Beneath The Outer Shell

people like to read a lot in America. well, i bet people in other countries like to read more based on the ignorance i experience everyday here...but still, there is a select type of person who is ALWAYS reading something. i, unfortunately, am not one of these people...but i do like to read certain select authors and the occasional highly recommended stranger. so, for the people in the world who read ANYTHING at all, i have to hand it to you. i envy a part of you and i am sometimes intimidated by you because of the fact that you read more than i do, and in my mind there is a possibility you are simply smarter than i am. for that, i sincerely applaud you.

however, there is a certain type of reader i cannot stand...and, yes as a matter of fact, i do enjoy judging these and other people i don't understand. hey, judging people is human nature. if you try and tell me you don't EVER judge someone, you're lying. anytime you put a label on anyone OR anything, you are in essence...judging. trust me.

ok, i'm currently watching The Da Vinci Code on Starz On-Demand. believe it or not, i haven't seen it yet. i know i know, what's wrong with me...catch this...i also just recently watched Munich for the 1st time last night! and, don't laugh, i still haven't seen Schindler's List. however, watching Ron Howard's take on Dan Brown's semi-intriguing ridiculous fantasy..i started to remember a specific trait about certain people i DON'T like in this world.

did ya catch people reading The Da Vinci Code? well, did you catch people reading The Da Vinci Code AFTER the movie came out or while the hype about the movie was HUGE?

bingo. that's a characteristic of my anti-type of person.

for some reason, when i see someone reading a book along with the hype of the movie, such as The Da Vinci Code, Memoirs Of A Geisha, The Scarlet Letter, American Beauty, or "insert Hollywood Blockbuster based on a book here"...i seem to get a little more than irritated. in fact, i get down right angry at the type of person who jumps on the bandwagon with the rest of the sheep in America; and most of the time, this person seems to be proud of it. i mean, people like to carry their book around with them everywhere, as if it's a statement of who they are as a person...or as a symbol of how smart they wanna appear to be to everyone around them. people may not ever even read the damn book outside their own home, however they'll be damned if they leave the house without it.

i remember a co-worker once reading Memoirs Of A Geisha, AFTER the hype of that POS movie came out...and i remembered my ex-girlfriend reading...you got it, The Da Vinci Code when everyone was all up in arms about it. and what do ya know...both of these people pissed me off too. coincidence? i think not!

it's also the SAME type of person who buys albums popularized by MTV and radio, and STILL finds their favorite track to be THE one song that is played over and over again until your ears bleed for mercy. being a Smashing Pumpkins fan in 2007, i do my best not to cringe directly at these people. for example, at the last Pumpkins concert i went to in Atlanta, a girl and her boyfriend sitting next to me showed up about 30 minutes late. they watched the concert for about an hour from the 5th row in the pit at the Fox Theatre...then the girl nudges me and asks in an annoyingly high pitched voice, "did they play Today yet?" i couldn't believe my ears. for one, i can easily go my entire life without EVER hearing another Smashing Pumpkins song mutilated by constant airplay. i looked at her for en extended moment, bit my lip and said politely, "Yeah, it was the first song they played". the smile shining from the metal braces on her teeth turned to a frown of sheer disappointment instantaneously. her and her boyfriend, who got into a fight immediately after that, left about 10 minutes later. hell, i was STOKED the Pumpkins got rid of that song at the start of the show! it's not that i hate these songs, it's just that they've been driven into my head more times than my parents birthdays. the same can be said about any overplayed radio song. i was a DJ for a few years and good god almighty help me! seriously, songs like My Sharona, The YMCA, or any song known to man by Matchbox 20, or The Goo Goo Dolls makes me wanna get an early start planning my own personal suicide bomb attack against soon to be president-elect Hillary Clinton. GOD HELP ME NOW!

i'm not quite sure what's wrong with me on these issues i have with certain people, i think maybe it's their lack of originality, i'm not totally sure, but i sure can pinpoint these people from a mile away.

so if the book you're confidently holding as you walk down the street has a big label on the cover that reads, "Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture", or "Now A Major Motion Picture"...please...save yourself from watching a grown man cry, either hide the book, or turn around and walk the other way.


legal note: i'm joking about my assassinate Hillary Clinton statement. please, try and arrest me...my life is boring anyway

Today
Stand Inside Your Love
That's The Way (My Love Is)
Drown
Bring The Light
Tarantula
Starla
United States
33 (acoustic)
1979 (acoustic)
To Sheila
Cherub Rock
Ava Adore
Zero
Shame
Bullet w/ Butterfly Wings
Heavy Metal Machine
w/ Iron Man
w/ On The Road Again
w/ I Love Rock and Roll

encore:
Pomp and Circumstances
Rocket

encore:
Doomsday Clock
Lucky 13

encore:
With Every Light

Well, as you can see from the set list, the show was longer and clearly better. Last nights show was hard to beat..but, somehow, they did it!

I made some friends before the show. I was apparently famous last night for wearing the 666 shirt...a girl, who waited for her boyfriend to go away, chatted up a conversation with me about the shirt I wore last night. We talked like old Smashing Pumpkins friends. It was awesome...then her boyfriend, who's head was shaved bald just like Billy Corgan came back and she didn't talk as much...so I quickly began a conversation with both of them, trying to reassure her Mr. Clean boyfriend that I meant no harm. They were really good people...period. I really liked both of them. Funny though, they were in their early 20's...like 21 and 22. Funny because when asked WHEN I bought the shirt, I told them the truth, "about 14 years ago". Ummm, that puts them at the age of 7 or so when I bought it! They were from North Carolina, and they had gotten screwed when they drove down here for the initial concerts and found out, after the 6 hour drive, that the shows were going to be re-scheduled. Luckily they were able to come back for the new dates. I keep using pronouns to describe 'them' because I never got their names. I'll remember them next time though for sure.

As far as the show:

Literally, all of my favorites (well, my favorites they are playing on this tour) were there. Highlights for me were Stand Inside Your Love, Starla, 33, To Sheila, Ava Adore, Zero, Shame, Rocket, Doomsday Clock, and Lucky 13. HOLY CRAP! I couldn't have picked a better set list to follow up the remarkable show they put on last night.

Both Atlanta shows were a little over 2 1/2 hours, whereas the majority of the shows this tour (following the residency dates) were around the 2 hour mark. Hell, the Athens, GA show was barely 2 hours...and at the time, I thought THAT show was the shiznit!

Other great moments were after To Sheila and after Shame, where Billy added a LOT of extra guitar soloing. BADASS once again!

Funny moment: After the second song (Stand Inside Your Love), Billy says, "Atlanta? You have the WORST traffic!" Crowd goes wild in agreement. Corgan, "It's fucking terrible! I should write a song about that!...The Nightmare of Atlanta!" Crowd goes nuts. The traffic before the show was pretty freakin ridiculous. Made me wonder where Billy was and what he was doing as to get caught up in hating the traffic. I'm sure the traffic in Chicago isn't any better.

They haven't done 3 encores in a while, but they did here. These 2 shows in Atlanta were easily the best ones, as far as the set lists suggest, on the entire tour.

The Rose March (acoustic)
That's The Way (My Love Is) (acoustic)
Disarm (acoustic)
For God And Country (acoustic)
United States
Bullet w/ Butterfly
Drown
Bring The Light
Tonight Tonight
Tarantula
Glass And The Ghost Children
Hummer
Pomp and Circumstances
Set The Ray To Jerry
Today
Superchrist
Heavy Metal Machine
-w/ Iron Man
-w/ I Love Rock and Roll

encore:
1979 (acoustic)
Perfect (acoustic w/ Jimmy on Tambourine)

encore:
Cherub Rock

I have no idea where to start. This was one of the top 3 concerts of my life...This one goes down with David Gilmour at the Rosemont Theatre in Chicago back in 2006, and Radiohead at Stone Mountain Georgia back in 2000.

I had a 3rd row Pit seat for the show..How? I payed double the $102 face value of the ticket. Stupid? Some people would say yes, but others near me also payed a hefty penny. Obsessively Retarded? Absolutely!

They let me in with my camera, so I took pictures until my batteries ran out (figures). The one on this blog entry is one of the many that I took.

The first 3 songs were acoustic, but the played "That's The Way (My Love Is)" acoustically for the first time on the tour. I love being at a show with "first" times. The funny thing was, as soon as Billy came out with an acoustic guitar, I just kinda walked up to the 1st row and stood there, along with the drunk men who also thought the same thing. Except, the drunk guys were asked to go back to their seats...yet I was able to stay there for the entire show, even though the security guards who talked to me before the show watched me walk up there and told me I couldn't move up. It was as if I had my lucky shirt made me invisible to the security guards.

So, I'm 5 feet from Jeff Schroeder and 10 feet from Billy...only because the stage is so big. I had to turn my head to catch all of the action! For me, this was the BIGGEST deal EVER! It was fantastic! No moshing and no worries regarding feet, hands, or bodies flying down on top of me. I couldn't of dreamed of a more perfect situation. I was in Pumpkin heaven like I have never been before!

Starting the show with 4 acoustic songs was great, just like the Nashville show. Billy and company felt bad about having to reschedule the shows, so they are clearly making it up to us by playing a more unique set list (and definitely longer sets as well).

Billy was screwing around a LOT with added solos and psychedelic guitar crap...it was quite a treat once again. Hell, for the intro to Tonight Tonight, he had some crazy ass solo! Once again, Glass And The Ghost Children was the best song of the night. This was my 3rd concert of the tour for them, and the 3rd different version of this Pink Floyd sounding hardcore JAMMING! Corgan and Schroeder were going off, and at one point I didn' even care if they played Starla or not (like I had been hopping for) because their improve jamming and face ripping guitar shredding was the best I had ever heard from them. My mouth was on the floor for the majority of the show. There was even a kickass keyboard solo by Lisa during GATGC, who for the most part of the tour is rather unnoticeable.

A funny moment came after they played Set The Ray To Jerry. Billy says, "That was Set The Ray To Jerry, for all of you that know Pisces Iscariot."...without hesistation, I come back and scream, "It's not on Pisces Iscariot!", for which i get a rather quick and uncomfortable glare from Billy. But hell, the song is NOT on that album! I wasn't trying to be an ass, but hell, the way I saw it during that split second, if ya have a chance to correct your favorite musician and a known perfectionist...do it! I thought he was pissed at me! As it turned out, he clearly wasn't (read on). After that, Billy looked at me various times throughout the show and smiled. I was one of the people who knew all the words to all the songs, including the unreleased ones...and I was moving around a LOT(NOT quite dancing, but more like head slamming to the grooves to keep my face from melting off). Actually, I may have looked like I having a controlled seizure.

Billy was in a GREAT mood the entire show...the best mood I've ever seen him. (This was my 10th Smashing Pumpkins show ever btw). He and the band were all laughing and goofing around the entire time. Everybody on stage was having a blast.

Another funny moment came when they start the usual Joan Jett cover during Heavy Metal Machine, called "I Love Rock N Roll (Put another dime in the jukebox baby!)" He trys to get everybody in the theatre to sing, but no one really was singing and he got a little frustrated. He starts talking to the crowd in the balcony and asks them, "What's the problem? Are you guys drunk? Are you guys stoned? Are you guys on a little PCP? Ohh wait, this is Georgia...it's Mushrooms isn't it! You guys in Georgia like walk around in fields and dig around in cow shit! You're on Mushroom aren't ya?!" This was HILARIOUS!

Also, during Heavy Metal Machine, they pulled out Iron Man by Black Sabbath! This was fantastic! Sabbath has always been an influence, according to Corgan, so it was very fitting to hear them rip into it.

Then, Billy notices a little kid in the balcony...this kid was in the newspaper here because he had the coolest Billy Corgan outfit, and when asked what he wanted to be for Halloween...he replied, "Smashing Pumpkins". Billy calls for every kid to come down and get up on stage. Believe it or not, there were maybe 10 kids under the age of 11 there with their parents. It was shocking for me at first, but then I realized...I'm 30 and so are may of his other old time fans, so it makes sense that the fans from way back have kids now. So, There are like 10 kids on stage and a few under the age of 4, and Corgan even picks one up and hold it for a while. It was quite neat situation. I haven't seen anything like this before from them. Billy was holding a kid and looking around and saying, "what do ya think?" as if he was getting approval to have kids. Very interesting. Ohh, and the poor little kid in the cool Billy Corgan costume was SOOO shy he never even looked out of his dads chest! One day that kid will kick himself! After like 10 minutes of fun with kids, Corgan says, "Okay!, get off the stage!"

Anyway, they finish the Joan Jett cover after the Iron Man tease, and Corgan starts a little more banter and says, "Ya know, 99% of the bands out there today kiss you ass! They will do ANYTHING to please you! And in doing so, they kiss your fucking ass!...Well, this band right here (points to himself) this band will NEVER kiss your fucking ass!" Crowd goes wild.

The encore was another acoustic set with 1979 and Perfect, once again with Jimmy on the tambourine. This was when Jimmy nodded at me and pointed (referring to my 666 shirt) TWICE (AWESOME!). Billy once again said how sorry they were for having to reschedule the shows. They seemed sincere, but ya know, it was a serious health issue, so who knows if they actually needed to feel "bad" for rescheduling. I was stoked though! I just knew that if I wore my lucky 666 shirt to an SP concert up close they would get a kick out of it since Billy wore the same shirt on rotation back during the Siamese Dream tour in 1993.

They came out for one more encore and played Cherub Rock...once again, ripping my face CLEAN off!

After the show, Billy starts to toss out the guitar picks...and man, I grabbed one as if I was diving for my last meal! I have ALWAYS wanted one of their guitar picks...and now I got one! PLUS, I have always wanted to "touch" Billy Corgan...and he ended up touching a total of 5 people after the show...including me! We touched fists (he only shook hands of a few girls)! His hand was very very cold and very bony. I was in heaven though. I felt like I could die and be happy!

On the way out, I picked up a Smashing Pumpkins flag...it's the United States Smashing Pumpkins black and white flag. $30, but well worth it for the cool original idea.

Well, all things must come to an end, and I have one more Smashing Pumpkins show tonight...and I'm really hoping they will play Starla.

but ya know...at this point, it really doesn't even matter to me anymore :)

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.

Well, last night I arrived at the Classic Center in Athens at around 5:30pm. I was early to the Smashing Pumpkins concert and had an hour to kill. I parked my car on the top floor of the Classic Center parking deck. I had backed my car into a space so that I was facing west. I knew it was due west because the sun had just set. Now I saw something that turned out to be something that has me thinking one word: CONSPIRACY. When I got home, I had to write my story to the the media. There was a fire at a lumbar yard in Norcross, Georgia. My whole point here is, I believe I saw the cause of the fire. I mean, this fire in Norcross, was HUGE! On TV, it looked like the entire city of Norcross was in flames, and the fire burned throughout the entire night and burned the ENTIRE Lumber Yard down to the ground, starting a little after 6pm on 11/7/07. I wrote this story and sent it to Fox 5 News, 11 Alive News, and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution Newspaper. I wrote this because of what I read about the story. here is a version of the story. here is another version of the story. and yet, one more version detailing the aftermath.

here is what I wrote:

thought you may find this interesting, since the "cause of the fire" in Norcross is undetermined". i'm 30 years old, and i was sober when i saw this and i am sober writing this. i am not exaggerating any parts of this story at all.

I was in Athens for a concert at the Classic Center last night and as I was waiting in the parking lot, my car was facing the sunset. the sun had already gone down, but the sky still had the orange tint to it. i saw an odd-shaped object falling from the sky straight down
roughly 5 or 10 minutes before 6pm. it was falling VERY slowly, and at first i thought it was a comet. i tried to call my parents, but they weren't home, but i did leave a message about what i saw. i continued to watch this thing fall STRAIGHT down to the earth. i couldn't find anything about this on the radio, and if my phone wasn't a pay per minute phone, i would have called a LOT of people so they could go outside and see this happening.

it probably took maybe 10-15 minutes to fall out of my view, AND while it was falling there were about 5 or 6 different jets (i could see the chem trails) going back and forth perfectly horizontally, flying VERY close to this object that was falling. the jets were clearly flying back and forth around the falling object. one of these jets even came VERY close to the object and looked like it touched the top of the falling object. once again, it was falling very slowly, straight down and the jets were flying much faster than the speed of the object falling.

at around 7pm, i get a message from my dad telling me that there was a HUGE fire in Norcross, which would have been in the same exact location/direction i was looking at.

it was NOT a meteor, and i kept thinking it was either a missile or a satellite falling from space...but there were at least 5 or 6 jets that were flying very close to it, almost looking like they were trying to get a better look at it or possibly even intercept it somehow. i can guarantee you this falling object is what caused the fire. i have never seen anything like this before.

after the falling object was out of my sight, the jets and chem trails stopped...but a few minutes later a VERY small object with a tail that looked like a comet was moving diagonally towards the sky, from the lower left of my view to the upper right. it was not a plane for sure, as the diagonal angle was quite drastic. hell, i really thought it was a missile. this object continued up the sky and out of my viewpoint and into the darker portion of the sky.

ok, so that is my story. i decided to write it to the news organizations because the cause of the fire is "still under investigation" and has "yet to be determined". the news is speculating that a worker at the Lumber Yard that was totaled got "careless", whatever that means. the article states that the fire started on the roof of one of their buildings. NO SHIT! it started on the roof because that's where the damn thing landed!

the more i see that this story is being covered up or undisclosed, the more i believe that i saw an actual UFO...or at least a UFO that was crash landing. i still think that it was either a satellite OR a piece from the space station that got blown away.

but of course, i always have Radiohead's 'Subterranean Homesick Alien' to remind me i am not alone:

The breath of the morning
I keep forgetting
The smell of the warm summer air

I live in a town
Where you can't smell a thing
You watch your feet
For cracks in the pavement

Up above
Aliens hover
Making home movies
For the folks back home

Of all these weird creatures
Who lock up their spirits
Drill holes in themselves
And live for their secrets

They're all uptight
Uptight.. (x7)

I wish that they'd swoop down in a country lane
Late at night when I'm driving
Take me on board their beautiful ship
Show me the world as I'd love to see it

I'd tell all my friends
But they'd never believe
They'd think that I'd finally lost it completely

I'd show them the stars
And the meaning of life
They'd shut me away
But I'd be all right
All right..

I'm just uptight
Uptight.. (x7)

United States (w/ national anthem in middle, like Hendrix did)
Bullet Butterfly
Drown
Bring The Light
Tonight Tonight
Tarantula
Pomp and Circumstance
Glass and the Ghost Children (w/ some REALLY trippy psychedelic guitar solos by Corgan and Schroeder)
Superchrist
Doomsday Clock
1979 (solo acoustic)
Perfect (acoustic w/ Jimmy on tambourine)
Set The Ray To Jerry (f'n awesome!)
Today
Let Me Give The World To You (Machina 2 song...really a surprise)
Rock On ("hey kids rock and roll..rock on")
Heavy Metal Machine (w/ some GREAT solos by Corgan and Schroeder)
-a minute tease of REM's "The One I Love"
-back into Heavy Metal Machine
-back into Rock On

encore:
Hummer

Explosions In The Sky opened up and walked on stage at exactly 7pm. The venue had maybe 50 people in there at the time. The ticket said the show started at 7:30, so people were amazed that the opening band started so early. In fact, the main guy was talking to the crow without even using the microphone, and he wasn’t talking very loud either…yet I’m sure everyone heard him. The are from Austin. Explosions In The Sky sounded absolutely fantastic. They, apparently, are an instrumental band. They did not stop playing at all, and each “song” blended into the next one. They sounded a lot like one of my favorite bands, called National Skyline. As far as a more mainstream reference, it was like Radiohead‘s OK Computer, with more heavy guitar progression…and no vocals. I was quite impressed and I had chills many times from the swaying, psychedelic, progressive guitar sounds. There are 4 people in the band, and for most of the show, there were 3 people on guitar…no bass. One guy did play a bass for a little bit, but mostly it was 3 guitars playing different melodies. The lights were also amazing, which was a surprise since most unheard of opening bands don’t have a light show. Explosions In The Sky was easily one of the best Smashing Pumpkins opening bands I’ve heard. They stopped playing at 7:40pm

The lights went out at 8:13pm and there was music playing from a band called “The Goblins”, known for their soundtracks to obscure horror films. The song that started playing was from one of my favorite horror films, called Suspiria, directed by Dario Argento. After a minute of this creepy sounding music, the Pumpkins walk out on stage. Dressed in their usual attire, Billy had his blue and black striped socks and a long sleeved blue and black striped shirt underneath his all white jumpsuit. Ginger was a lot smaller than I imagined, and much more cute than her pictures. Lisa didn’t come out for a few songs. Jeff and Jimmy looked normal. Jimmy looked happy and healthy.

They kicked it off with United States, as they have many times so far this tour. The speed was at usual Pumpkins live speed…maybe a full step or two faster than the album…this made the drumming even more phenomenal sounding! Jimmy was a blur behind the drum set as he played “the shuffle” perfectly. The sound quality was amongst the best I’ve ever heard from them. Perfectly mixed, with the vocals being the last thing you hear. This was my 8th Pumpkins show, and I had a 2nd row seat. The lights were more than fantastic. The series of triangular shaped spaceship looking light fixtures went off and nearly blinded me. It was the best light set up I’ve ever seen from the Pumpkins…easily.

In the middle of United States, Corgan went off on the guitar psychedelics…and he went into the National Anthem, just like Hendrix did back at Woodstock (and Corgan also did this at the Live 8 Concert this year). It was awesome!

United States ended and next was Bullet w/ Butterfly Wings. There was very little banter from Corgan throughout the show…and no one else said anything at all. No biggie. Bullet sounded normal, loud, good, fast, and like the live versions we have heard of this one before.

3rd was Drown. I was stoked to hear it, even though I was kinda expecting it in a way…according to the set lists. Drown was just like they played it back during the Siamese Dream tour. It wasn’t sloppy, and was definitely a highlight of the show. Next was Bring The Light, followed by Tarantula, and Pomp and Circumstance. All sounded very good and Pomp and Circumstance was a lot better live than on the album. It’s not one of my favorites from Zeitgeist, but live…it’s a damn good song.

Glass & the Ghost Children was next and I was very happy to get this one too. They changed it up a LOT. I love it when they totally rework their songs…making them sound completely different and new. Think of GAGC, except with a lot more focus on the Pink Floyd sounding guitar parts. Both Corgan and Schroeder kicked ass on this one, which was another highlight of the show for me. Right after that, was another underground favorite…Superchrist. I could tell a lot of the people around me hadn’t heard this song before, but me being a BIG fan, I had heard it many times and love it. It was a hard jamming, riff, masterpiece. The only problem? It was too short! Doomsday Clock followed Superchrist, and I got to tell ya…those songs back to back is a perfect combo. Holy crap! Doomsday Clock, if you can believe it, was MUCH better live. They tore it to shreds…once again, NOT making it sloppy.

Corgan pulls out his acoustic guitar for the next two songs, 1979 and Perfect, while the other members disappear back stage. During Perfect, Jimmy came out and hit the tambourine around. He looked a little under worked with such a small instrument in his hands, but he pulled it off well. 1979 acoustic was sung very nice and played very fast. It was surprisingly one of my favorites of the show.

I got one from my wish list with Set The Ray To Jerry, which was next. It was electric, and Corgan had a guitar around his neck, but he never played it. He let Jeff play it and Billy just kinda waved his hands around with the words at the crowd. This song was SO good sounding. Ahhh. I’m glad they are playing this song on this tour. Today was next, and it was nothing new…but it was a hard version, and sounded very impressive for such an old worn out song.

I was VERY stoked when they started Let Me Give The World To You. One of the highlights…easily. They didn’t play this one as fast as the other songs. It was played like it is on Machina II and it was a big treat. Quite possibly the best song of the night, but who’s to say?

The show ended with a very cool, hard, and impressive mixture of the newly mastered Heavy Metal Machine, Rock On, and a minute tease of REM’s The One I Love (as we know REM is from Athens, GA…which is why this was a cool insert). After some very long guitar solos from Corgan and Schroeder, they go back into Heavy Metal Machine and Rock On.

The encore, which was only one song…was Hummer. Since it was Hummer, that made up for the lack of extra encores. Hummer was so darn good, perfect, and non-sloppy. The crowd really liked it, and so did I. The lights went back on at 10:10. They only played for roughly 2 hours, but i was happy. It was impossible to walk out of there without a huge grin on my face. Of course, I am seeing them 3 more times within the next week :p

a funny thing happened the other day in the while i was driving to see "Sunshine" for the third time...yeah third!

i gave the other songs on the latest Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist a good working through in my ears and directly my mind. something actually clicked and i have a new feeling towards the bitter review i gave to half the album the day it was released...a month ago today.

the other songs i didn't like stood out and blew me away, after i let go some initial negative feelings and reactions. this happens all the time...just ask my friends. the songs in question...as sadly as that is now, are as follows:

That's The Way (My Love Is)
Starz
Neverlost
Come On Let's Go
For God And Country
Pomp And Circumstances

that's half the album. and i loved to skip those songs since day 2. i would occasionally force myself to listen to them, but it just never worked. i hated them and thought that they ruined the, otherwise fantastic, album.

the album is so different than anything they have done before. they reinvented their sound a bit...bare with me...just try and think back when YOU first heard that distortion used in Chreub Rock when Kennedy debuted the music video on MTV back in...(before the internet was really useful) 1993.

well, that sound is far gone and the good thing i've realized is that Billy Corgan loves to NOT sound like Smashing Pumpkins. if they wanted, they could have released many Siamese Dream's. Corgan did write 40 songs for the "Siamese Dream" recording session, which is just a 13 song album. that's a lot of songs for an album session if ya ask me. so my point is that ya gotta get used to the newly reformed sound of the Pumpkins with every album. it's not always easy for me. case in point.

here are some of the lyrics from the other side of "Zeitgeist":

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!

today, i woke up early. i have been anticipating this day for quite a while...for over seven years actually.

today, Zeitgeist, the 7th Smashing Pumpkins album hit the shelves.

now i have had my issues with this release since i found out there were numerous different versions of the album to come out...one version for Target, one for Best Buy, one for iTunes, and countless others on Amazon. genius marketing one may think? a blindly direct rip-off of devoted fans if ya ask me. i have been reading blog entries and online boards for weeks now from hardcore Pumpkin freaks who plan on buying the album two or three times...JUST so they can get a few extra tracks.

the funny thing is, i use to be that kid. back in high school and throughout college, i was notorious for dressing like lead singer Billy Corgan and owning ANYTHING and EVERYTHING Smashing Pumpkins related. hell, i even made my own long sleeved "Zero" shirt, popular during the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness era. if you saw me in my little 1980's Red Toyota Celica zooming around my college town of Carrollton, Georgia...you more than likely heard the LOUD drum and bass thumping and screechy voice of Billy Corgan (and sometimes mine) blaring through the rusted metal. if you knew me back in the day, and you heard the words Smashing Pumpkins..you thought of me.

and then, fortunately, i grew up and expanded my taste in music to include favorites other than "that really cool b-side on that one extremely rare colored vinyl". damn...it was like Dorothy opening the door from black and white into full color reality.

today, i only bought ONE version...and that's all i intend on buying. in today's world of FREE crap you can find on the internet, i think their lucky enough i spent the $15 at Target.

so yeah, the Target version has the title track included, 'Zeitgeist'...it's one of the best songs on the album, and sounds like old school Smashing Pumpkins. it's Billy Corgan and an acoustic guitar. one of my favorite combinations.

Zeitgeist, as defined in Wikipedia:

Zeitgeist is originally a German expression that means "the spirit of the age", literally translated as "time (Zeit) spirit (Geist)". It describes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era. The German pronunciation of the word is [ˈtsa͡ɪtga͡ɪst].

and that's precisely what the album is about. it's not a concept album, (which i wish they REALLY would do one day) but it's a statement of today's loud culture and the media-influenced mis-directed concerns of American citizens. it's anti war, anti Bush, earth loving, and overall, life fearing...basically it represents many things i do not subscribe to, BUT it's a pretty damn good Smashing Pumpkins album. am i still a blindly biased Smashing Pumpkins fan? well, i use to tell people that if Billy Corgan released a CD of him snoring the night away...i would buy it, love it, and defend it to the grave. and funny enough...i haven't changed THAT much actually.

i was wondering if i should include some of the lyrics and clear interpretations here, but i have already discussed the theme of the album. plus, for me, the lyrics haven't been the most important aspect of this newly reunited Chicago-based band, which (thank god) still has the original drummer Jimmy Chamberlain.

Chamberlain and Corgan actually did most of the production together, which is a change from previous albums where Corgan would strictly work with producers like Butch Vig (Nirvana, Garbage), or Mike Ellis (a.k.a Flood, who worked with The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, and U2 to name a few). this go around, Corgan and Chamberlain either worked alone or with help from producer Terry Date (Deftones), and Thomas Baker (Queen, Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Cars, Cheap Trick, etc).

if you think of the overall sound of...lets say The Deftones and The Rolling Stones, mixed in with classic Smashing Pumpkins...you'll have the feel of the new Smashing Pumpkins album. it's a pretty cool combination and the album kicks ass...for the most part.

the first 3 songs flow together perfectly...in my opinion, Corgan has mastered the art of "album flow". however, like other albums, AFTER the FLAWLESS Gish and Siamese Dream, the flow kind of gets rattled by the 6th or 7th song. i yawned once during the 4th song, 'That's The Way', and another during the 6th song, 'Starz'...both of which i think are fillers.

the big surprise and best overall track for me was the 7th song, called, 'United States'. it's a hardcore, hard rockin', psychedelic trip...clearly a 'thank you' to guitar fans like me who have complained that the original guitar driven Pumpkins have sold out. 'United States' is JUST under 10 minutes long, and is filled with ever-changing, catchy guitar rhythms and LOUD mind bending (yet soothing) classic Corgan induced Fender Stratocaster feedback...the song was worth the $15 for me...easily. damn...the song is BAD ASS!

unfortunately, four of the last six songs are somewhat forgettable...not to say that they are BAD songs, but once again, i have to use the word "filler".

Basically, Zeitgeist is a PERFECT half-album. and in today's world of music and lackluster contributions from talented musicians...i'll take a perfect half-album from the Pumpkins any day.