This is why you should let me have a photo pass.
A few days ago my heart practically stopped when I noticed that The Viper Room had posted a Facebook update saying that The Smashing Pumpkins were going to be playing an intimate tour kickoff show. I literally sprinted from my living room to the computer in my bedroom (about a 10 foot dash) and jumped on Ticketweb to grab my tickets. All gone. No Smashing Pumpkins tickets for Jon. All those years of hardcore Smashing Pumpkins fanocity mean nothing. Oh well.
Wait, refresh.. refresh.. I GOT TICKETS!
I am currently a poor person. I just finished paying off my credit cards and yet another crazy tax debt. Billy Corgan has the last of my dollars. I am fine with that.
It’s Wednesday, show day. I put my head down and plow through my workday so I can Pumpkinize all night.
It’s Wednesday evening, the ladyfriend baked us potatoes and some Morningstar riblets. Good stuff. Time to head to The Viper Room. The west side does not want to let us go. We can’t move on Wilshire, we can’t move on Santa Monica. We will travel via Ohio. Ohio will take us where we need to go.
We’re early. I’m always too early for these things. Apparently 200 other people are also too early and standing in line all the way down Larrabee Street. Some of these people started standing in line at 10am. My line standing days are behind me. I’m going to The Rainbow to see if Lemmy is around. Lemmy isn’t there, but the bartender tells me that he’s always there so I should just keep trying. I asked if Lemmy is a good tipper and he said yes but he can’t really tell because everyone buys drinks for Lemmy. That’s a paragraph about Lemmy right there.
On to the show. We enter through the downstairs entrance and the ticket girl is already getting snarky with me. I feel at home. ”Well drinks are $5 in the basement so stock up down there before heading upstairs.” Got it. Done. Let’s do this. Drinks in hand. Let’s go upstairs.
The Viper Room is about three quarters full. My quickly-aging brain is psyched at the possibility of being able to watch one of my all time favorite bands without rubbing up against a drunk man. This will be great. Oh shit it’s packed. That took no time at all. Matt Sorum and Perry Farrell just kicked a Kurt Cobain lookalike out of one of the VIP booths. They are accompanied by young ladies, one of whom is Perry’s wife Etty. All the stories about the Sunset Strip are true. Mark Tulin is hanging out and nobody is bothering him. I won’t be the guy that bothers him. Billy Corgan, Nicole Fiorentino, Jeff Schroeder and Mike Byrne make their way through the crowd and get settled on stage. My ladyfriend touched Billy as he walked by and she seems pretty excited about it. That’s fine but let’s not make it a habit. Kerry Brown pulls up next to me and starts snapping photos.
The Smashing Pumpkins kick off with Astral Planes and the rock does not stop. It went something like this (the sound/video quality varies):
They played “Hummer.” That was mind-blowing. The last time I heard that song live I was on an Airforce base in Kingston Rhode Island for Lollapalooza 94. Sounded just as good.
At the end of the night Billy broke out the ukulele. Los Angeles people don’t emote much at shows but they do talk a Hell of a lot. Billy wants a little respect. You shoutoutlouders cost us two extra songs. The setlist showed that they were going to play “Freak” and close with “Today”.
via Ozphoria, click to visit
Like me, Billy “loves you guys” but he’s “too old for that shit.” Here’s that footage:
After the show we went back to The Rainbow, not to see Lemmy but to get some awesome late night pizza. The pizza at The Rainbow is really the best I’ve found in LA, and I’ve checked a LOT of places (on the west side anyway). The waitress is probably upset that we’re not ordering drinks. Just the pizza and some waters will be fine. Hey who’s that chomping on chicken wings in the booth across from us?
Ron Jeremy.
Fin.
on Jul 1st, 2010
[...] want to know what happened? Check out reviews at Spin.com, Stereogum, Spinner, ARTISTdirect & LA Snark. Make sure to see The Smashing Pumpkins headline this summer’s Sunset Strip Music Festival! [...]
on Jul 4th, 2010
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jon, AC Entertainment, You Post, Mochi Park, Yancey at Yancey G and others. Yancey at Yancey G said: Smashing Pumpkins at the Viper Room: This is why you should let me have a photo pass. A few days ago my heart prac… http://bit.ly/9HWde5 [...]