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April 10, 2002 - The Galaxy - St. Louis, MO, US Concert review by liquid peppermint (jellybelly_11 at hotmail dot com) Siva - Zwan : Concert Reviews hello, all! I got back on Thursday (April 11) at 9 in the morning from Wednesday night’s Zwan show at the Galaxy in St. Louis. I didn’t know what to expect from it and I am pleased to say that it turned out to be a very long, interesting, exciting, and extremely fun occasion. Five years ago, I unhappily moved to here from San Francisco and discovered a cool classmate named Jake Corgan. The last name is no coincidence, considering that he really is Billy Corgan (of the former smashing pumpkins)’s cousin. For a die-hard smashing pumpkins fan, this was an amazing surprise and waited eagerly for a chance to take advantage of this casual friendship. The pumpkins arrived 3 years later on April 10, 2000 (coincidentally, 2 years before last night’s Zwan gig), but due to severe self-esteem issues, I missed the chance of meeting Billy Corgan and the band, even though the Corgans would have happily taken me along with them backstage. When the band ended in December of that year, I was devastated, thinking that all of my hopes and chances were gone. Not so. With the birth of Zwan, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin (smashing pumpkins’ drummer) returned to town on Sunday, April 7 for three performances. Siva (message board)’s own Fool Enough (Garret) was proud to announce to his 2-year online chatting friend that he was going to trek across the Midwest with a friend to see the Wednesday show. I didn’t know about the gigs, since I am out of touch with reality and absolutely freaked. After numerous suggestions, I picked up some tickets through Ebay and called the Corgans to let them know about Billy’s return. Excitedly, Gwendolyn Corgan (Jake’s mother and Billy’s aunt) offered to help out, perhaps take me to meet her famous nephew. Well, the tickets arrived but the clan had planned on attending the Sunday, not the Wednesday show. Gwendolyn phoned Sunday morning and asked if I had a ticket for the night’s show. Sadly, no. Disappointed, I hung up and prayed for a miracle that I would get to meet Zwan and Fool Enough (Garret) on the same night. My plea was answered. The friend that was going to take my 2nd ticket backed out. With no one to go with, I phoned Gwendolyn again, asking for someone to take it. What luck! She didn’t attend Sunday’s performance and would be delighted to come. I got off of diving practice early enough for Garret to phone and give me a description of himself and arrive at the Corgan household at around 6 p.m. Billy’s uncle Steve and I discussed the two bands, Billy, and music in general for several minutes before Gwendolyn and Steve’s mother Helen were ready to go. Gwendolyn’s driving made me crazy—I counted her using the turn signal twice during the 40-minute drive to the city. On the way, the three of us discussed the same things I had spoken with Steve about, Billy’s happiness and mental state (apparently 9/11 affected him greatly and changed his outlook on life. He isn’t such a workaholic anymore and lets himself be happy), the family, alternating speaking English and Spanish (it was a good time to practice it). We arrived at the Galaxy a bit after 7. I was in the backseat looking for a guy about 5’8 with short brown hair, gelled, wearing a superman shirt, pierced ears, and with an attractive blonde girl and her mother. We rounded the corner to the parking lot near the tour bus, and my heart started pounding when I was certain that I saw Garret and his “posse” standing on the corner. We parked and Gwendolyn handed me a piece of paper with leopard-print bordering and “Corgan Family” typed in the center. She told me that I wouldn’t need the tickets that I brought because all we had to do was find a big man named (Tim) Gouch (pronounced “gooch”) and he’d take care of it. Nevertheless, I almost ran out of the car and up to the superman boy. “There he is!….Are you Garret?” He said yes, he was and we hugged, having met each other in person for the first time after two years of online chatting. His friend and her mother turned out to be die-hard smashing pumpkins and zwan fans as well. Warmly, the six of us greeted each other. Gwendolyn knocked on the bus door and held up her “Corgan Family” paper and asked for Gouch. She, Helen, and I were then allowed inside. I tried holding Garret’s hand when I stepped up so he and his company could come aboard, too. “Gwendolyn! Are they allowed…?” I heard Billy Corgan’s voice say “No, family only.” So upsettingly I had to turn Garret away, but promised I’d be out as soon as I could. Family only? I’m not Corgan Family…I was just a friend tagging along. The first person I recognized on the bus was Jimmy Chamberlin, seated with two girls in their early 20s (no, they were not groupies.), one of which was named Julia and apparently was from the area. The first thing I said to Jimmy after “hello” was, “hey, you don’t have blonde hair anymore!” He responded that he had dyed it black again. When I met Billy Corgan, I kept my cool and didn’t act like a b0Lly wHoRe. I shook his hand and said, “Hi, I’m the person you signed the autograph for last night.” After the greeting, he went into the back of the bus for awhile. So Jimmy, the girls, Gwendolyn, Helen and I sat (on very comfortable bus seats) and conversed. Famous musicians are spoiled. TV, lots of (junk) food, bunks for sleeping in, a few sinks, privacy from the driver, dvds, and a “bathroom” that would make any claustrophobic lose it. I was offered a coke which I sipped quietly. The actual conversation was very casual, with topics ranging from pets (everyone except the Corgans seemed to have cats), and homes (Jimmy discussed his newer place out in rural Illinois near a town with 300 people as the population and a river in the back of the house. He apparently loves to fish. Julia mentioned that she didn’t like seafood. Jimmy somewhat raved about it and then said something about there being too much mercury in the water of someplace else.) I briefly told him about my origin in San Francisco and how I had been accepted at Mills College. “Oh really?” he asked. “Yeah, but it’s an all-girls school so..blah...i hate girls.” They started talking about the bus’s toilet. It’s a lot like the one in a airplane except you can’t flush anything, so you have to throw the t.p. in the trash. At this point i mentioned the little story my mother told me: “Uh, when my mother and I flew to Oakland last month, she told me never to sit on the toilet in an airplane lavatory and flush while still on it because she heard of a woman who did and got stuck to it.” “She got stuck to it?!” Jimmy laughed, wide-eyed. “ Um, yeah..she had to wait until the end of the flight for two guys to help pull her out.” Everyone cracked up. Apparently, Billy warms himself up before a show by doing yoga stretches. So there he was in front of us stretching. He had trouble reaching the ground. I offered to teach him how to touch it without bending his knees, but he refused and said that he was starting to feel older. “How old are you?” Helen asked him. “Thirty-five,” Billy (and I softly) said. “Really?” “Yep...already starting to feel it.” Gwendolyn asked if the stretches put him into a somewhat meditative state. “Yes.” Then she asked if he got nervous onstage. “Nah, I really don’t get nervous anymore.” I said that he could probably do anything and the audience would think it was neat. “Nope,” he said, swigging bottled water (“what am I supposed to drink onstage?”), “You’d be surprised how perceptive the audience can be...” I immediately thought of the performance of “geek u.s.a” in Germany in the ‘Vieuphoria’ video and how the audience threw cups of water at Billy and he threw them back. He has a bit of a tummy and whenever he lifted his hands, his blue shirt lifted, too, exposing his cute, rather small jellybelly. I was tempted to reach over and tickle him, but instead shyly chipped at my blue nail polish and sipped at my own Dannon water (handed to me personally by Jimmy Chamberlin). Then Billy stretched out his back and he and Jimmy began discussing big girls. Not big girls as in chests (necessarily), but tall and muscular. “Who’s Tom Cruise’s ex-wife?” “Nicole Kidman.” “Yeah, that’s her. You know how delicate she looks? I saw her in person and she’s a big girl. A really big girl.” Jimmy mentioned that Kim Basinger was like that, too and that he once had a crush on her–or maybe it was someone else–I don’t remember. “You know who’s really big? Sigourney Weaver...man...” Billy continued. Helen asked about the birthmark on his hand. “I used to be really self-conscious about it when I was younger, but now I don’t even think about it.” Earlier we had talked with Jimmy about different places (Gwendolyn mentioned the ones she has lived in: California, Arizona, Mexico, and Costa Rica, as well as Missouri. All of the snakes), particularly Chicago and how cold (I thought) it was. Billy said that when it gets chilly, his birthmark turns purple. People go up to him and ask, “Oh my god! Are you okay?! Is it really that cold out?!” Ah, Billy Corgan and his unique hands. Left-handed playing guitar right-handed, huge, long fingers, with a gigantic birthmark splashed on top. I asked him if he hid it, put makeup on it or something when he played live (because I never noticed it). He gave me a confused look. The conversation continued. Billy started talking about the house he had recently purchased for himself and one for his dad. The location shall remain confidential to protect Corgan family privacy. His dad apparently wanted to pool to go with it. When Billy left for a sec, I asked Jimmy where Billy lived now. I think he said Chicago. “Not the purple house, though,” I said. “No, I think he sold that awhile ago, didn’t he?” “Yes.” Someone brought in a few Zwan shirts for the members to sign. Jimmy pen’d the back of an orange one (the one with the 3 guys on the back) and mentioned something about taking the photo out of a magazine. “Plagiarizers!” I accused. “There’s no copyright on it,” he insisted and then mentioned how he himself had taken the photo of the elk (the deer) on the other, familiar zwan shirt. Along with the shirts, a cd or tape was brought it. Billy unwrapped it, read the note attached and showed it to Jimmy, who was putting dvds into cases (NHL, “halo”). They started talking about musicians–Bowie, and how some other rock star was so angry when his brother or friend put Chrissie Hynde (who he doesn’t like) onstage with him to sing and to express his rage, hocked the biggest lugie ever in Chrissie’s face. Laughter. I got up and was about to go out of the bus and scalp the two tickets that I ended up not needing, but I don’t know how to sell anything. Billy held the door open and I peeked my head out. Cameras started flashing in our faces. That actually felt kind of cool (“hey, I’m with Billy Corgan— take my photo, too!”). “Anybody need zwan tickets?” I yelled and looked around. No response. Garret, Lisa, and her mom were still out there waiting. I really wanted to bring them in. I asked Billy, “How much should I sell these for?” “I don’t know...face value...”he answered, half-hearing me. One of the two girls on the bus offered to go out and sell them for me. She returned in about five minutes with a two cool $20 bills which she put in my hand. Sweet. Gouch brought in a few warm beers for everyone. This was when I had finished my coke and Jimmy handed me the Dannon water. The topic of cigarettes came up and Jimmy said that he had recently quit smoking, but still loved the smell of cigarettes. I asked if he recommended anyone starting (to smoke). He looked me in the eye and said no. Got that?! Jimmy Chamberlin doesn’t recommend that people start to smoke! If health consequences won’t stop you, maybe personal advice from Jimmy Chamberlin will. We have a local pizza chain called “Imo’s” which makes really BAD thin-crusted “St. Louis-style” “pizza”. The band had ordered a few. I warned them about how disgusting the shit is. When Gouch handed the boxes around, Jimmy sampled it and said “This pizza’s awful!” “I told you!” I shouted. *laugh* He hated it! Fortunately for them, they ordered sandwiches as well. “Let’s see, four turkeys...” All of us females in the front discussed the Corgan family, Jake, etc. Gwendolyn described him as “undisciplined.” I laughed, remembering how often Jake was in and out of school. Every girl in seventh and eighth grade had a crush on him. He didn’t even get his GED. My lipstick had rubbed off and I asked Gwendolyn, “Tiene usted un espejo?” “Si” she answered and handed me a blush compact. “Como se dice ‘blush’? ‘Rojo para mejillas’?” “Ooh, I don’t know. I’ve forgotten a lot of words. ‘Blush’ (‘bloosh’) maybe.” I reapplied the outrageous stuff. it was regrettable. Billy came back with his guitar unplugged, strumming it and humming, walking around the entire bus. Jimmy sat on the counter and drummed his sticks on his thigh. Gwendolyn said that her (12-year-old son) Justin, at the Sunday show, tried to listen for any mistakes in Jimmy’s drumming and didn’t hear any. (The Corgan family is a family of musicians). “Ha, ha, ha!” He informed us about Paz, the new female bassist from A Perfect Circle. “She’s really, really good.” There was no mention of D’arcy Wretzky at all that night. The Asian guitarist (Pajo? Is that his name?) attracted Jimmy’s attention. He tried to say his last name but couldn’t remember it. “Oh, and I’ve known him for about 20 years and can’t remember his name.” Paz, Billy, and the rest of zwan were in the back, continuing to warm up, singing “do re mi fa so la ti do” and really stretching it out. Paz screeched and it sounded like nails on a blackboard. When the duet ended, i turned my head towards the back and yelled, “My cat sounds better than that!!!!!” A mixture of laughter and “oooh”s erupted throughout the bus. Billy looked towards the front and asked loudly, “Who said that?! Who said that?!”. Fingers pointed in my direction. Billy looked at me, pointed, and said “Out! Out! Out! Out!” while jerking his thumb. He was somewhat smiling. I started giggling and tried to explain that it wasn’t Billy that my cat sounded better than; it was Paz’s screeching. My explanation was so weak and unbelievably lame...I could barely get the words out. However, I’m pretty sure that everyone knew I was joking. I hope so. I still feel a tad uncomfortable for ‘insulting’ zwan, even if it was intended to be funny. The band was dressed very casually, even sort of grungy. Billy had changed from his “storytellers” outfit (blue shirt, dark pants, nikes, stubble) into a shirt that reminded me of something from the ‘gish’ era of the smashing pumpkins’ fashion history. Jimmy had thick eyeliner above his left eye. He joked, “I look like that singer from TLC!” He had a few tattoos on his arms, too. He was so nice and friendly and uh, sober...that I almost forgot that he was an ex-junkie, fired from the pumpkins in 1996. I’m glad that the band took him back. I tried my best to avoid pumpkins-related stuff while I was on the bus with Zwan, which wasn’t easy because 2 members of my favourite band of all time were there. I don’t own a single zwan shirt (they’re ugly) and I was wearing a girly tank top version of Billy’s infamous “zero” shirt. Nevertheless, I asked Jimmy if he still talked to James Iha. “Mmmm..not really. I spoke to him maybe a month or so ago...I think he and Melissa (Auf Der Maur) have a group together...” “The Virgins,” I said. “Yeah, that’s it. He might be working on a solo thing...” I guess I had a romantic ideal that bandmates were good friends through the thick and the thin. I mentioned something to Jimmy about him sniffing the drums. “What?” “In ‘vieuphoria’..right before you start to play ‘quiet’, it looks like you’re sniffing the drums.” “Okay...ah, James...James is the king of farting onstage...” We were in the bus for over an hour, completely missing the performance of the opening band–‘neptune’s crush’. Zwan was ready to go on soon, with Billy sitting on the food counter, going over the playlist for the evening. I showed my camera to Gwendolyn and she said that I had better take a photo soon because the band was most likely to leave immediately after the gig. Jimmy was looking forward to going home. The Corgans even said their familial goodbyes. Even though I peed at their house beforehand, I had to again (damn coke and water!) . Lucky me...I got to sit on the spot where all of the members of zwan sat their asses on. The “hot” water from the sink wasn’t even hot. I reapplied my cheesy lipstick and walked out, got my camera. “Gwendolyn...” I held it up. I was surprised that Billy was nice enough to take a photo with me, after I “insulted” his and Paz’s “do re mi” warm up. I was so shy...”Uh, hey, can you take this with me... I’m a shy fan...around celebrities..and things like that.” So we put our arms around each other and Gwendolyn shot. I wish I had taken another...the one that I took makes me look like I’m twelve (I’m 18, just so you all know). But I was lucky enough to even get within 5 feet of one of my favourite musicians of all time, soo..I can’t complain. I was going to try and get one of Jimmy and I, but he bitched about all of the cameras flashing in his face all evening, so I bagged that idea. I did get a few good ones of him onstage, though. Gouch came in and informed us that it was time for the show to start. Everyone got up. “Ready?” “Vamonos,” Gwendolyn said. It was fun practicing my Spanish with her. She got me a plastic grocery bag to hold my souvenirs (the coke can and the water bottle) in. “I thought you would want to keep them.” She’s great. We all lined up single file and stepped out of the bus. The security guards held the crowd back. Garret, Lisa, and her mom Julie were still there! “Hey...I think we’re going to take the backstage entrance..go through the front...I’ll meet you inside,” I told them. Some girls started screaming for Billy and shouted, “Your security guard was mean to us!” Shut up. I held Gwendolyn’s hand as Gouch led us and zwan inside. We stood where crew would be..to the side of the stage, for a minute or two. “Okay...see ya...good luck.” Then zwan walked onstage to lots of aggressive cheering. The rest of us melted into the audience unnoticed. Gwendolyn, Helen and I parked ourselves to the left of the stage near the bar...I had my souvenir-filled grocery bag tied around my wrist. Julie later offered to hold it for me. Garret found me quickly and he and I moved to the front of the stage..in the back (if that makes sense at all). Needless to say, zwan was spectacular. Reviews of their early performances weren’t so great, but they have improved quite a bit. Billy looked extremely happy (quite evident from the photos I took. Most venues don’t allow cameras in but Jimmy said, “Yeah, they allow cameras.”). Garret and I moved around for a better view and found Lisa. We all were “rockin’ on”....jumping up and down, cheering, no moshing (thank god). I have not downloaded many zwan songs, so I didn’t recognize too many of them. However, these were especially good: “jesus”, “endless summer”, “yeah”, “baby, let’s rock’. I’m sure that all of the atheists in the audience loved the lyric: “Someday god’s gonna set the world on fire....someday god’s gonna set the world on fire...” (Repeat about a hundred times). Gwendolyn told me that Billy got the idea/lyrics for “jesus” by opening some religious book and taking out phrases and mixing them together or something. Billy asked the audience just who in it was from St. Louis. Garret and I kept our mouths shut until a few seconds later I shouted: “St. Louis sucks!!!!” Then Billy talked about Nelly: “Everyone from St. Louis always talks about Nelly.....it’s complicated.” He described “endless summer” as having something to do with the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals and the World Series. I think he’s a Cubs fan. Zwan really is something. However, to the uneducated listener, it looks like a reincarnation of the smashing pumpkins on prozac. You have Billy, Jimmy, an Asian guitarist and a female bassist..and some other guitarists. It makes you wonder... When the audience wanted an encore, they first shouted for Billy and stamped their feet and clapped (duh, what else do you do when you want an encore?). then they shouted “zwan! Zwan! Zwan! Zwan!”–much more appropriate. That got the band back out. This time Jimmy picked up a guitar and played with he and Billy joking around. They looked like they were having lots of fun (pictures to prove it). I shot two rolls of film. Helen looked bored, Gwendolyn was interested, and Lisa’s mother was absorbed. Garret later told me that she practically introduced her daughter to the smashing pumpkins. What a cool mom!!!! She got friendly with the people I came with, it looks like. Very, very cool. Around this time, Gwendolyn’s other son Jared (23) showed up. He looks like a cross between his dad and Billy. He’s nice, too. I don’t think I’ve ever met a mean Corgan. Anyway, if any of you get a chance to see zwan...go see them!!!!! In most cases, it’s not a good idea to leave with people you just met a few hours ago, but I decided to risk it anyways. So we all agreed that I would go to the hotel with Garret, Lisa, and Julie and then pick my car up at the Corgans’ house later. Still guilty about not getting them to meet the members of zwan, I asked...”Is there a chance that they...could meet...?” “No....they have to leave right after the show.” Damnit. “Who recognized..?” “Some girl. She says that she visits the boards and recognized your photos.” That’s a tad scary. He also exchanged email addresses with some other people at the show. The worst part of the show was when it ended. Together, Garret, Lisa, Julie, the Corgans and I went to the parking lot where I fumbled around in my cargo pants for directions to the Corgans’ and accidently dropped the tampon I had stuffed there. I think Garret was more embarrassed than I was. I just laughed and put it back in the pocket. Instead of waiting for me to find the paper (cargo pants hold a lot of things), Jared took over and sloppily wrote down directions to the house on someone’s car. “Where are my sunglasses? I can’t leave without them.” Gwendolyn fished them out of her car. I hated to see them leave, but I live about 10 minutes away from them (by car), so it’s not a huge deal. So we said our thank-yous and goodbyes and headed out. I don’t recommend this at all, but I went back to the Hyat hotel with Garret and his posse in their car (listening to a mix tape of smashing pumpkins singles), where we roamed the mall at Union Station, the hallways and ahhh....had some great fun :) the funniest part was when we were outside the hotel entrance and garret went to check the door...he ran and tripped on something, falling down and scraping his leg pretty badly. trying to act cool can be dangerous to your health. I congratulated them for putting up with me and driving me back (40 minutes out into the suburbs). They complained about the traffic. Of course. Missouri has some of the worst drivers in the world. The goodbyes were quick. I left the Corgans to Steve waving and asking me to come over sometime so I could discuss the smashing pumpkins with him. I got home at around 9 a.m. best concert ever! |
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