Smashing Pumpkins, 9:30 Club, Oct 17, 2011

Trish was at this concert too, and I bet her review will be entirely opposite.

I paid $65 (face value+service charges) for this ticket, which is a lot less than most people in the audience who had to buy this high-demand ticket from scalpers. I got about $5 worth of enjoyment out of it, and that was entirely about seeing my husband so extremely happy to be reliving his youth watching his favorite band. I did not like anything about the concert itself.

Last FM was forgettable 90s pop, and the backup vocalist sang flat.

Fancy Space People were simply horrible. They had a gimic of dressing up in silver skin-tight 1970's-inspired outfits and pretending to be aliens. It looked like a spoof, but they never stopped with the silly songs to get to real music. Shocking that they can support 7 band members with something so incredibly bad. They did have a cute Tshirt for sale, though.

I stayed for the first 25 minutes of the Smashing Pumpkins concert. It was loud, even with the earplugs. They blinded the crowd with strobe lights the entire time. They did not interact with the crowd in any way. They just stood on stage in place, swaying a bit, playing instruments. They played mostly new stuff, which is hard and fast and incomprehensible. They crowd was mostly muscle-men;
the average size of the attendee had to be twice the size of an average indie concert goer. I think that's why the space looked like it was over capacity. It was hot and everyone was pressed tightly together. A lady next to us puked. Some random dude wouldn't stop talking to Eric about his job and near-foreclosure on his house. The guy behind me was drunkenly chatting up an Italian couple by telling them every stereotype he could think of for Italy and America. After I left, Eric said that the staff had to break up 2 mosh pits. The Smashing Pumpkins set was 2+ hours long. I am SO glad I bailed. I love my husband, but never again.

My husband belongs to the Smashing Pumpkins fan club, and he got a Facebook invite from the band to go to a meet and greet before the show. He and Trish went. He said it was a wonderful experience. Only about 20 people, and they all got to ask questions.