Smashing Pumpkins: Fresh Fruit or Rotten Veg?

that deserves a pulitzer prize

tempted to buy a ticket tbh

luckily they're playing in town so i have one. dont know where. but im not stoked, which sucks. felt really good in late 2017, the solo album was great, the solo show i saw was great, all the press & intimations about a reunion & an emphasis on reestablishing relationships with all members. i remember thinking at the time enjoy this while it lasts

tempted to buy a ticket tbh

if ticket prices get slashed AND I hear glowing reports of early shows, maaaaaybe. but only then.

I still have vague memories of them sounding like shit on the Machina tour when I was 14.

fully expecting Billy to turn Love Will Tear Us Apart into an unrecognisable 20 minute metal jam every night

no he learned his lesson with Set the Controls in 2008. every cover he’s done since then has been faithful & imo mostly good, especially Fame. Kinda sick of Space Oddity he’s been doing that for 6 years now.

BUT we all know the incredible 20+ min covers of Transmission on the Adore tour. So, who knows.

BUT we all know the incredible 20+ min covers of Transmission on the Adore tour

oh, of course we do

I still have vague memories of them sounding like shit on the Machina tour when I was 14.

― Simon H., Tuesday, February 27, 2018 3:10 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That was the last time I saw them. They were, indeed, shit.

I only saw them once, at Reading '95. I think they were pretty good, although I can't remember a whole lot of it. They'd just followed Green Day and a pretty awful Hole performance so that probably helped.

I saw them in Brixton on the Siamese Dream tour, the show where Billy dressed as a clown, and they were very bad, and I was broken-hearted as I wanted them to be great. Low-point - Billy teases opening notes of Drown, my favourite song, then doesn't play it because we "don't deserve it".

Then I saw them at the London show for the Machina tour, which was pretty good, though I don't remember much.

Then I saw a couple of shows at Metro in Chicago and a promo thing at the Natural History Museum for Zwan in 2003, which were excellent. That was a great band, if murderously unstable.

I only saw them once, at Reading '95. I think they were pretty good, although I can't remember a whole lot of it.

Wow, I bought a bootleg of that show in '96 for $25, a hefty sum for a 14-year-old. I still listen to it -- that version of "Mayonaise" is my all-time favorite.

I bought this bootleg of the '94 Astoria concert for probably the same amount. The dude in the record store got his special case w/ bootlegs out from underneath the counter. It felt so bad-ass.

I was not a bootleg buyer (mainly because I couldn't afford $25 CDs!) but I had a friend who was, and the record store we went to had a "secret back room"

I just looked up the setlist of the Reading '95 show and I do remember at the time thinking it was picking up a bit around Geek USA, probably because they'd played a few Mellon Collie songs before that and it hadn't come out yet, or I hadn't heard it yet anyway. Mayonaise is one my favourite SP songs so I wish I could say I remembered them playing it, but I don't unfortunately. It's probably on Youtube by now though.

xp Wasn't it a thrill?! 'My' guy actually got busted for selling bootleg cd's. It cost him dearly, and he was out of business a year later.

I saw them twice in 94 & they were bad both times, because Billy kept trying to play too fast and Jimmy would get lost a bit before catching up, and it was a mess. I would not go see them again (and have never been a fan as much as an interested observer)

I know I saw Zwan once, at the Aragon, and I seem to recall it was pretty okay.

I was reading the comments of that AV club twist the knife takedown, and somebody compared Melancholy to Frampton Comes Alive.

xxp Around '97 the thrill of buying bootlegs at my local shop (the Record Exchange in Lakewood, OH) dimmed with the advent of the internet, as I spent the next few years dealing and trading SP concert cassettes via some SP message board. But boy did I spend too much hard-earned cash on them.

Listessa was the first band mailing list I was on I think, and a spin-off from that, June. That's when the trading started indeed!

oh my God, second shows added in Chicago and Los Angeles!! Act fast!

Lol

the 1998 cover of Transmission:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDF08fr7Efo

And they said it couldn't be improved.

What a flatulent mess

great Pearl Jam soundcheck jam cover of "Transmission"

damn fools, fuck a $25 boot, you should have gotten into the CD-R trading scene!!!

except all the live boots i traded for were crap except for that pre-siamese dream tower records acoustic set

the last 5 tracks on this: https://www.discogs.com/Smashing-Pumpkins-A-La-Mode-Vol-2/release/8475182

11-27-93, i guess it was after SD was released

Save yourself $25 here's Mayonaise from Reading 1995:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCct55BFetE

I'd just turned 19, jesus christ.

When I saw the final show at Metro whenever that was they handed out CDs of their first show at Metro. Not sure I ever listened to it, though.

1,162 Pumpkins shows on archive.org for free: https://archive.org/details/SmashingPumpkins

a far cry from ye ancient unreliable Smashing Pumpkins Audio Archive FTP

If you email me negativly about this, expect to get a reply...a nasty one! I am not above flaming anyone that does not respect that hard work and hard currency I have sunk into maintaining the Archive over the past year and a half.

damn fools, fuck a $25 boot, you should have gotten into the CD-R trading scene!!!

― brimstead, Friday, March 2, 2018 5:54 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

CD-Rs were still not on the market at that time! I did some tape trading, but once stuff made its way to me, we're talking like 10th generation audience recordings recorded over my sister's copy of Grease.

heads up btw: POLLcelina of the Vast Oceans - ILM artist poll #87 - SMASHING PUMPKINS (voting open until 2 April 2018)

RS: You're a Smashing Pumpkins fan. Thoughts on the D'arcy-free reunion?

JARED LETO: I don't...I didn't even know there was a reunion. Sorry.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/f...ouring-w518756

I didn't know Thirty Seconds to Mars was still a going concern.

1991/08/17 - I-Beam - San Francisco, CA

Rocket
Tristessa
Window Paine
Iha: Bob English come on to the stage, Bob English.
Bury Me
Corgan: Danke
Iha: Mr. Bob English, we want you to report to the stage. Please we're begging you, Bob English, come to the stage, thank you. Thank you very much, it's very nice to be here. Toronto again!
Corgan: No way man, San Francisco kicks fucking ass.
Wretzky: He says that to all the girls.
Corgan: But you should hear what I tell the boys.
Iha: Mr. Bob English, get to the stage, get to the stage at any point in time.

"It used to be pleasurable to crank up Zeppelin or Nirvana to 12 in your car. Now everyone would complain – it's so piercing, so bright."

new single "Solara" is out there. officially released tomorrow I think.

BWBW/God drum beat, The Cars "Just What I Needed" guitar hook, vocals way too high, melody isn't bad, lyrics feel like Mellon Collie mad libs, forced moments of JC showoff, too long. Could've been worse, but not much...

You summed it up well there to me, sadly. An utterly underwhelming song.

Sounds like it was recorded on a phone, where is the ATTACK?

idk what i expected from a rubin-produced sp track but this checks out. v monuments-lite

lol this is almost identical to how i felt about “glow” when it came out

Really the song is not bad but the drumming is fucking hilarious

That's some alt-rock paint-by-numbers schlock if I've ever heard any. At this point I'd be shocked if the album has any decent moments let alone a good song.

This is a middling Zeitgeist track. I don't like it. But after a few listens I kinda dig the bridge ("Speculation" etc.).

And what's the deal -- this is going to be part of a tour EP, right? Not a full album?

"Drown" just came on after I played "Solara" on my playlist. God, BC really could conjure some magic in those days.

Overloud vocals and poorly mixed instrumentation. This is why Rick Rubin gets the big bucks.