Hugo’s blog

I got into the Smashing Pumpkins in 2000 (thanks to my friend Gerald), just in time to see (figuratively speaking) the band split. I then followed what Billy Corgan was doing, and actually missed a concert in Paris of Zwan which got canceled wore or less at the last minute. I basically thought that I was cursed, until Corgan announced that he was planning on putting the Smashing Pumpkins back together, and when I saw a few months ago that they were going to tour and play for 10 nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco.

I managed to get tickets from TicketMaster. Once I had a pair of tickets, I actually tried to buy tickets for a second show, but they were all sold out. Tickets must have been all sold within a couple of minutes, so I felt lucky I managed to get some. It actually was a special kind of concert, as people were waiting in line in front of The Fillmore hours before the show.

I actually almost didn’t get in: the tickets were Will Call tickets, so I needed my credit card to get them the day of the show. Unfortunately, my credit card was replaced by the credit card company a few weeks ago because it might have been compomised. At this point, I followed instructions from them destroying my card, only to realize the following day that I needed it to get my tickets. I then spent 30 minutes extracting from the trash and taping together the 50 little pieces that used to be my card (yes, I had been slightly overboard with the scissors when destroying the card), making sure that you could still read the number and see my name. So I crossed my fingers when approaching the doors, but they actually were happy to only see my ID, so I didn’t need to get into a long explanation to justify why my card in tiny pieces taped back together on a piece of paper.

The show started at 9pm sharp with a band from Portland, OR which was pretty good, but whose name I unfortunately did not catch. They played a good set for 30 minutes that did not seem like 1/2 hour (sometimes, support acts seems longer than they are, but here it was really enjoyable). One thing that I noticed though is that every support act that wants to make sure that people scream while they’re on stage tell people who’s playing next: “So the Smashing Pumpkins are here tonight!” Response from the crowd: “Yeaaaaaah!”

At 10.05pm, after the stage was prepared for the next part of the show, Billy Corgan entered the stage with an acoustic guitar and started playing some solo songs, that he referred to as “sad solo songs”. It was a gentle introduction to the show. He also said at some point: “Don’t worry, the rock ‘n’ roll party is going to begin soon”. He was soon joined by the whole band to play Today, and the show really began at this point.

They played a mix of older songs and of songs from their latest album, Zeitgeist. I find these songs really powerful on stage (United States, Tarantula, Doomsday Clock, etc.). At some point during the show, Jeff Shroeder’s amp broke down, which generated a 15 minute break. I was somewhat disapointed by the band which did not do much during this time (they joked about telling a story, but never did).

I was really impressed by the quality of the show. The sound was great. Despite my love of live shows, I often regret that the volume of certain instruments is too high and masks other ones or the singer’s voice. I felt that the sound engineers here at done a terrific job at rendering all the parts of the band. The songs and the performance of the band were really powerful, and it was really enjoyable to watch them play.

After 2h45 of intense performance (minus the 15 minutes break due to the amp), the lights came back on and people left the venue. It’s only when I got home and read a fan forum that I discovered that they actually played two more songs that we missed, which is too bad.

The playlist, courtesy of frenchy at Netphoria:

• Leaving Lament
• Rotten Apples
• Peace and Love
• 99 Floors
• No Surrender
• Today
• 1979
• United States (Jeff’s amp breaks down)
• Bleeding the Orchid
• Lucky 13
• Shame
• Hummer
• Bullet With Butterfly Wings
• God and country
• Death From Above
• By Starlight
• To Sheila (with Linda Strawberry)
• Tonight, Tonight
• Tarantula
• Starz
• Zero
• Glass and the Ghostchildren
• That’s the Way (My Love Is)
• Superchrist
• Starla
• The band leaves the stage
• Doomsday Clock
• Heavy Metal Machine
• Lights go back on
• Zeitgeist
• Muzzle

It really was an amazing show. Fortunately, there were cameras roaming around, so I can hope to see it again in DVD soon.

I have a bunch of crappy photos from the show. Great photos and videos are available from Netphoria.

Ten years ago, while I was living in England, I heard on the radio Placebo play Bruise Pristine at the Glastonbury festival, and I liked their sound and went to HMV buy their eponym first album. I have followed their music ever since, but with the feeling that every new album is not as good as the previous one, though the All-Music Guide seems to disagree with me. Anyway, went I saw that they were playing in a small venue in San Francisco, I thought that I just had to go. It’s pretty rare to be able to see Placebo a couple of meters away from the band in Europe (just like it was for The Tragically Hip).

When we arrived, I noticed that I was taller than most people, which reminded me of a No Doubt show that I went to years ago. Basically, I seemed older than pretty much anybody else.

The support act was Evaline. They certainly had a lot of energy on stage. The drummer was impressive, and the singer loved to jump everywhere, especially on top of his keyboard. I’m impressed by how much weight a keyboard stand is apparently able to handle. Anyway, their music was not bad, but I guess that it was not quite my cup of tea.

Then Placebo came on stage. They mainly played songs from Meds, but also played older songs such as Without You I’m Nothing, and even songs from the first album such as Bionic or I Know.

However, I can’t say that I have been impressed by their performance. Yes, Brian Molko was sweaty, but it was not so different from listening to the CDs at home. Basically, they didn’t move very much on stage. I had the feeling that Stefan Olsdal was thinking: OK, during this song, why don’t I tryi to be on the front right of the stage for a change? And there was hardly any communication with the audience other than a How the fuck are you San Francisco?

So I’m a little disappointed by this show, and considering that my interest in Placebo is from 10 years ago, and that most people around me might have been in their early twenties, maybe you should stop listening to Placebo when you reach 30.

I have a bunch of photos on Flickr. I also have a couple of videos that I’ll put online as soon as I figure out how to download an 8.1MB video from it when 8MB is the limit for files sent via Bluetooth or get Missing Sync’s media conduit to work.

One thing that I really like about having lived in several different countries is that I have been exposed to a lot of different music, and that great artists that everybody knows in certain places are sometimes completely unknown in others. This has allowed me to see Ani DiFranco in a venue of at most 200 people in Paris, Ben Harper in a small club in Cambridge, etc.

Yesterday night, I was introduced to the Fillmore, which fits about 1000 people I’d say, to see The Tragically Hip, which is a massively popular Canadian rock band… in Canada. Gerald had taken me to one of their shows years ago. Since then, I’ve been listening to The Hip.

It was pretty much the same crowd: I was surrounded by Canadians. Some came all the way from Calgary in order to see The Hip play in such a small venue.

The support act was great. The Sadies put up a great show. They somewhat reminded me of Tarnation, but with a “rockier” sound, if that says anything to somebody else. They’re themselves Canadian, and who knows when I’ll have a chance to see them again, but I’m definitely going to get some of their CDs.

Then The Hip did a great performance. As I often realize, I appreciate a concert much better when I’m close (I remember not fully appreciating PJ Harvey at the Zénith in Paris, while I loved the bootleg I got of the show). Here I was at the second row, and I was able to witness the energy that Gord Downie puts into the show.

He basically doesn’t hold back. His shirt was soaking wet after the second song. He broke a guitar string during the second song, jumped all over the place for 1h45, gave away guitar picks, broken strings, towels, his microphone stand (yes, you read well). It basically was one of the best shows I had seen in a while.

The setlist is available in the HipBase forum. I have some photos on Flickr. And I tried to take a video of Blow at High Dough as you can see below:

I edited out the audio, as it was horrible, and you could not even recognize a melody. The result, without the sound isn’t great. You can watch the whole song on YouTube from another concert.

After a great performance, we were given when we exited the venue a pretty big poster for the concert, made of very thick paper. All I can say is that The Hip gives you plenty for your money, and even more. Don’t miss them.