Baby Pumpkin

October 5: Duke and I went to see the Smashing Pumpkins at the Wiltern in LA. We went to Koreatown to eat some dinner at Hodori – it was pretty subpar which was sad since we usually like it there, but whatever. We ventured over to the Wiltern which is really close to the restaurant, and stood in line for doors to open. There was some talk about Steve Jobs since we had heard he just passed away, which definitely put a damper on the evening…But, the concert was still spectacular! It was actually one of the best shows I’ve been to in a number of years. Sure, it’s still not the same as the “good ole days” but they played *a lot* of the older songs which made me really happy. I haven’t been a great fan per se, since I’ve been lacking in downloading all the free new songs off the site, and keeping up with all the latest and greatest, so I really just know the old stuff (when I was a crazy person back in the day…haha).

Anyhow, the Wiltern is a pretty intimate theatre so it turned out great that I actually went out of my way to try and get seats (and not get General Admission) b/c of my pregnancy. Our seats were pretty high up relative to the rest of the theatre, but we still had a great view and the sound was great. Duke tweeted at Billy Corgan before the show (who knows if he’d ever read it) that we were bringing our unborn baby to hear them live for the first time. Haha.

Here’s the setlist:

Quasar
Panopticon
Starla
Geek U.S.A.
Muzzle
Window Paine
Lightning Strikes
Soma
Siva
Oceania
Frail and Bedazzled
Silverfuck
Obscured
Suffer
Thru the Eyes of Ruby
Cherub Rock
Owata
My Love Is Winter
For Martha

Encore:

Pissant
Bullet With Butterfly Wings

I was actually shocked that so many Pisces Iscariot songs were played. I’ve heard a number of them played at various shows but never so many back to back in one night. It was a real treat. It felt like a show where Billy was playing what he actually felt like playing, and not bending to what “the generic crowd” would want with all radio hits. The setlist did give me hope that they’d play Mayonaise, but no such luck. Of course, tracks #7, 8, and 11 were played from Siamese Dream and I needed track #9! :P

Duke didn’t really realize that this was a great show since he didn’t recognize most of the songs (he only knew Cherub Rock and BWBW), but I think a lot of the crowd was like me…People who grew up with the band, and really appreciated all the older classics. There really weren’t a lot of young teens – most were like us, in their 30s or even older… I guess it’s a sign of our times. We’re getting old…