Smashing Pumpkins
Crest Theatre, Sacramento, Calif.
Monday, Sept. 6, 2010
At 7:30 p.m. the corner of 10th and K streets was littered with hundreds of Smashing Pumpkins fans waiting in line to see Billy Corgan and crew in one of Sacramento’s most beautiful venues, the historic Crest Theatre. As fans poured into the building (and especially into the beer garden), Chicago’s Bad City attempted to get the crowd ignited with their ‘80s hair-metal influenced tunes. SPIN.com called them “a modern day Whitesnake,” and I’d say that’s a pretty spot-on description.
At 9:01 p.m. the lights dimmed and the crowd roared as Corgan and his current lineup, which includes 20-year-old drumming prodigy Mike Byrne, lead guitarist Jeff Schroeder and bassist Nicole Fiorentino, took the stage. The first song they dove into was “Astral Planes,” a newer song from Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, where Corgan sings “Everyone gather, warm your soul,” on top of a grungy, slightly Fuguzi-esque guitar riff. Indeed, everyone had gathered; and rest assured our souls were warming, as did the energy in the room. The song “1979” off the nine-times-platinum album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness had the crowd reciting every lyric back at Corgan, as did songs like “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” and “Tonight, Tonight,” which sounded fantastic despite the apparent lack of a string section like on the original recording. In the same manner, the song “Eye,” released on the Lost Highway soundtrack in 1996, which is very electronica, translated great into this guitar-driven performance with live drums. Speaking of drums, it needs to be noted that Byrne was an absolute beast all night and at one point soloed for a solid four minutes onstage by himself and left any drummers in the crowd wanting to quit immediately.
At one point about midway through the show, an acoustic guitar was brought out for a change of pace. Corgan even played ukulele on one song. With the change in pace came the first real crowd interaction on Corgan’s behalf. He mentioned how in his hotel room there was a copy of Sactown Magazine. “Sactown!” Corgan yelled. “Isn’t that what they call it?” He poked fun at the term “Sactown” a little more and muttered that maybe it wasn’t a good term to use if our town was looking to attract tourists. People laughed. He also thanked those in the front row who were smoking pot. People laughed more. It was refreshing to see Corgan, now 43 years old, having a little fun with the crowd. After an epic encore, the band left the stage to screeching feedback, waving to the crowd while throwing picks and drumsticks along the way.
At 11 p.m. the crowd was pouring out of the theater, electrified. Every one of us knew we had witnessed something special, something to brag about. It’s not every day Billy Corgan is in town.
As expected, M.I.A. delivered her baby just hours after her Grammy appearance. In a message on her Myspace blog, she said she got home from the Grammys ready to party, but instead went into labor at 2 a.m. What a buzz kill! She notes the baby is healthy, despite enduring some unhealthy-looking stage mannerisms on M.I.A.’s part the evening before.
Legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac will hit the road this spring for the first time since 2004. The band had considered bringing out Sheryl Crow to replace Christine McVie on the road, but (fortunately) the two sides mutually decided against it. With no new album on the horizon, the Fleetwood Mac: Unleashed tour will feature all the hits that made the band so popular in the late ’70s, including: “Dreams,” “Go Your Own Way” and “Don’t Stop.” The band’s most renowned album, Rumours, ranks among the best selling albums ever and is definitely a must-have album in any music guru’s catalog. The tour hits Arco Arena May 18.
According to a post by Trent Reznor on Nine Inch Nails‘ Web site, NIN will tour with the newly reunited Jane’s Addiction. Reznor recalls his band’s “biggest break” was when NIN supported Jane’s Addiction for a string of shows that became the ongoing festival known as Lollapalooza. He modestly acknowledges that, “These performances essentially created and defined the term ‘alternative’ rock in the U.S. “¦ [and] set the stage for Nirvana to shift to popular taste a few months later.” No dates have been announced yet, but expect them to be released in the near future.
After doing it all for the nookie, and then taking eight years off, Limp Bizkit has reunited with their original lineup and will tour and release a new album. Wes Borland decided to rejoin the very band he ripped years ago upon his departure. He also claimed as recently as February he had no plans to rejoin the band, even telling the Web site Mlive that when writing his own songs, “it all makes sense together, instead of random lyrics on top of music that sounds cool.” And in an ironic joint statement Feb. 12, Borland and Fred Durst said “We decided we were more disgusted and bored with the state of heavy popular music than we were with each other.” A world tour and new album is expected to be announced soon.
The wonderful Web site Pitchfork thankfully alerted me that today is NOT April 1; therefore, it’s likely this new super (for lack of a better word?) group that Billboard.com is telling us about could be real. Evidently, members of Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick, Hanson and Fountains of Wayne have joined to create a new group, Tinted Windows. The band will shock the world at Billboard’s SXSW showcase March 20 and will release their debut album April 21.
Rapper Nas is conjuring up a unique collaboration. According to Billboard, Nas has been secretly recording in Los Angeles with Bob Marley’s youngest son, Damian Marley. Damian is, of course, a well-accomplished reggae artist himself, collecting a Grammy in 2002 and two more in 2006. Nas’s manager told Billboard that the guys were heading to Miami to finish up the record. We can likely expect a spring release, followed by a summer tour to support the album.
