BILLY DOESN'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT

When i saw Smashing Pumpkins at Reading Festival 07, i was wasted. It signaled the end of a long, drunken summer, which was about to climax with most of my friendship group leaving for University, me included. I have been a firm Pumpkins fan since their glory days when i was barely old enough to stay home alone, and seeing them live was a somewhat emotional experience. More than one of my friends shed a (mainly substance-induced) tear during 'Tonight, Tonight', and we left the main stage feeling like we'd seen something pretty amazing. Bear this in mind though, when i shed some light on my feelings regarding this video...

At some point during the show the crowd heard what we had all been expecting... "This is a song from my new album, 'Zeitgeist'!". I have real faith in the British public and was not disappointed when, like a roar of thunder, the entire crowd began to boo en masse. Corgan was less amused, and with a smirk croaked "This is my new stuff, you fuckers!" (Or something to this effect, my memory is a little hazy over a year on...). They continued to play some new material, and after initial heckling and booing-for-the-sake-of, the crowd continued to enjoy the music of The Smashing Pumpkins, as they are today. I explain this so you understand, we were a crowd of die-hard fans, a united crowd, a crowd who really enjoying what the band were giving us. Yet we still rebuked the Pumpkins for playing their new stuff because we weren't there to hear the melancholic thoughts of a 30-something who had found religion and re-formed a band who had died many years ago, even if his name was Corgan. We were there to hear 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings'. A sad but true fact. 

Apparently this sequence of events has been haunting the tour since i saw them back in August '07. Roll on a year and three months, and there are rumors that the Pumpkins' live shows are becoming arenas for Corgan's disillusioned ranting about poor album sales and lack of fan support. I feel a kind of guilty sadness watching this clip of my hero, reduced to begging explanation from a crowd of seemingly bemused and aggravated Americans. Low points include the fan Corgan picks out from the crowd growling what sounds like encouragement for an American Football team, and Corgan himself claiming that Smashing Pumpkins are 'an alternative rock band, not a reunion cover band' (again don't quote me but close enough). 

I hope Billy finds the answers he's looking for soon, because this looks like the beginning of a bad spell for Smashing Pumpkins and he doesn't seem able to cope with his one time cash-cow of a band seemingly plunging to levels of un popularity formally reserved for his solo projects.