Beneath The Outer Shell

I Don’t Mind (solo acoustic)
The Leaving Lament (solo acoustic)
The Rose March (solo acoustic)
United States
Bullet w/ Butterfly
Drown
Bring The Light
Tonight Tonight
Tarantula
Thant’s The Way (My Love Is)
Lucky 13
Hummer
Glass and the Ghost Children
1979 (solo acoustic)
Perfect (acoustic w/ Jimmy on Tambourine)
To Sheila (began acoustic and turned electric)
Today
SuperChrist
Heavy Metal Machine
I Love Rock And Roll -tease

Encore:
Pomp And Circumstances
Cherub Rock

Nashville...the city of Rock N Roll! or at least in my latest experience, the city of Country Twang at every bar. I got to the Pumpkins concert about an hour early so I had time to look around Nashville for a while. I actually went bar hopping, by myself. Near the Ryman Auditorium, there are numerous bars, a few restaurants, more bars, and even more bars. I'm tellin ya, the city was happening on a Sunday night! The funny thing is that I went to 3 places to have some drinks, and no one knew the Smashing Pumpkins were in town playing down the street. There was a band playing at every single bar in the area. Some were packed more than others with beer guzzling loud country twang fans. It was quite amazing actually! The people were more than nice however, and the country twang was...well...it was quite twangy. I almost got excited at one of the bars when a guy from the crowd screams, "Pink Floyd!" Hell, it seemed reasonable since the guitar player had a Dark Side oF The Moon shirt on...the singer responds with, "Pink Floyd! HAHAHA!!!" and...well, that was the end of that dream. Onward with more twang please!

Anyway, I had a good time informing the city of Nashville that the Smashing Pumpkins were in town.

As far as the REAL concert:

First off the opening band was ‘What Made Milwaukee Famous’, and NOT ‘Explosions in the Sky’ as otherwise noted. They were an average tight-sounding band from Austin, Texas. I didn’t find them anywhere near as talented or as interesting as ‘Explosions In The Sky’, who are also from Austin, and I saw open for the Pumpkins at the Athens show. ‘What Made Milwaukee Famous’ didn’t really remind me of anything and they seemed to have played forever. I guess you could call them an alternative, emo, fraternity band. There were 2 cool parts to their set, 1) when they teased Cherub Rock, and 2) when they left the stage.

Billy came on stage at roughly 9:15, and he looked the same BUT his outfit was a surgeon coat colored blue rather than all white. It was awesome because he was holding an acoustic guitar. They haven’t opened with an acoustic set in a while, I think since the residency dates. He played 3 songs I had only heard on Youtube. I Don’t Mind, The Leaving Lament, and The Rose March were 3 great songs. Billy was reading the lyrics (or sheet music) off a stand propped in front of him as he was sitting down on a barstool. The songs sounded great, and reminded me of classic Smashing Pumpkins acoustic music. Quite a treat to get a different beginning of a concert.

After the initial 3 songs by Billy, the rest of the band came out and they too were NOT wearing their usual outfits. Same colored outfit went for Ginger like Billy, a surgeon coat colored blue short dress. Jeff had an untucked white buttoned up shirt and jeans on, and Jimmy had his normal sleeveless button up shirt, kinda reminding me of someone from The Village People, but hey…it’s Jimmy, so he can get away with it.

The 4th song, and the first electric one was United States. The show seemed to be a lot like the Athens show I went to, except for a few changes in the set list (aside from the acoustic start). This show was a LOT better than the Athens show. United States was REALLY psychedelic at the mid point and very reminiscent of Pink Floyd…this is always the case, but it seemed like the distortion, feedback, and loud screeching of Billy’s guitar was a lot more powerful and present.

I got to hear Lucky 13, as I was hoping. Live, this song is awesome, PLUS they extended it to make it longer and even more ‘in your face’ badass. This song kicks ass anyway, but live…OMG!

Hummer was great as usual, and Glass and the Ghost Children was much better at this show too. Corgan and Schroeder were exchanging times for improve psychedelic soloing. They have changed this song up so much, it’s completely different from the album…and it takes a second or 2 to figure out what it is because it’s so different. This version is BETTER than the one on Machina.

The middle acoustic set was great too. Once again, it was 1979, and Perfect, but then they added another one I was hoping for: To Sheila. To Sheila was kinda acoustic turned electric, as Billy started onstage by himself, but then the band comes out and waits for their cue to blast back into the song. To Sheila was done perfectly and amazingly.

Superchrist and Heavy Metal Machine were great as usual, and the encore with Pomp and Circumstances and Cherub Rock was nice.