Friday night the Smashing Pumpkins opened their tour with a great show at the Adler Theatre. They had been rehearsing for their tour at the Adler for much of the week, and several fans met or spotted various band members around town, including Billy Corgan. He was seen at the Woodfire Grill, Shogun, Greatest Grains, and some local antique stores.Like last year's Wilco concert, this is another "big deal" for the Adler and really the whole Quad Cities. People traveled from many states to see this concert, and I would say it all went off without a hitch. There was infinitely more security present than the Wilco concert, and the crowd seemed very well-behaved anyway. Here's a link to a thread on a Smashing Pumpkins forum talking about the show. Beware, as it has plenty of ads and swearing.
The concert was more targeted at serious fans of Smashing Pumpkins rather than the ones, like me, who only knew a few of their more popular songs. One part I really liked was Billy Corgan doing a bit of Jimi Hendrix and blaring out a feedback-filled rendition of the Star Spangled Banner during their song United States. It was also a heck of a loud concert.
Here's a video I took of one of their most popular songs, Bullet With Butterfly Wings.
In a surprise move, to me at least, the encore consisted of the Pumpkins' song "We Only Come Out at Night", with kazoo solos, followed by a cover of Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime," also with kazoo solos. They appeared to be having a good time, but the spontaneous messing-around feel of it was diminished by the fact that they did the same encore at Saturday night's show.The next show, by the way, cost nearly $100 compared to the Adler's $45-ish after fees. I also think its pretty interesting how the Adler can be beautiful to older generations who remember the art-deco heyday of big movie houses, and also loved by younger generations who dig the retro architecture.
5 comments:
It's great to see national acts in the Adler but hope that the sound levels don't weaken the 'retro' plaster on the ceilings. Most historic venues have rules about such things.
Apparently some plaster did fall off the ceiling, but onto the backstage area. It seems like that would be new plaster for the renovation, which would reinforce the "they don't build'em like they used to" saying.
the higher price was due to the casino venue being more expensive.
I had a blast at that show as well, and I certainly hope the Adler continues to bring in big rock acts like this too.
I know it's not easy, but we seem to be getting on the musical map lately between Daytrotter, the RME, Adler, and Capitol shows creating a critical mass of a legitimate music scene.
The only point I got at all nervous was when they left the stage before the encore some drunk threw an empty beer cup on the stage. I was nervous more cups would follow, but thankfully they didn't.
As one of the diehards I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. I can see where the casual fans might have been a little disappointed, especially with the odd encore. But all in all I think everyone got their money's worth.
This Youtube user has very good quality video of just about every song from the concert.
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