ThePumpkins.net

I've been watching a lot of live videos on YouTube of The Smashing Pumpkins live in 2010 and I've noticed that they play the same songs over and over again. I know many people like to hear the singles live but I would like to hear some variety in the live show. I would like to hear The Album Songs, The B-Sides, The Residency Songs, 20th Anniversary Songs, and The New Songs.

Billy is not interested.
He used to state that he's fed up with "these" songs.
Don't ask me why he's still calling the whole project The Smashing Pumpkins when he's sick of most old songs (except the 101 and hit-single tunes)....

We really don't need a thread on this do we?

These are getting kind of old, even to me.

I think Billy opts not to play these songs because he's incapable of singing them. Let's face it--Billy can't scream anymore, he can't hit the high notes anymore, and really can't capture the emotion in many of these Mellon Collie deep cuts. Notice, in later tours, he resorts to rearranging the whole song (the one's that he continues to play, I mean) just to make it easier to sing. It reminds of the very last time I saw Reznor a few years ago. He had to tune a lot of his songs down even more just to be able to hit the notes, and I think this is what ultimately convinced him to call it quits. I sincerely miss SP (and NIN, of course), but sometimes you just got to know when enough is enough.

But, for now, we can just look back and appreciate the great music these artists created for us to listen to today and forevermore.

Agreed on everything said, pinata89.

By the way: I DO LIKE THIS THREAD!

DON wrote:
I think it's a pretty good thread too.

DON wrote:
You pretty much summarized my thoughts (and most people thoughts on the subject) in your first post.

Honestly, I just want a little variety in the shows. Not the same thing every night. Mix up the hits, he has enough to work with for Christ's sake.

@Pinata: I agree, BC can't hit those notes anymore, which is why he doesn't play some songs I think. Even BWBW is becoming embarassing. "RAT IN A UAAAAGGHHHHH!"

EDIT: I thought we had a thread where we talked about what we wanted from the live shows already? Guess I was wrong.

we are spoiled as hell. they were playing different sets pretty much every date in the zeitgeist tour. and in the residencies they were chainging it up like crazy. if you look at most bands they wont change their setlist for months, and sometimes years

Teej212 wrote:
The last tour was pretty standard though.

kjrain12 wrote:
As it should have been. He has a new band with a 20 year old drummer and a bassist he has never played with. Jeff's the only one who's played with them, and that's who he has the most chemistry with on stage. They needed to play easier and more well-known songs as well as the ones they have recorded for TBK so that they can hone their skills onstage and have good chemistry as a band. I can almost guarantee you that the next tour after Oceania will have some deeper cuts.

I wouldn't really mind hearing a classic like Porcelina of the Vast Oceans sang in a diffident key, it's like when David Bowie had to sing the songs from Ziggy Stardust in a diffident key. The songs sounded good, they just sounded diffident. So, I don't think it's a mater of Billy's voice deteriorating or changing. Dorovo, makes the best point. Billy, has a whole new band, Jeff is the only one left from the 2007 reunion, and Billy has to work with Mike and Nichol a little more before they can start playing more advanced songs.

Billy can't scream anymore? What planet are you living on?

Dorovo wrote:
I hadn't thought of it that way, I hope you're right.

Sikamikanico999 wrote:
I saw SP (be it SP2...which, to me, is not SP) last year, and I promise you that BC cannot scream anymore.

pinata89 wrote:
Every single performance of United States begs to differ...

Sikamikanico999 wrote:
Yeah, and the new versions of HMM usually have some screaming in them. It is different to how he used to scream, but he definitely still does it. Vocally he's much better live than in any SP2/3 studio songs, which is disappointing. I don't think his voice carries the emotion it used to though, even live, so maybe that does effect his decision of which songs he sings.

epitome wrote:
BC's screams, just like his singing though, can sometimes sound very uninspired. His singing took a dip IMO way back during Adore, when he took lessons.

kjrain12 wrote:
I thought his vocals were still great on Adore - MCIS and Adore are his peak for me - but I did think even back in 2000 that they had dipped a bit on Machina. And they've dipped a lot since then.

epitome wrote:
Yeah, Machina was definitely the first real dip when it came to studio albums. I really hope his voice is better on Oceania. It would suck to have great music ruined by an uninspired vocal performance.

Glass And The Ghost Children wrote:
That's where you're wrong and where you and Billy both share the misperception. Fans - Actual Fans - of the band don't want to hear those songs anymore, but the casual concert-goer, fair-weather fan of SP are those that scream to hear them. Most of us want to hear obscure oldies and brand new tracks, but its the bitching of the many casual fans that keeps those tracks in the setlist.

Billy's said on numerous occasions (ignorantly) that "The Fans" are stuck in the past and want "the Singles". In reality, "The Fans" want quite the opposite.