That's annoying, I am going to try and see that show next week, mostly for Live who I've never seen before and it's a cheap local show. Just hope I can get out of work in time to see their full set since it's a Tuesday and they aren't the headliners.
Last week was an unbelievable show for the Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary. Apparently they plan on doing a few shows to celebrate, but the first one seemed kind of random as they sold out MSG the night before and added this show in NJ later, but it really didn't sell well for such a large venue. I managed to get 15th row tickets for 30 bucks (including fees). We were on the side, but it didn't matter considering the price and occasion.
There were lots of special guests for this 28 song set they played (a bit shorter set actually than the rest of the tour, they went on abut 15 minutes late). But after the initial set of SP songs, out the guests started flowing. First was Chino Moreno, singer of the Deftones, who sang two SP songs that haven't been played in awhile. Then we got the hit Tonight Tonight and a really cool cover of Stairway to Heaven
We then got two more classic SP tracks performed with Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. My gf's favorite guest was next,
Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray and they performed his hit song Fly before going into a really surprising cover song of Breaking the Law. Seeing Mark sing this song was awesome, he was loving it and so energetic on stage. That was probably the highlight for me (and I guess the most metal moment of the night).
That wasn't nearly all. I'm not sure if people actually like her or not, but then
Billy Corgan brought out Courtney Love and they performed her hit song Celebrity Skin by Hole and they also performed another Hole song, Malibu, before going into the song Bullet with Butterfly Wings together. So having never seen Courtney Love before, I must say, she is exactly what I would have expected she would be if this was still her hey day, but some things never change. She looked and sounded intoxicated. She said a few really dumb things between songs, and could hardly sing. I'll say this though, this was entertaining though
Next guest was Peter Hook and they did a few of his songs together including the final songs with guests. The last surprise was
Davey Havok of AFI and one of my favorite singers, they performed the Joy Division song Transmission. I love his style and voice (more to come on him next). Courtney Love came back out and they did another Joy Division cover still with Davey and Peter as well. Just epic. The encore was the new single and another cover which seemed anti climatic after everything that just happened.
So back to Davey Havok and AFI, I guess the reason he could be a guest while on tour was because AFI were in town. I caught them yesterday at the Stone Pony Summer Stage outside along the shore. I got there in time to see Anti-Flag, who I've seen a few times, but I wasn't really into their set. I honestly wasn't terribly loving this concert because the sun was just beating down on us. The humidity was tough too, but the sun coming down behind the stage made viewing the bands really difficult. AFI played 10 songs and were awesome, but I was bummed about the short set. The sun was setting behind them as they played, which was cool and bad. It looked great, but so hard to consistently watch. Also, my video kind of came out like shit because of the lighting.
AFI were really good though, got one really really old song which was cool and Davey was great live again.