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Faceplams: 12 songs into Atum and I am already bored. Haven’t enjoyed anything from them since Oceania
Active Member
12 songs into Atum and I am already bored. Haven’t enjoyed anything from them since Oceania
Stubby Member
Act I is the weakest of the three. But I still doubt you’ll like Act 2 or 3.Originally Posted by LaneSax
Active Member
Act 2 is much better. More energy to the songs. I hope Act 3 is good
Active Member
Act 3 has some good stuff.
Cenotaph is my fave track off it
Active Member
And it's out of the Billboard 200, after one week.
New Metallica is #145.
Administrator
A few years from now this will be exactly what makes BC go "fuck rock music, kids these days don't listen to it" all over again, while trying to feed us another synth-pop/indie-rock "masterpiece"
Throbbing Member
It'll be a harpsichord / kazoo heavy sound, produced by Billy himself.
tempus est umbra in mente
Yeah, but have you looked at the Billboard top ten? There's some pop country guy on there twice who was discovered by appearing on that show The Voice. He's famous for being caught on tape using the N word. Music is fucked. This guy sounds like a cross between Staind and Garth Brooks. A little while back there were two pro-Trump songs in the top ten. Nobody is buying music anymore.
Last edited by Jinsai; 05-28-2023 at 01:42 PM.
Active Member
But can you blame him?
The guy spent who knows how many years making a (pretty good) triple-album, only to see it spend a grand total of one week on the Billboard 200. I'm old enough to remember how huge MCATIS was. It's got to be pretty disheartening for BC when a new Winger album does about as well.
Throbbing Member
I guess it's more of a "drop the album on Spotify and let the listeners decide 'the singles'" these days? Seems that way with country dude above, or the twelfth Drake album with 25 songs on it.
Administrator
Never thought I'd get surprised by Pumpkins setlist in the year 2023, but holy shit
51lPPU9.png
Doomsday Clock? The Celestials? Jellybelly? THIS TIME??? fucking yes please!
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Yeah, I saw that and was really pleasantly surprised, too. I just wish I was seeing them this tour. I wish they had played Jellybelly when I saw them last year! I also really want to see them play Spellbinding (I love that song).
Active Member
lol @ them releasing this 2.5 hour album this year and playing 3 songs off it.
bastard from blue city
It's mad that Jellybelly was off the stage from 1997 until now.
Active Member
I'll be seeing them for the first time this month and I'm so glad they are playing Jellybelly, probably my favorite SP song.
Active Member
If they played more than that, everyone would bitch about it. The average fan only wants them to play Gish through Machina.
Active Member
I’m actually quite happy that they are only playing 3 songs off of Atum, I thought it was really weak. I’ll slightly modify your sentence above, I only want to hear Gish through Oceania. Really excited they are doing Doomsday Clock.
Throbbing Member
i know as NIN fans we're a little spoiled by trent, but i watched a video of the most recent show, and... billy can't get into fighting shape before a tour? really? like, c'mon. you're a rock star. look cool. better off watching videos of jellybelly from the '90s.
on a positive note, i absolutely ADORED this video (despite billy's slight homophobic remark towards james at one point). what an interesting, brief moment in time where the crowd silently took in the new siamese songs and roared with recognition at the gish songs. and what a great performance and set. how did i see so many iconic photos of billy in his superman shirt when i was a kid and never realize it said "superslut" on the arms?? DOUBLE iconic!
i've been playing cherub rock on guitar for over two of the three decades since siamese came out, and yet watching billy play it here i still have no idea what the fuck he's doing. i love watching his hands play. fucking astounding.
Last edited by howdidislipinto; 08-03-2023 at 10:47 PM.
Active Member
I went to the Mountain View show on Thursday and it was superb. I was hesitant about going, since I just went to the San Francisco concert last November, and Mountain View is a bit further away from where I live (an hour and change drive, as opposed to an hour public transport ride to San Francisco), but just last weekend I opened Twitter, and I saw that the Smashing Pumpkins account had posted the setlist for the first stop of the tour: Everlasting Gaze, Doomsday Clock, This Time, The Celestials, Jellybelly and Hummer all convinced me to go and boy what a show it was. Billy seemed to be happy to be there, his stage banter with James was great.
I don’t know exactly what their marketing team is doing but I think they are doing an ace job: just that Twitter post alone convinced me on pulling the trigger (I knew in advance that this tour had a Bay Area stop but like I said, I had just seen them less than a year ago, and I’m not a fan of their most recent output). The place was packed to the rafters and this is a big amphitheater, certainly bigger than the Concord Pavillion, another outdoor amphitheater in this area (where I saw Gojira and Mastodon earlier this year). And, there were quite a few young kids at the show, having the time of their lives, some of them really singing the lyrics, and well, there was obviously quite a number of people my age (born in the 80s), a nice combination of age groups. Based on what I see in social media, I think that all those TikToks are doing wonders for SP (I don’t have a TikTok account but I do have IG and I’m assuming all those reels they post end up on TikTok as well).
In this board we’ve had many discussions about the relevancy of Smashing Pumpkins these days, about how Billy is nuts if he thinks he can still pack arenas, and to be honest I was of that opinion, but this show proved me otherwise, somehow he’s still filling venues, and like I said, their social media is a big part of that, so kudos to him. Listen to his recent interview with Conan O’Brien in his podcast, he still has a drive to create music that he likes, he enjoys being independent and being able to do whatever the hell he wants. He talked about how people told him that Atum was commercial suicide, a triple album in an era where people mostly listen to singles, but he still released it anyways because that’s what he felt like doing. Like I said, I thought Atum was weak but mad respect to him for sticking to his guns, the artistry in him. And for what is worth, I thought the live versions of the Atum songs sounded great (specially Spellbinding). I know he doesn’t want to do a Siamese Dream 2.0, but I wouldn’t mind an Oceania 2.0 (a great combination of the synths that Billy wants to do these days, and guitars and drums), Atum just feels like a waste of James’ and Jimmy’s talent.
Stone Temple Pilots opened the show, and I’d seen them twice before, when Weiland was still around (last time they opened for NIN during LITS). Jeff Gutt, the new singer, was really great, hit all the notes and had a visible positive energy to him, it’s good to see the band still performing despite all the tragedy that they’ve endured, the only thing that was a bit weird to me is the fact that Jeff is going for a Scott Weiland look and pose (bleached hair, sunglasses, shirt and vest, he’s skinny and kind of looks like Scott), but again, can’t blame the band for wanting to carry on.
In summary, I had a blast and I’m really happy I decided to go. Like @sonic_discord said, if I were a fan of Atum, I'd be pissed with this tour but for me it works great, a nice combination of the old with some new songs peppered in here and there. With that being said, the latest Garbage tours make me relate to this feeling, I'm a big fan of Strange Little Birds and No Gods No Masters, their latest two albums, I feel like those are career bests, really strong records, and it's supper disappointing to go their recent shows, and only see like 3 songs played off of each album (in their respective tour), I wish like at least 60% of the songs were from their latest but they want to cater to the average fan, I get it.
Last edited by cahernandez; 08-05-2023 at 07:46 AM.
Stubby Member
I have a simple question for you guys. Would it be appropriate to bring an 11 and 9 year to the current tour? They are playing an outside venue in the DC area. Just want to see if this is a common thing? They’re actually big fans, especially my 11 year-old, but not as big as me.
Throbbing Member
Isn't there a theory or something that says Billy sings the way he does on most album tracks to save his voice for his tour?
Also, it is the world is a vampire tour and not the shiny tour. What is most intriguing is the songs on the set that James and Jimmy didn't play on. Three guitars on Doomsday? Hell yes. Wish they were playing Wisconsin or Chicago.
Active Member
my friend and his wife are bringing their 10 and 8 year old daughters. It will be their first show. They are very excited.
Also, for the crowds, don't discount the draw Interpol might be to some extent. They're a 3500-5000 seat venue type band on their own in certain parts of the country, and have done MSG a few times iirc.
Active Member
I've seen 7-8 year-olds at a Slayer show. Everyone was cool and had a good time. I wouldn't worry about taking kids to a Pumpkins concert.
Stubby Member
Just got back from the North Virginia/DC show at Jiffy Lube Live. Was amazing. Band was tight, energetic, and James seemed quite talkative. Didn’t think Once in a Lifetime was going to melt my face off, but it actually did. Hubble Bubble was nice as well, especially leading into Jellybelly. As others have mentioned, band was as loud as fuck. Highlight was actually seeing Billy’s kids come out to dance during Beguiled.
Unintelligible Whispering
Going to Ottawa Sunday. I actually was going to skip out on this tour since they're not playing Montreal, but Jellybelly and This Time are worth an hour-long trip.
Unintelligible Whispering
God damn, am I glad I went.
Perfect, This Time, Hummer and motherfucking Jellybelly.
And I got to be front row center. Still can't believe my luck. Never been that close.
I'm never doing Ottawa ever again though. Nuts to the Canadian Tire Centre being an hour outside of town, and nuts to its lack of coat or bag check - I had to beg the good and generous security staff to let me in, and they were kind enough to stash my stuff in a back room (I took buses to get there, there was no car for me to leave stuff in)
But anyway, Billy was in a supremely good mood the entire night, being hammy, telling an anecdote with James about how he once got in trouble for touching the Stanley Cup, and other such things. When they played Spellbound he was all smiles, and his kids coming out to dance was adorable. James cracked a few grins here and there, too.
Every cellphone light in the house on during Tonight, Tonight.
A dude behind and to the left of me a bit caught me tearing up during Perfect, reached out, clapped me on the shoulder, gave me a thumbs up and said "It's a beautiful song, man."
Easily a top 10 of my life show for me.
Active Member
I saw them in 2022, but I really wish this tour was coming remotely close to me. Here's hoping they're still playing Jellybelly on the NEXT tour...
Active Member
Get to see them on their last night in Indy, very excited after reading reviews. They're always tight AF so I'm really looking forward to it.
Throbbing Member
Wish tour was coming to Madison, Milwaukee, or Chicago. But I give The Pumpkins credit for going to a lot of towns bands tend to never go.
Throbbing Member
https://veeps.com/thesmashingpumpkins/
Live stream on SUnday for Siamese Dream, Tower Record store thing.
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