I went to a Smashing Pumpkins concert last night. Or, rather, I should say that I went to see one of the original Smashing Pumpkins with a bunch of studio musicians surrounding him. It felt a bit like going to see Roger Waters play Pink Floyd songs – yeah, it’s the right guy singing (most of the time), but it’s not Pink Floyd.
Billy Corgan’s always been a bit of an enigma to me. On the one hand, he’s a great songwriter. On the other, he’s a mediocre technical musician. He can’t sing, but his voice sounds good. He’s clashed with record labels , but he’s a complete sell-out to the point of writing songs for Hole. He’s engaging towards the crowd and everyone likes to work with him (apparently), but he’s also an egomaniac with a God complex.
The guy is like a mad scientist’s combination of Kurt Cobain, Freddie Mercury and Elton John, with Lex Luthor’s ego and dome.
Not that Corgan can’t pull it off, but you have to be full of yourself to be able to say, “The people of Kansas City only get to hear half of the music we want to play tonight. If they want the rest, they can come back tomorrow.” They then proceeded to play without an opening act – I’m sure local bands starving for exposure love that. Just strange. The strangest show I’ve ever been to. And if I had tickets I’d go back tonight.
Something about musicians is that they can’t walk away, even when they think they can. Corgan disbanded the Pumpkins, then came back with a “new” band called Zwan that was just old Pumpkins playing new songs, then went on tour with his new Pumpkins. In twenty years, he’ll be reduced to this.
2 comments:
A couple thoughts pass through my head:
1) that Slate article is funnier than yours. Sorry.
2) Commercial would've been hotter with Jakob.
3) Who's that pale guy with dark hair singing like Billy Corgan?
Kidding on that last one.
@ Heather,
re: 1) You know, I don't have to fucking impress you
re: 2) Neither does Bob Dylan
re: 3) Gene Hackman in a bad wig
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