Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
In Smashing Pumpkins news this week, y’all probably heard that Billy Corgan asked drummers hanging out at Pritchard Park on Saturday night to open up his show this past Saturday. Very cool. Billy, by his own comments, has apparently fallen for Ashvegas, it’s hippie drummers, artistic vibe and who knows what else. He certainly hasn’t fallen for the Mountain Xpress, which has largely ignored the Pumpkins, deciding “they ain’t local, so we don’t give a shit.” Whatever, dudes. Stick to your “History of Polio in WNC” stories and see how far that gets you.
The Pumpkins end their nine-show run at the Orange Peel on Thursday night. Here’s what one blogger had to say about the Tuesday night show:
About midway through the opening set, Billy’s amp fried. We weathered a couple of fairly lengthy breaks while the crew tried to troubleshoot the problem. I could tell that this nearly took the wind out of Billy’s sails…and pretty much killed the momentum for the rest of us, too. After a bit, things were resolved and the Pumpkins began to absolutely rock in spite of a few distractions (people being hauled out by security) and the heat in the room causing folks to become lethargic.
The band pressed on and Billy made us a deal: “we’re in this journey together from here out … and if you come along with us, we’ll go over there (pointing toward downtown seemingly alluding to hitting the bars with the fans after the show) and if you don’t come along with us, then we’ll go over there (pointing toward back stage seemingly alluding to calling it a night).”
From there out, it was full audience participation and the Smashing Pumpkins rocked on until 1:00am before very graciously thanking us and calling it a night. As Jeff was walking off the stage, he tossed a guitar pick in our general direction (we were standing literally 2-3 rows back – as I write this, my left ear is still somewhat tone deaf, in spite of the ear plugs that I stuffed into both ears throughout most of the set.). After the crowd cleared out, my wife found it and stashed it away.
It was an awesome night and truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I am very grateful for the Pumpkins and Billy taking us on such a splendid journey…and Billy: don’t worry about the amp, man…stuff happens…it only adds to our memories.
It’s impossible to guess accurately, but I would bet that a majority of Xpress readers wouldn’t have attended a free Smashing Pumpkins show at Downtown After Five.
The story that I didn’t see reported anywhere, though I didn’t read much of the coverage, was what a superb advertising coup was scored by the Pumpkins management. Lots and lots of press concerning a product that wasn’t available — sort of like all the hype for the iPhone which was then made available in very limited numbers which generated lines of people camped out to buy them.
If Smashing Pumpkins had booked a bigger venue, say the Civic Center, they could have accomodated about the same number of people in one show or made all those disappointed folks happy and done two shows. No story.
Instead book a small venue in a hip town for a week, sell out fast, and become a hot topic. Bands booted, unhappy fans, and the real tickler, the lead guitarist is a nice fellow who gives away tickets if you strike his fancy. So look for him all over town!
Asheville was the subject of a viral marketing campaign and a lot of people sucked it up.
As for reviews of a show that you can’t get into, a waste of paper. That’s why we don’t review plays that only appear for one weekend, for example. Of no earthly use.
Cecil, your numbers might be correct in considering the number of people in the region interested in the Pumpkins, but the universe we’re imagining is your readership. Of the 25,000 who read the Xpress, we’re guessing a relatively high percentage were interested.
regarding priorities – we thought one of your priorities might be getting people visiting town from all over the U.S. to pick up your publication. the polio story was a yawner, period.
Steve, yes, my impression is that the MountainX took a largely blase stand toward the Pumpkins.
You put Joan Jett on your cover when she was here, but not the Smashing Pumpkins? Where were the concert photos? The review in print? The stories and blog posts we saw were all about how Menage and Stephanie’s Id got kicked out of the Orange Peel to accomodate the Pumpkins, or about the alternative "residency" by local bands at the Flying Frog.
We didn’t say Corgan doesnt like the Xpress. We said he hand’t fallen for your coverage – our opinion. Clearly, he likes the Xpress, or he wouldn’t have taken out a full-page ad in your publication.
Hello, Ash?
The Pumpkins might be important to 20,000 people (I’m being generous) out of the 350,000 something in the Xpress distribution area. They were a huge story to a small group of fans and a source of coffee-through-the-nose amusement to the rest of us.
As a staffer, I think Xpress devoted far too much time and space to the Pumpkins, however good they might be (haven’t heard them, myself). They are ONLY a rock band, for goodness sake.
As far as dissing the paper for considering the lingering effects of polio to be more cover-worthy than a reunion of a handful of musicians with a good P.R. firm — you have really got your priorities screwed up, or else you are too young to understand what polio meant and means. Not to mention the lessons we might draw from one of the major catastrophes of the 20th Century as global warming moves tropical diseases north and we face new epidemics while money that could be used for preparedness is squandered on war.
And, not to poke further holes here, but since when is covering a local controversy like SID and Menage taking sides? It’s a legitimate story — one that gave both parties a chance to explain themselves — and that doesn’t exactly ring of locals-only favoritism.
Ash: Really? Does it seem like we’ve ignored the Pumpkins? We didn’t give them a cover, sure, but we’ve been following the story online from the start. (Thirteen stories/blogs in the past two months, so I’d argue that we’ve maybe even given them too much coverage online.) And it’s not like we’ve ignored them in print. And where are you getting this ‘Corgan doesn’t like Xpress’ thing from? Can you back that up with, like, a fact or a quote? Or is that just your impression?
Once again. I have no control over when my reviews show up. I noticed the same problem;a review of the show I went to not going online until a day or two after the show. I went to six concerts, and after my review of a Wednesday night show didn’t go up for a few days, I just gave up.
I don’t know if there is an anti-Pumpkins vibe or whatever there, I wrote an article a few weeks ago trying to silence all of the whining about tickets, and that’s about it. The only feeling about the Pumpkins I ever got from editorial was a vast wave of indifference as they were trying to get the Bele Chere issues planned and ready to go.
dude, the Pumpkins were here for two weeks. how does the MountainX publishing schedule not keep up with that? and MountainX has a website, on the internets, where you can, like, post stuff immediately.
your first review on the MountainX website appeared the Tuesday following the Saturday, June 23, show. that’s just you not keeping up.
from the get-go, the MountainX decided to take the side of their friends in Menage and Stephanie’s Id, which couldn’t fill up the Orange Peel for one night, let alone nine shows. there’s been a distinct anti-Pumpkins vibe coming from MountainX from the start.
I’ve been writing some mini reviews of the shows that have appeared on the Mountain Xpress website. I think you’ll find that the main reason why the Xpress hasn’t covered a lot of the Pumpkins shows is because the publishing schedule of the Xpress doesn’t help with the immediacy needed for reviewing concerts. Noone would care to read a review of a concert that was over a week old, and that’s the best they can do. But seriously, check out MountainX.com.