The Smashing Pumpkins played the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion last night, and Billy Corgan seemed to have a hell of a time. The Chicago alt-rock legends, now supported by Peter Hook progeny Jack Bates on bass, blasted out a loud, hits-heavy set, coming out of the gate strong with four straight sonic knockouts: “Cherub Rock,” “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “Tonight Tonight,” and “Ava Adore.”
Throughout the set — which also included acoustic renditions of “Disarm” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” — Corgan seemed in great spirits, riffing with the crowd and acting the role of animated rock frontman. It was 1995 all over again. It ruled.
Of course, his upbeat demeanor last night was in stark contrast to him shown in a recently circulated photo of the musician at Disneyland, emanating alleged infinite sadness as he rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Before the image went viral last week, Corgan actually addressed it during a July 13 fan VIP Q&A session, and Alternative Nation has the transcript.
It’s pretty awesome.
“I literally had somebody say to me the other day, I think it was at DisneyLand: ‘Hey, you don’t seem that into this.’ I was like, ‘I’m at fucking Disneyland. I just want to hang out at Disneyland. I’m not here to do a meet and greet, I’m here to be at Disneyland.’ You know what I’m saying? But it’s almost like, ‘Well you’re here, and I’m here, and because I’m on my vacation, your vacation, you’re part of my vacation.’ It’s like, I’m not working, and I wasn’t being unpleasant, I wasn’t being rude. I was taking pictures with people, I took a picture with every person that asked. But then it gets into, what’s in your head? Like, you’re not smiling enough, or you don’t seem to be enjoying – and I’m like, what the fuck do you want from me?
“That’s when it gets like, are you paying me? On whose dime are we on here? Because we have so much celebrity culture that is servile, ‘I’ll say whatever you want. I’ll make sure I take just the right selfie so I look better than I really look.’ I don’t want any part in that, that’s not interesting. So if that means one person has to walk away and go, ‘He’s doesn’t seem like he’s in a good mood,’ and they never go to a show again, I mean, they’re not really a fan, so that’s just the way it goes.”
Real talk.
Here’s the photo, you know, #ICYMI:
