Smashing Pumpkins, Aug. 8, Adler Theatre, Davenport, IA

I went and saw the Smashing Pumpkins last night and man, were they good.

In fact, they were phenomenal.

Seriously, apart from seeing Clapton - who is a Rock God and in a league of his own - I've never been to a better show. When I found out last week that Smashing Pumpkins were coming to town, I knew that one way or another, I would find a way to go. They are easily one of my favorite bands and one of my biggest regrets about being homeschooled/extremely sheltered is not being able to enjoy 90s rock when it was going on. In fact, about the time I was getting into Smashing Pumpkins, they were announcing their break-up. With last year's Zeitgeist, they came back.

Granted, it wasn't the original line-up. D'arci and James Iha weren't playing, but Smashing Pumpkins has always been the brain child of musical genius Billy Corgan. And with him headlining and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain banging away behind him, damn if it wasn't Smashing Pumpkins.

My buddy Andy bought four tickets for the show as soon as I told him they were coming to town. One for him and his girlfriend, one for me 'cause he knew how badly I wanted to go (especially difficult because of unemployment...), and one more because he knew he'd find someone for it. His buddy Eric from work ended up joining us and we arrived at the Adler about ten minutes before showtime because it was all assigned seating. Still, the line stretched around the block. We found out about a side entrance where they were taking tickets and we were inside the building in no time.

What we didn't realize when we got there was that Smashing Pumpkins were kicking off their 2008, ten city, small venue tour at the 2400 seat Adler Theatre in Davenport. We knew it was sold out but we didn't realize we were the starting point of the tour. It made sense of course, seeing as they are from Chicago and we're not far from there, but still, it was pretty great being the first stop of the year.

We got in line for drinks at the bar and waited and waited while the oldest bartenders known to man took care of everyone and the line slowly inched up to them. A half hour after the concert was supposed to start, we were still in line for drinks when we hear "Tarantula" off of Zeitgeist (my favorite off of the album), begin to start. We finally got our two double Captain 'n Cokes each and made it in just as the second song began: "Siva", off of Gish. I've got to say, that was a pretty kick-ass way to enter the theatre. We made our way to our seats, the second to last row in the balcony, but still, in an auditorium that only holds 2400 people, they were still great seats with a clear view at the stage and not all that far back.

I went in expecting to hear a lot of the stuff off of Zeitgeist, seeing as how that's the newest CD, but it was probably about 2/3 of their older stuff. "Siva," "Today," "Perfect," "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," and so many others that I'm forgetting right now. One of the highlights was "United States" from Zeitgeist, which on the album is nearly ten minutes and I swear in concert was closer to twenty.

There were a few songs that they didn't play that I was hoping for, notably "Disarm," "Cherub Rock," and "1979." But all of this was made up for in my mind when they played my absolute favorite Smashing Pumpkins song: "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning." I seriously did not expect them to play it; it's an alternate version of their 1997 Grammy Award winning song "The End is the Beginning is the End." It's much slower than that version and ten times creepier, but it's just good. Right now, it's getting some play because it's the only music in the trailer for the movie Watchmen, which is why I think they played it. But even still, I was blown away that they actually chose it, as I didn't think there was a shot in hell they'd play that with so much other great material in their catalog. It was a surprise. Billy Corgan didn't even have his guitar the whole song - he just sang.

Even despite the other songs I was hoping for, their set list was still pretty fucking good and there wasn't a bad one in the bunch. All in all, it was a surreal experience and the entire time I was thinking, "I'm at the Smashing Pumpkins!" Which was something I never really thought would happen. And the new members were actually pretty decent. As Dawn (who saw the original line-up back in 1996) said, their new members fit right in: a chick bassist and a guitarist who never lifts his head, just like Iha.

Wow. I'm still in shock. I liked that about halfway through, right after a slow set, Corgan got on the mic and said he wanted to talk about something important. "Politics," he said, "are bullshit." Paraphrasing the rest, he said "The politicians would have you believe that there are no more good times. We're having a good time in here tonight. And (the Smashing Pumpkins) are going to be around for awhile." I hope so. According to some of the show crew who Andy chatted up yesterday, next year the band will be doing a large city tour. If they come anywhere near here, Andy, Dawn, and I are planning on road tripping. It was that good and these guys are definitely worth seeing more than once. I know I'll be trying to. If I can help it, I won't miss a Smashing Pumpkins show if I can help it.

Oh yeah, another highlight: Corgan wore a silver skirt the whole time. Just like the old days. Hell yeah.