Big Gig 2010

I had been looking forward to the 2010 Big Gig for quite awhile – as soon as I heard The Smashing Pumpkins were headlining, I was in!  I honestly didn’t care much about the rest of the lineup, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the bands and I will be seeing them again in the future.

I will admit I did not stay long for the locals only stage – bad on me for not supporting local music, but it was hot and there weren’t any seats in that area, so my friend and I went to find our actual seats by the big stage.  We happily discovered that our seats weren’t so bad, we could see the stage pretty well without having to look at the jumbo screens

No picture, although I did find a picture of a sandwich when I googled “Break Through Beautiful”.

The first four bands were local to Denver as well, starting with Break Through Beautiful.  They weren’t my favorite thing ever, I think part of it is that I think it wasn’t mixed very well.  One of the things I often hate is that the amps will be so loud you can’t hear a lot of the vocals, so I don’t know how to rate a band when I can’t hear their singer.  See, I’m not a musician.  I am a singer.  So I like singing.  In listening to their stuff on their Myspace, they sound better than they did at the show.  Nonetheless, they aren’t really my thing.

Next was Darling Thieves, formerly I Hate Kate.  Again, they aren’t really my thing.  But not so bad.  They were fun, and a decent way to pass the time.

Don’t you kind of want to scrub them down and give them a haircut?

After that came Tickle Me Pink, who I had seen at another music festival several months ago.  I guess I’ll just say right now that I went to this festival to see The Smashing Pumpkins, and pretty much the majority of the other music was just not what I typically listen to.  I mean, it’s not Lady Gaga.  This is not me saying I totally hate these bands, they are just generally the band I come back to if nothing better is on the radio – they aren’t the destination.

They are that adorable in person too, y’all!

Fourth was the Flobots.  I had heard from my stylist that they put on a great show, she saw them live a lot when they were a smaller band here, so I had some high expectations of them.  Let me just say that I was not disappointed in the least.  They put on a fantastic show!  This is the kind of band that you can totally see what each member brings to the table, they all have unique contributions, and wow, the energy!  All of them were in sync so well, they were fabulously choreographed, and I can absolutely see why this is a band that has managed to break away from the local scene.  I plan on seeing them live every single time I can, and I encourage all of you to do so as well!  I mean, internets, they have an actual viola player!

*****

I’m so lazy I didn’t want to look up pictures for these next two.  Yep, I disliked them that much.

Up next we had Anberlin, and well, they were worse than I expected.  First, they were just so…old!  Maybe it’s just in comparison to the previous bands, but these guys just felt out of touch to me.  I just looked them up and they are my age, lol.  I promise, y’all, they looked like ten years older than that.  And they didn’t play their most popular song, Breaking.  I say if you go out on tour, you should probably play the song that people know you for!  The performance was so so at best, especially after following the awesomeness that was The Flobots.  Also, by this time, I was just ready for the Smashing Pumpkins to come on, so maybe I’m a little harsh?  I do know that I don’t think I’ll be listening to them anymore.

I’ll say up front that I am very not into Chevelle, so I was not expecting to like them at all.  Maybe if I were still 15?  But I’m not, so I feel like I’m too old to really like this stuff.  And honestly, I’ve never been into headbanger music, so these guys really had no chance with me.  I decided, after I finished my nachos, that I was going to settle down in my chair to have a massage and pre-Pumpkins nap.

My future husband, Billy Corgan.

Finally, at 9:40 PM, after listening to a variety of bands since 4:30 in the afternoon, my beloved Smashing Pumpkins took the stage.  I was disappointed, earlier in the day, that I didn’t make a sign proposing to Billy Corgan, but it was dark and freezing by then, so he wouldn’t have been able to see it anyway.  Next time, Billy, next time.

I give you a picture of just Billy because he’s the only original band member left.  And really, this show was about him.  I obviously don’t know what the inner workings of the current band are like, but what I did notice is that these people just let Billy do his thing.  Although he did introduce himself as two time NFL champ John Elway

Unfortunately, the Pumpkins had to play a shortened set list because they had to stop by 11 PM since the arena was outdoors.  We did get to hear:

• Astral Planes
• Ava Adore
• Today
• Drown
• A Song for a Son
• Bullet With Butterfly Wings
• United States
• Bleeding the Orchid
• Cherub Rock
• Stand Inside Your Love
• Tarantula

I had heard they are normally playing Perfect as well, which is one of my favorite Pumpkins songs, but they didn’t get to that one.  I honestly wish there had been more from the Adore album, since I’m one of those crazies that names Adore as my favorite album.  Yes, people, I think it’s better than Siamese Dream!

It was also pretty cold out, and quite a few people started to leave, which pissed Billy off enough that he commented.  Let me tell you people, you do not walk out on the great Billy Corgan!  Damn kids these days, they’ve got no respect!

My uncle commented that he didn’t know Billy Corgan was such a great guitarist, and I said “I did.”  Picture me as Tai in Clueless talking about Travis

On the way out, I overheard some kids saying they wished Billy hadn’t played three extra minutes onto each song, and had instead stuck in as many songs as he could have.  To those kids I say: Why didn’t you just plug in your iPod and stay home?  I, for one, don’t go to a concert to see an exact rendition of my favorite songs, I go to see my favorite musicians play.  I like them displaying their creativity.  Shit, I even put up with guitar solos because I love Billy so much, so you can too!

I could listen to the Pumpkins play all day long, even though it was like 54 degrees and a wee bit freezing outside.  I was pretty sad that because of the time and the weather, they had to cut it short.  And I hope they come back, play indoors, and have a kick ass rockin’ show!  Like if they would play Blank Page and The End is the Beginning is the End?  I would be so so happy!