck? As someone who decided not to make the trip to Norfolk because of the price tag, I guess I’d just like to know what kind of show I missed, rather than the kinds of feelings I might have missed while at the show.
I think Jesse from AltDaily had one too many “pre-show beers” if he did not think the show at the Norva was an amazing concert experience. The Pumpkins played Ava Adore for their second song, but rocked out to it as if they were closing the set. They put so much energy into each song they played last night, especially Billy and their new (20 year old) drummer Mike. This show did not sell out because the fans were trying to recreate the 90′s, it sold out because the fans love the music and the fact that Billy still is so passionate about his music. Amazing band, amazing music, and an amazing show last night at the Norva.
I really did enjoy the show. I’m sorry that didn’t come across in this. Thanks for your note and perspective.
The lovely thing about Altdaily is that there is not a certain mold you have to fill. I love that Jesse’s music reviews are more often than not a reflection on things in his life.
I think a lot of people can relate to that. The music we listen to colors our moods and feelings, and in the historical sense provides an easy reference system for what came before.
Music is subjective…. in a way that very few things are. To say this is not a review is just silly. Pick up 10 music reviews and get 10 different takes. Jesse’s take is more personal and that is nice. Pick up some pretentious guys review and he would go through every song. (more than “there are three songs mentioned….”) but I have to ask what the value is in that review?
After you read about all the technical highs and lows of the entire Billy Corgan playlist what would you have learned? That a concert has come and gone and you can now speak as if you were in the crowd? It is a slice in time, come and gone, and recanting it does little for the reader… but trying to capture something a little more personal… well at least its interesting, even if you take issue with its ‘value’.
While this is a little light in the details for my taste I do agree that Billy Corgan is a washed-up egotistical a-hole. He played all “the hits” in double time and then got po’ed when we didn’t know the songs on Zeitgiest. That’s b/c that album sucks.
Rock on.
The writing on AltDaily is just awful, with their cheesy adolescent analogies and inability to accurately review or report on any subject. Their unwillingness to examine anything “negative” regarding the lower classes and their daily struggles also bothers me a great deal–it will also probably get me censored and banned from the website, which has happened to friends of mine.
There is nothing “alternative” about AltDaily–they are bourgeois yuppies. Get your underground news elsewhere, folks.
This strikes me as something personal masked as a real comment, but I’ll bite.
We have never–not once–banned a commentor from AltDaily. We have never deleted even *one* comment from the site. Your friends, my friend hiding behind a fake name and no picture, are not telling the truth in a slanderous way.
And before you call someone a bourgeois yuppie, meet them. At least once. And ask them at least one question about who they are, where they come from, and what their values are.
Hey now — there is plenty “alternative” about AltDaily, as much as I do (and will) complain when I think they’ve got something wrong. I grew up in the 757 and still live here; there has always been a lack of vision, a lack of optimism and a lack of enthusiasm in this area. AltDaily, though flawed, is “alternative” solely by the virtue of having those three qualities. For Norfolk/Hampton Roads, that’s immense. And if you don’t think that even “bourgeois yuppies” are alternative in this area, then you don’t know the area at all.
Your disregard for fans over 35 is insulting. Your picture of Billy as a someone suffering a mid-life crisis shows your youthful ignorance. He is a longtime (some might say legendary) rock star trying to make a living. How else is he suppose to dress and act?