The Pumpkins were loud and beautiful

By Kevin Young

It took less than twelve hours for brief clips of the Smashing Pumpkins show at the Music Farm to show up on

the wacky wide web. While the shaky camera-phone footage of the band and Ronnie James Dio- inpsired devilhands

gave a decent taste of what occured,it couldn't capture the radness that was Saturday night's show.

As a former record store nerd who once blew tons of cash on any rare Pumpkins vinyl he could get his grubby paws on, I stood in line for tickets to reconnect with that bygone era.

Many memories were connected to the Pumpkins: they were my "gateway" band (the band that opened my ears to smaller, more obscure musicians, like Chicago's own Tim Rutili), the band that inspired me to create a shirt that meshed Prozac with Pepsi's "Choice Of The New Generation" ad campaign and ,most importantly, helped me meet girls. Years later, I still listen to Corgan's and Rutili's various musical output, my "Prozac/Pepsi" shirt found it's way

into Corgan's hands, and I'm still meeting girls. Being third in line, the two tickets were a lock. That is ,they were a lock until the sales clerk announced tickets were sold out. I knew I should've done the online thing.

Thankfully, kindness shone down in the form of a friend who took pity on my very pitiful situation. Two tickets, one for me and one for a friend who was more of a fan of psychedelic noise rock. You could even say he disliked Smashing Pumpkins.

The night of the show, we settled in for a few beers at a nearby dive bar. Before we knew it, it was time to visit the Farm.

Upon arrival, Kill Hanna was halfway through their set of power pop tunes. We would have been earlier but, you know, beers.

As they plowed through a set consisting of songs that spanned their seventeen year career, the audience was pretty receptive the band's hook-laden tracks.

After Kill Hanna left the stage, the hot,crowded club became even hotter and crowdier. Over the next twenty minutes, the crowd got excitable at the mere presence of a shiny dome peaking out from the green room. Before too long, bassist Nicole

Fiorentino, guitarist Jeff Schroeder and drummer Mike Byrne.walked onto the lights-heavy stage followed closely by the Pumpkin King himself, Billy Corgan.

The show started off with "Astral Planes" , one of the new songs from the band's unique mp3 release, "Teargarden by Kaleidyscope".

It was long before the band took the audience down memory lane with tracks like "Hummer", "Ava Adore" and "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"

As with most concerts, the crowd of mostly casual fans grew restless and chatty when the band played songs that most were unfamiliar with - namely tracks from "Teargarden" and the 2007 album "Zeitgeist".

It's unfortunate that most of the audience got yappy during these songs ; they missed out on some real gems. As the show went on, they revisited such hits as a subdued "Disarm" and the closer "Cherub Rock". Naturally, there was an encore. Unfortunately for the

casual fans, the band closed with the barn-burner "Gossamer". For the die-hard Pumpkinheads, the lengthy jam was a perfect showcase of Corgan's perfect noise and 20 year old Byrne's insane drumming. In a move that harkened to Pumpkins of the early 90's, Corgan set his noisy guitar down - letting the feedback scream as he walked offstage.

While some may have left disappointed,I know one friend who left with a reptile smile.

SETLIST

Astral Planes

Ava Adore

Hummer

As Rome Burns

A Song for a Son

Today

Bleeding The Orchid

Eye

Bullet With Butterfly Wings

United States

Disarm

Stand Inside Your Love

Tarantula

Perfect

Owata

Cherub Rock

ENCORE:

Freak

Gossamer