Beneath The Outer Shell

go ahead and laugh...i know you want to. i do at least. i've bitched quite a lot about my so-called favorite band...a Chicago based group quarrelled by troubles since the beginning. some call them The Smashing Pumpkins...others choose the original name, Smashing Pumpkins...and still other hard core freakazoids like to stick with the shortened: The Pumpkins.

so yeah, they sold out a long time ago. the band that is. it's hard to find a kickass band that never did sell out OR never will sell out. maybe Sunny Day Real Estate, but they are long gone. damn.

Corgan and company will be playing 2 shows in the ATL...one on October 30th, and the next on the following night...October 31st, 2007...also known as Halloween.

seeing the Smashing Pumpkins on Halloween night has been a bit of an out-of-reach fantasy of mine for a while. now, they are gonna play at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Halloween night, and i'll be damned if i'm gonna miss it.

so, did ya know there are MANY MANY websites (like over 10 at the least) that offer a marketplace for people who like to buy tickets for popular concerts and then sell them at a much higher price for an inflated greedy profit to over-obsessed fans like myself? if ya thought ebay was it, you're dead wrong...and you're paying too much.

the last time i spent this much for a concert ticket was when i saw David Gilmour play at the Rosemont Theatre in Chicago last March..it was awesome...i had a front row ticket...VERY front row for the anticipated second half Pink Floyd setlist. i saw David Gilmour and Richard Wright play "Echoes" prefectly and other top notch badass Floyd songs, and they were maybe 20 feet away from me as i was able to prop up my arms on the stage itself and stare off into an oblivion at the laser lights. it was worth the BIG price tag. i still get chills when i think back at those 2 David Gilmour shows i attended.

so, the Smashing Pumpkins ticket i was able to find is in the Fox Theatre's, "Pit" section...the impossible-to-get-a-ticket-to area people always dream about when they visit the Fox. if you have a ticket that says row A...it means you have a front row seat BEHIND the pit section. the "Pit" is literally just a handful of folded chairs clumped together directly in front of the stage.

the face value of my Fox Theatre "Pit" section ticket is $102. PLUS the service charges. yep...once again, that was FACE value (thanks again Corgan!). well, the fact is that the concerts did sell out in a few minutes, and i bought my ticket just the other day. funny, i bought my ticket from a guy in Detroit.

so, lets just say i payed MORE than the $102 cover price...double to be precise, BUT the catch is that i will be literally only a few feet from the stage, VERY close to the new HOT bass player (Ginger Reyes...see picture above), and definitely close enough to spit on Billy Corgan :)

side note: i realized years ago that it's MUCH easier to buy tickets to a concert if you are located in any state OTHER than where the actual concert will be held. i lived in Alabama one time (don't hold it against me) and was easily able to buy tickets to a Radiohead show in Atlanta, whereas all my friends in Georgia couldn't get through. i banked BIG time and sold one of my tickets for triple what i payed for it. hmmmm...karma sure is a bitch!