a million watts of sound can’t compare

Posted by Indacelio on Wednesday, 25 of July , 2007 at 6:30 am

As a long time fan of the Smashing Pumpkins, to say that I was excited to see them for part of their extended vacation at the Fillmore in San Francisco does not even do the slightest bit of justice to the statement. This was a band that I have drawn so much artistic and personal connection with that I cannot even begin to name everything I constantly associate with them; therefore, the opportunity to go to three — THREE — of the shows in their 11-gig stay was truly mindboggling. This essay will chronicle the first of the shows that I went to, as I fully believe that nothing will ever be like my first (finally!) Pumpkins show.

First of all, the extremely elaborate stage setup must be fully explained before the show can even begin to be described — I have never seen a Fillmore setup like this. Metal scaffolding and steel girders crafted a massive futuristic skeleton shell over the stage, covering so much of it that, when the lights were off, you truly felt like you were being taken to another world to watch the bands perform. Speaking of lights: those that adorned the structure — en masse, I might add — not only gave ample spotlight coverage for nearly all of the stage, but there was complex fluorescent tubing covering three long sections across the main metal backdrop. As we discovered when the Pumpkins took the stage, this wasn’t just a neon net of color; the lights actually acted as segments in a massive projector, very similar to the light-infested “metal curtain” that Nine Inch Nails used at the end of their last tour.

The opening band, Bellingham, Washington’s own Idiot Pilot, crept onto the stage at about 9pm, looking like a crew of indie kids that were slightly confused about opening for one of the biggest rock behemoths of the last decade. Appearances, of course, are extremely deceiving; this was no exception, as within seconds of the first drum kick, the two guitarists suddenly blasted across both ends of the stage like a pair of violently-repellent magnets, axes being flung around wildly as the drummer exploded into a furiously loud burst of sound. The song continued to find both guitarists (the bass is handled on a small iMac that sat plugged into a Moog synthesizer, as is a full backtrack and sample set for each song) artfully flailing around the stage, never missing a note in their chaotic routine. Idiot Pilot seemed to sit in my mind as Radiohead in their early days, with some extreme leanings to the non-sucking screamo scene — the two guitarists traded vocal duties between a morose crooner and an acid-tongued shrieker as they ripped through their short set, never falling in their energy by a single ounce.

As was proved soon after, however, sometimes spastic hardcore rocking-out will still never replace a band with an already-established onstage austerity, in terms of the crowd’s reaction. The Pumpkins’ entrance was borderline epic with the thunderous crescendo of a menacing atmospheric introduction, and within seconds of assuming control of the stage, guitarist Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain hit home with a sonic boom of guitar/bass drum double whammy — the force and volume of the first notes actually pushed a few folks in the audience back.

As if full of insects struggling to escape their fluorescent bonds, the entire stage came to life in an ocean of seizure-inducing strobes, cascades of colorful spotlights, and the massive tube-light ceiling waking up for the first time. Within seconds, the stage was covered with positively thousands of movements per second, the air above the crowd brought to life by color and shadow. Yet for all the visual calamity that had overrun their stage, the Pumpkins remained remarkably calm, and after a thunderous introduction, they immediately tore into “Doomsday Clock”, one of the first cuts off of their new release, Zeitgeist, that they would play over the course of their three-hour-long set.

As they have been following so far, the Pumpkins’ set had four main elements — albeit spread out in a beautiful mishmash through the set — in terms of the song catalog. These are mostly comprised of old-time favorites (“Tonight, Tonight”, “To Sheila”, and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”, to name a few), new Zeitgeist cuts (including an epic, 20-minute performance of “United States” that included Billy’s freshly-trademarked whales-on-acid guitar solo); rare treats for hardcore fans (especially the solo acoustic performance of “Daydream” from their first album, Gish, which had originally been recorded with former bassist D’arcy Wretsky on vocals); and brand new pieces, just created during the tour (tonight, it was a solo piece for acoustic guitar and harmonica, which Billy obnoxiously referred to as “Peace and love and all that other shit”). The songs came somewhat in blocks, but spread out, so that no one got disinterested in what surprises were still to come.

Closing the set was the massive Pumpkins epic, “Gossamer”, another recently-written piece that didn’t make it onto Zeitgeist. After experiencing this, I can definitely pick out both of the reasons that it wasn’t put on: it’s too long (this particular performance clocked in at 25 minutes) and it is simply too stunning to see live; a studio cut would never do it justice. Marked by dense guitar passages, plus two fantastic solos from drummer Jimmy and new keyboardist Lisa Harriton (for this song, it was an organ instead of a keyboard), the song simply overpowered the entire show in its ferocity and epic nature. A short encore followed, the band returning to the stage to play one final fan favorite - “Today”.

So despite the band not being truly comprised of the original Pumpkins anymore, did that affect the way I received the show? Not in the slightest bit. This show was borderline synesthesia, with the intensity of the light show and the solid, rampaging solos of the band. Billy took a few moments out to talk to the fine folks of San Francisco and offer out his love to the city, even if it hadn’t been too nice to him; I even met him after the show and was pleased to learn more about the music video for their latest single, “Tarantula”, in the subsequent conversation. This was the first show to finally connect me to the band that had been such an extreme passion of mine in my college years; I can only imagine what the other two will be like.

Category: Concert Reviews

• Add this post to
• Del.icio.us -
• Meneame -
• Digg