A shameful, not smashing end for the Pumpkins

Last night Tom and I went to see the Smashing Pumpkins play at the Wang Theater. Totally last minute, Tom picked up newly released seats five rows from the stage on Thursday afternoon. We're not huge Pumpkin fans and don't have a single one of their newer albums, but the tickets were so good, yet cheap that we couldn't pass them up (and given the choice between a family baby shower and the concert, the Pumpkins won hands-down -- sorry Wally!).

At first, we were REALLY impressed. Show started on time (never happens) and with no opening act (another thing you rarely see). They played for 2 1/2 hours straight -- again, impressive. Of the original band, only lead singer Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin remain. There's a girl playing bass who blew me away -- first of all, she's all of 5 feet, maybe 100 pounds soaking wet, and I swear the bass was bigger than she is! She was dressed up in an outfit that made me think of the Jetsons. But all joking aside, she rocked! There was another girl who played keyboard that within the first few minutes, Tom immediately commented "she's a babe." She totally looked like a 1920s pin-up girl, and I was immediately jealous -- not of her looks, but of her clear talent on the piano!

Billy Corgan is either completely out there or absolutely brilliant. We were so close we could see his fingers flying over his guitar, and he did a rendition of the national anthem that was completely Hendrix. But let me ask you: isn't he creepy? Does he look more like a Jack-O-Lantern or more like James Carville?










But I digress. At the end of the show, after a 15 minute jam session on some song, they walked off stage. No good bye, no nothing. The crowd was a little taken aback and confused, so there was what I like to call a "smattering of applause." After a few minutes, the house lights came on. Applause now turned to booing. Security is running around like crazy -- they don't know what's going on either. After about 15 minute of this nonsense, they come back on stage. First it's someone dressed up as Manny Ramirez poking fun at Red Sox fans. Then it's Billy Corgan berating the audience: "We're just back from Europe, and they have this thing over there that you may have heard of: cheering." WTF? He gives the crowd a hard time, then the band comes out and they do two lame numbers, once of which is "Everyone is Beautiful" on kazoos.

Now I've been to a lot of concerts, but never have I seen the band give the audience a total "F.U." What started out as a fantastic show ended on a completely sour note. Brilliant or not, Billy Corgan behaved like a spoiled brat. Read the review from the Boston Globe the following day and see if I'm totally off-base on my assessment.