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| The Smashing Pumpkins - Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlain, and James Iha (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
The long Labor Day weekend kicked off with a bang last night at Shoreline with the return of
The Smashing Pumpkins,
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, and the punk-post-goth foursome,
AFI. Somewhat surprisingly, with a bill as strong as this, the venue was only about three quarters full -- most likely due to the annual exodus from the city to Burning Man; but no matter, because those 12,000 of us who made it down to Mountain View last night were treated to solid performances all around on the very last date of their summer tour.
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| The Smashing Pumpkins @ Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Personally speaking, the biggest highlight of the night came from show openers, AFI, who led off promptly at 7pm to just a smattering of folks who had made it into the venue for the early start time. These guys were true openers in every sense and brought a ton of energy to warm-up those in the crowd who weren't already die-hard fans. Lead singer Davey Havok was as busy as a mexican jumping bean and could barely keep his feet on the stage as they plowed through their hits in a short 30-minute set.
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| AFI @ Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Noel Gallagher brought his High Flying Birds to the stage at 8pm and plowed through his solo material in the first half of his set. The always-grumpy better half of brit-pop Oasis was in true form opening telling the crowd that the first half of the set was for him, but the second half of the set was for all of us, even cracking after performing "Wonderwall" that there was a bloke in the back that finally realized who he was. Later in the set, he exclaimed "Hello San Francisco" which got the audience up in arms with a few boos. Noel engaged the crowd who were trying to tell him we were in Mountain View, for which he said 'Bellevue?" He then went on expressing astonishment that he was in Mountain View, saying "where are the mountains"? And asking later, "Do you people actually live around here? What do you do? Google?" replying to an audience member in the front, "You were really excited when you said that! Are you googling? What do you google? Porn? Yeah, you do."
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| Noel Gallahger's High Flying Birds @ Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
But even though he wasn't the most personable performer of the night, his 10-piece(!) band sounded great and consisted of a 3-piece horn section, keyboardist, guitarist, bassist, 3 background singers, and a fantastic drummer who made a habit of tossing his sticks high above his kit. One of the background singers even played a pair of scissors -- I don't think I've ever seen that before!
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| Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds @ Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
At about 9:30, The Smashing Pumpkins graced the stage with 3 massive totems filling the stage behind them. Drummer extraordinaire took up residence at center-stage, just behind Billy Corgan's primary spot for the night. The other founding member of the band, James Iha, took his spot at stage left with a keyboardist from Australia setting up shop right behind him. Two other bandmates, a guitarist & bassist, took their spots at stage right; and thus began the Pumpkins 90 minute set through their 34-year catalog to the pure excitement of everyone in the crowd. Those in the seated sections of Shoreline jumped to their feet and remained standing through the Pumpkin's entire set.
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| The Smashing Pumpkins @ Shoreline Amphitheater (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Billy barely spoke throughout the set, taking time to introduce the band about two thirds of the way through the set, and let the music speak for itself -- a testament to the bands' impact on music since founding the band back in Chicago in 1988.
Overall, the bands were impressive throughout the night, if even it was a bit of an odd pairing from the high-energy of AFI, to the subdued brit-pop of Noel's High Flying Birds, to the Pumpkins melancholy rock. Well worth the price of admission and 3-solid acts for the price of one.
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