Friday Night - The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins went old school on us Friday night – a throwback to the grunge days of our teenage years (in the words of my husband). We didn’t quite know what to expect since Billy Corgan is the only ordinal member left in the band. But let’s face it; the lead singer is usually the most pivotal part of any band.

They played a good mix of new and old songs. In the middle of the set Billy decided to talk to the fans. When inducing the new members of the band he called himself Bogan Billy. Told us we should be thankful that he still gives a shit, and that he still writes really great songs. That’s right let us all hail Billy, the rock god! Apparently if you didn’t know it all ready, The Smashing Pumpkins is the greatest band in the world!

He tried to get the crowd riled up talking about rugby league. It was a bit lost us Melbournians; we follow a different sports religion, AFL football. Dating a girl from Australia (Jess from The Veronicas) doesn’t mean you know anything about our country. Billy announced that he was on drugs and having more fun than anyone else there tonight.

Highlights: the naked guy on sitting someone’s shoulders while Billy was trying singing “tonight” but kept laughing, they played my favourite song Zero, the gig went for more than two hours; we go great value for money, cold beer was very tasty.

Lowlights: they did not play disarm, they started to play the Led Zeppelin cover stair way to heaven, but didn’t complete it - it sounded so good I wanted to hear the rest of the song, too much guitar solo that people walkout of the concert before it finished.

We had the most annoying people around us ever. The guy in the blue shirt behind us was so drunk, my BBF Lee was worried he was going to vomit on me at some point during the night. He was singing along to the songs using the wrong words so loud we could hardly hear Billy at times. And I would like to take the time to thank him for continually kneeing me in the back; I wouldn’t have had the same night without it. And to the two guys with the big heads in front of us that talked all night. It would have been cheaper for you, since you weren’t listening to the music to have your conversation in a coffee shop! Where is Shona when you need her! She would have sorted them out for us.

You might think by reading this that I didn’t enjoy it. I did, it was a great night. And I love live music, and love Smashing Pumpkins! Billy was entertaining and the new member of The Smashing Pumpkins can play just as well as the ordinals. The thing is I saw Birds of Toyko two weeks ago and they were better!