the pumpkins must have felt a bit like they were playing into a vacuum as the crowd wasn't giving back a lot of energy; the fans in athens though are nostalgic and like me, in their late twenties/early thirties, formerly angry youth in the grunge era. i can't really justify the actions of some who stood like statues as billy and jimmy gave it their all. nostalgia is and always will be a beautiful thing for me, no matter how old i get; the pumpkins will always bring me back to a time and place (high school) and i will always act accordingly: absorbed in the music, wild, most of all very satisfied. i have to say that i've never seen a better band live than that the current incarnation of the smashing pumpkins; they were absolutely incandescent, a machine; they owned every song they played; the show seemed short and they acted as if they'd just run a 5K in 14 flat without breaking a sweat and could easily go on and run a marathon without bathos. i wish they had, i wish they had played a dream setlist, but we are at their mercy; i'm appreciative of what i saw.