Cult of Corgan

I have seen the Pumpkins on nearly every major album tour, and I was interested in seeing the new revamped Smashing Pumpkins. On Sept. 15 I got to check them out at a music festival called, "LA Invasion", where they headlined playing on a bill with acts such as Cypress Hill, Foo Fighters, Perry Ferrel, and Chris Cornell. The show was definitely skewed toward the over 30 crowd, and the big names of the 90's poured out the hits.

Let me just say, the pumpkins of yesterday are gone. If you go see a Pumpkins show now, you will experience the "Cult of Corgan". Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's just different. Corgan's new Pumpkins are a well oiled machine, a rock machine, a "heavy metal machine" even. The performance is a show, with costumes and a hi-tech light show included. The hits of yesterday, are played differently, either faster tempos or stripped down to acoustic. And dare I say it, but Billy has created a Pumpkins' Jam band. If you know the track "United States" off the new album, a 10 minute Jam... you start to see the direction of the live show. And yes, they did open with that track... which is not exactly a "crowd pleaser". But nonetheless, I did enjoy the show, and they sounded good (dark and heavy). Billy is a gifted musician either way you cut it.