Billy Corgan was technically the last full concert I attended before the pandemic shut everything down.
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| Billy solo tour, November 2019 |
The first time we crossed paths was at a hotel in NYC. I was working as a bellman (luggage guy) at a swanky place where The Smashing Pumpkins were staying. This was the first time I was hearing of them. Billy Corgan, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin and D'arcy Wretzky were talking to the clerk at the front desk, Mike. They were the only ones in the lobby. Mike loves them, he's young and in his twenties.
He is 100% professional, not fan-boying out at all. At one point he catches my eye, across the lobby, and he does the real inconspicuous head nod, trying to say "look who's at the desk". They finish up and leave. I walk over and talk to Mike. When I got to the front desk I looked down and found a pick. One of them must have dropped it. I gave it to Mike. He was really happy with it.
I did see them at The Garden at one point during their peak in the '90's. It was a really great show, completely sold-out. This audience wanted to hear the songs that they have heard and seen on MTV repeatedly. There was a lot of that, but there also was a lot of Billy being Billy. They (meaning he, it is his band.) performed a lot of their lesser known, obscure songs.
It was getting to be one song after another that people were not too familiar with and it was starting to get late. By 11:00 p.m. people were leaving. They had to work the next day to earn money to pay for these pricey tickets, which they didn't seem to be enjoying.
Every time a new song would start up, that most people didn't immediately recognize, the audience would pour out by the thousands. Time and time again it was happening, to the point they were just streaming out by 11:30 p.m. Billy's yelling at them "Leave, leave, we know who are true fans are." That was a first.
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| Look at those 7-yellow guitar picks just waiting |
In 2018, The Smashing Pumpkins reunited. (Three out of four founding members at least: Billy, James & Jimmy. D'arcy & Billy are still fighting over money and writing credits at publication time.) They released their first album in 18 years, 'Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol 1/ LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun.'
They went on tour the following year, as a band, to promote the album. It was great, people wanted to see them, they sold-out arenas and coliseums. When their tour came to an end, Billy decided he was going to do a quick, little, small, eight city, 12-night, solo, fall tour. A mere blip on the screen in the career of the mighty-talented musician.
On paper, it appeared perfect. But in reality, the best laid plans. We get to The Gramercy, a 600-seat theater. It was going to be an intimate engagement for the few lucky ones that were able to score tickets. There were chairs on the dance floor! Yes the standing area in front of the stage had seats, rows of them too with aisles, really classing up the joint.
I'm standing there looking at this just taking it all in. Thinking to myself "Oh", "Oh", "This is what we are doing tonight." "It is going to be more of a Lincoln Center performance and not a head banging rock concert." "It doesn't look like we are going to get rockstar Billy tonight, but more of a laid-back cabaret Billy." "This should be fun."
We get to our seats and nestle in. We watched the expressions as others arrived. Hundreds of eyebrows were raised as people entered and saw the chairs but it is New York we know how to roll with things. We like to think of ourselves as being civilized, more advanced, in a cultured society, so we try. And if we happen to get out of line a bit, our New York friends have no problem checking us.
Billy came out with an acoustic guitar, other guest musicians would join later. He talked to the crowd, he told stories and did songs, just like a cabaret show. He had banter between the audience, very engaging. He told a story about being a new father and one guy in the audience just became a new father too. (You don't say, what are the odds?) So those two chatted a couple of sentences. That guy's night was made, story for life. It was a fun time, nothing heckley. There was not one incident at all. There had not been one incident at any of his three sold-out shows in New York.
From early on, during the tour, there were problems in different cities. Thousands upon thousands of people knew how to conduct themselves properly. Unfortunately, in a few different cities, a small group of obnoxious people disrupted the show for everyone. They wanted rockstar Billy, they did not want cabaret Billy. They didn't want any stories in between. They wanted a Smashing Pumpkins concert and they wanted it now.
One of the early shows on the tour, a guy up front, with his date/girlfriend/wife was disrespectful. Multiple audience reports, via Reddit, claim he was drunk. He kept yelling out "Play Ugly". Billy ignored him, drunk continued. Billy said (paraphrased) "I've written hundreds of songs, I don't have all of them memorized" trying to appease this guy to no avail. The drunk kept on. Billy said "I know you are peaking on your THC Gummies but I'm not playing 'Ugly' tonight." "I'm not a human jukebox." Security finally threw him out.
Every concert/ showroom had a bar and that got very loud, each and every city. That's what happens. The bar staff was loud too. He would start to play and everyone at the bar would hush for the first song but by the second they were all talking at full volume. A different time, outside of Buffalo, N.Y., after he played the tune 'For Martha', he said to the chattering crowd at the bar, "I figure if a song about my dead mother doesn't shut you up, my ukulele will."
The Covington, Kentucky show is where it went really bad. Security was totally negligent that night. It wasn't horribly bad, there is that line, it could have been much worse. Not one chair was flung, thank goodness. They could have been used as projectiles and really did some damage. It seemed that there were about a dozen people, or so, who were determined to troll him all night. They were shouting out references from the time the band was on The Simpsons, as one of the musical guests in 'Homerpalooza', to the shapeshifter interview on Howard Stern.
They were relentless. A guy from the very back row yelled out "Homer Simpson" and Billy yelled back "Idiot!" The bar is loud and he is in an emo mood. He plays a few songs in a row, including 'Ugly'. He figured "if that's what they want to hear, i'll brush up on it." People at the bar talked through that one too. He told the seated audience "This show is for you, they're not going to listen to me."
Every action has a reaction, the audience in turn, starts shouting at the people at the bar. Dozens of people screaming "Shut the F@&# up!" "Shut the F@&# up!", "Shut the F@&# up!" The audience was done with the rude B.S. The people in the bar area now have all had their tail feathers ruffled because they have just been yelled at to shut the F up. It did work, they did quiet down. They continued drinking, now thinking "Just who the F is this guy, over here, who just told me to shut the F up?" The drinking continued as did the brooding. The place was tense but it was about to get even freakier.
One guy in particular, where was security? Maybe he was a conspiracy theorist or something. He yells out "Are shapeshifters real?" Billy replies "How about you come up here and I punch you in the effen face!" And the guy walked right up to the stage and kept trying to have a conversation with Billy.
The audience was not having any of it. They just got finished shouting down the entire bar area, they were not about to let one person disrupt the show any further. They all started shouting him down. Security came out and just stood there. How they didn't toss him was puzzling. That show finally came to an end and Billy and his bandmates made it out of there.
NYC, the last stop on the tour. The bar area was loud here too. People talk louder when they drink. The show started and it was really fun. It was nice to see this scaled down version, most people will never get this experience. It really was magical. Maybe because it was the last night of the tour, he kept throwing his guitar picks to the audience, one every five minutes. It was like he was saying "Here I won't need these any more after tonight. I'll get new ones for the next tour."
It appeared like anyone who wanted a pick could just walk right up and he would toss you one. At least that was what my beer goggles were confirming. I had remained seated pretty much the entire performance except for beer runs here and there, being super mindful to be quiet at the bar. The show came to an end. They all leave the stage. I wanted a pick.
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| WPC- William Patrick Corgan |
My plan was just to walk right up to the stage and time it for when he was coming back on stage. He would hand me a pick and then I would go back to my seat, nice and simple, that was the plan.
He comes back on stage and sees me there. I'm the only one standing. I immediately smiled at him, right? Disarm you with a smile, if not then, then when? I waved and pointed at his microphone stand where there were numerous picks affixed to it. He got the message, Billy was so cool, he walked up to the mic stand, took one off and tossed it over to me. It landed right on the stage where I picked it up.
I said "Thanks" and turned around to leave but now there was a little bit of a crowd. A couple of dozen people had made their way down front for the encore, after two hours sitting they needed to stretch their legs. They were just waiting for one person to lead the charge and that was me unknowingly, I just wanted a pick.
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| The back |
I stayed right where I was. He played 'Knights in White Satin' by The Moody Blues. It was so fantastic! Being there up front you can actually feel the music as it flows right through you, the pounding of the drum, the thumping of the bass, it really was pulsating. Plus the warmth of the heat coming off the stage lights really added to the overall experience.
His final song of the night/ tour 'Disarm'. This is what the people wanted, real crowd pleaser. During this song he threw out a few more picks. I swatted one down, it hit the stage and I picked that one up too. I turned around and handed it to my friend Rich, who had joined me up front. He got me the ticket so I had to get him a pick. Two picks from one concert, that was a first, no mellon collie here.
