I forgot what it was that took me to smashingpumpkins.com last night, but it was a pleasant discovery to say the least. I found out that they have available for download, mp3s from concerts dating back to when they were still great and relevant (pre-1998 to the uninitiated).
I downloaded the one concert they had in Vancouver in 1997, the one that I wanted to see but didn’t. I still remember slight details surrounding that event. It was originally scheduled for September of ‘96, and was supposed to have been Matt Walker’s (formerly of Filter) first gig with the band after Billy Corgan fired Jimmy Chamberlain for drug addiction. However, they rescheduled the gig to January of ‘97. I asked a classmate who was lucky enough to watch the concert for some details. And apart from telling me that it was the greatest live act he had ever seen, he told me that the GM Place bathroom reeked of marijuana stench during the event.
To me, I’ve always associated the music of SP with pre-adulthood. It was a time that I wanted to rebel but didn’t because (a) I had no real agenda as to why I would want to defy norms and (b) I was too pussy to actually do so.
In retrospect, the time that I was heavy into the Pumpkins was truly a simpler time. There are so many things I want in life right now, whereas back then, all I really wanted was a Zero T-shirt.
