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June 22, 2005
Billy Corgan
On Friday evening, I went to see Billy Corgan, of Smashing pumpkins fame, play in the Ambassador. It was a superb gig. It started with a pretty decent support band called Gliss. This young, three member band opened the concert with some energetic rock and had an amusing habit of swapping instruments. Though all played well, Victoria, their redheaded bass player, was much better than the two guys. Amusingly so, in fact.
Gliss had a decent light show. It looked, to me, like they were using Billy Corgan's setup, with atmospheric lighting through a lightweight backing curtain. I was wrong. Before Mr. Corgan came on, the entire stage was cleared. The backing curtain was removed to reveal a wall of reflective white tiles. The carpet where Gliss's drum kit had been was lifted to reveal a reflective white floor. Two keyboards, decorated to look like silver hand basins, were placed on the stage. Some microphones, an iMac and an electric drum kit completed the furnishings. The stage looked vaguely like a stylish bathroom. As the band came on stage moving lights at the front silhouetted them against the tiles, which reflected the colour of the lights. That was impressive. Then one of the tiles lit up bright green. As the band played, more tiles lit up as bright green pixels. Then the pixels started to move. It turned out that the tiles were pixels in a video screen and we were treated to animations on that screen for the rest of the concert. That was very impressive.
The music itself was very good. All the songs had a freshness while at the same time feeling familiar. They are like classics sprung fully formed from Billy's brow. The tempo varied from the fast paced Mina Loy, A100 and Walking Shade to the slower Now (And Then) and the wonderful cover of To Love Somebody. There were no Smashing Pumpkins songs, at least no whole ones. The first nine notes of Today were slipped into the middle of one song, which earned a roar from the crowd. However, the classic Pumpkins tunes were not missed. The new songs really were that good. In fact, I was impressed enough to buy the album, The Future Embrace, the next morning.
Posted by JohnC at June 22, 2005 12:33 AM