A while back I purchased tix to the Billy Corgan show last night at the 9:30. But then I discovered Chris was coming to visit this weekend and sold them off. A couple weeks ago Chris got a graduation present of 10 days in Germany, which cut down on his vacation time and he canceled his trip here. So I was free last night, thinking about going to the Old Dominion Beer Festival. Earlier in the week I had entered an email contest from On Tap for Billy Corgan tix, not really thinking too hard about it because I had done it for a number of other shows and hadn’t won. But low and behold, yesterday morning was an email saying I’d won a pair. Jill had to be at work at 7, so she was out, and we delayed the beer fest ’til Sunday.
I went out at lunch to buy the CD (I was planning to today anyway), tried Circuit City (it was supposedly cheaper there, but 80% of the time, even their employees can’t find the new releases of the week) and got it at Best Buy (and had a quick lunch at Wegmans). After work, Jill and I went to the new Safeway in Herndon, which took quite a while longer than expected, especially when checking out.
I couldn’t find anyone else interested in going, so I set out about 10:30. I had planned to leave at 10:15 when I had read that he was going on at 11:30, but then I learned he was going on at 11:15, and tried to leave earlier, but failed. I had thought ahead about parking and had purchased parking in the 9:30 secured lot. I got there at 11:15 and it was 11:20 by the time I got in the door – he’d already started.
He’d said earlier that he wasn’t going to play Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan songs on this tour, but he made a big announcement this week, so I had to wonder:
For a year now I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive The Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams. In this desire I feel I have come home again.
But in the end, he didn’t play any old songs of his, opting to play covers instead. The set was interesting, a wall of light-up bathroom tiles, and Billy, a keyboardist/computer tech, drummer (standing up) and a backing vocalist (picture). My problem (such as it is) with his new CD is it sounds like if he had started in 1982 – heavy synthesizer and all. The best ones are the ones similar to the Pumpkins.
He seemed to be having a good time. At one point, he said “This song is by a great man”. Someone yelled, “AC/DC!”, and Billy said, “You’ve been on the internet. They’ve invented this thing called the internet now. Tou’ve got AOL dial up, and your screen name is probably like, Gish607….. or Iha112”. After that, he played an Iggy Pop song. He saved AC/DC for the last song of the set, playing “It’s A Long Way To The Top” (the last song in “School Of Rock”). That was my favorite part of last night.
Got out of there at 12:45, home by 1:45, bed at 3. Slept in nicely today.