The Smashing Pumpkins played the rather small stage at L.A.’s Viper Room as a warm up to their upcoming tour. The show was sold out as expected, and photographer Andrew Youssef (who celebrated his birthday by taking these shots of the show) says the newest lineup was pretty good. That’s including the band’s 20-year-old drummer Mike Byrne. The band played a mix of old and new Smashing Pumpkins, though there was one big omission. Youssef says the show was going well until Billy Corgan took out a ukulele for a solo on new song “Love Is.” The crowd wouldn’t quiet down, so they band cut their set short, without playing “Today.” They also cut out their new single “Freak,” (from their huge Teargarden By Kaleidyscope project).
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I hope Andrew took more shots than just the ones from his camera yesterday. (Happy Birthday, Andrew!)
Thanks Amrit! I can now say the Smashing Pumpkins played at my birthday party!
I really do wish the best for this band, though something in the back of my mind says this will go nowhere. I just miss the “art” part of Billy’s song writing.
By the way, my internet explorer hasn’t been allowing me to log into the stereogum site for the last 3 weeks. The browser would say something about having an error on the page. It wouldn’t bring up the login pop-up window. So I finally downloaded google’s chrome and things work for this browser at least.
Empty your cache @300 baud
Yeah, get all the granny porn outta there buddy!
shut your face, bootyfish, you think that’s funny, but my grandma actually does porn, and trust me it’s not funny.
Can’t wait to see them tour with the new lineup. After listening to Passion Pit’s remix of “Tonight, Tonight” (http://gsbeats.tumblr.com/post/735553931/awesome-video-from-passion-pit-covering-the), maybe they should be doing a joint tour. Regardless the new lineup sounds amazing and very jealous I wasn’t in LA for this performance
http://gsbeats.tumblr.com
Happy Birthday Andrew! Sorry though friends, The Smashing Pumpkins no longer exist. This is a figment of your imagination. This is the former lead singer of The Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan. It’s a ripoff for him to market himself under this name again considering he was the one that quit his fans. I saw them in 1993 at the Cabaret Metro when Siamese Dream was just about to come out, they played three nights, that was The Smashing Pumpkins. I saw them in 1991 when they opened for Red Hot Chili Peppers (w. Pearl Jam), that was The Smashing Pumpkins. It featured James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin and D’Arcy. Artists need to get over themselves and move on.
Another great performance from the Mighty SP.Wow for SP to be a figment of our imagination they rocked at The Viper Room last night.Some just can’t move on and whine over the pass way to much STILL.There are a lot of bands that have switch members and move on…It more like “Some fans” need to get over themselves and move on.
Billy is and always will be the smashing pumpkins.Let’s face it’sno secret that Billy done most of ALL the music and lyrics.Dead weight is dead weight…Do you do a job and take credit for and get paid for it?It might last a while after a while, the person that employing you,is going to kick you to the curb…their history. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t want the original members back.Not happening so move on.If hate bad and dislike then move on and stop whining…I look forward to Sp touring and doing more dates.Really great to see the “GREAT PUMPKIN” rocking again!WE LOVE YOU BILLY<3<3
Overall this post is pretty inept, but I will say that D’arcy and James Iha seemed to contribute more to the Pumpkins’ image than their sound, so you could make the case that they were “dead weight.”
But on the other hand, there’s no way you could reasonably claim that Jimmy Chamberlin was dead weight.
It’s kind of funny, when people say, “Smashing Pumpkins *are* Billy Corgan, he doesn’t need the others”. There’s a little truth to it, but wouldn’t you rather just play along with the naysayers and believe that SP are only terrible because all the original members are gone? That would be the easier pill to swallow, but Machina was Corgan/Iha/Chamberlain/D’arcy, and boy, that was no Siamese Dream. It’s a bummer, but the truth is Billy just gets worse as the years go on.
Having said all that, Jimmy Chamberlain was a huge part of the Pumpkins sound, and all this Teargarden
stuff is sounding noticeably toothless without his presence. Also, just cuz I like James Iha and hate to seem a good man dissed, check out his writing credits on I Am One, Soma, Mayonnaise, and both Mellon Collie closers
I respect your opinion Virginia, my point was simply it’s not fair to the fans for any artist to call themselves by a name associated with others. Billy has tried to move on and do other things, and they failed miserably. It’s weird now that he would pull the name out of the closet to try and market himself under this name again, in order for some grasp at success again. Being objective, Teagarden material is not even close to being as full of life as early Pumpkins, so to have it associated as a SP body of work is misleading the customer. After all, he was the one that walked away from the name after dismissing those “other” members. It’s so evident that he has no one in his life to be honest and tell him what’s good and what’s bad.
“It’s weird now that he would pull the name out of the closet to try and market himself under this name again, in order for some grasp at success again”
I don’t think thats the case. He tried other projects like Zwan and a solo album because there was a void in his life. He said in 2005 that he used those other projects to fill the void that SP left and what he realized was that he wanted SP all along. I don’t think hes just desperate for money or attention. maybe when he was in his 20′s that was the case, but as a fan I believe he loves these songs and just wants to continue playing them while he still can.
Also he did give James and D’arcy the opportunity to rejoin and they turned him down and Jimmy was the one who quit in 2009 so I really don’t think its fair for him to give the whole thing up because they no longer wish to be involved.
silly people. SP was and always will be billy, for better or worse. all you need to do is look at the songwriting credits. he had some great players with him back in the day (altho “great” should be in quotes, because, really, iha’s credits don’t exactly dazzle you in his post-SP days), and now billy is astute enough to surround himself with other great players as he continues the name, which he owns. i was at the viper show (you musta been on the other side, andrew) and the playing was something to behold.