THis was my third Smashing Pumpkins show ('94 and '96) and it was far and away the least enjoyable. Looking forward to it for 10+ years, I was hoping that the smaller venue would really be good, but not tonight. They played for a long time (2 1/2 hours or so), but I was ready to go about halfway through.

I really enjoyed Hummer, Tonight Tonight, Set the Ray to Jerry, 1979, Perfect, Cherub Rock, Today and Drown. Iron man was pretty great too. Not a single song played from Gish, and though Billy said Set the Ray to Jerry came from Pisces Iscariot, it's not on any version I've ever seen, so not a single song from there either. Heavy Metal Machine was awful.

I had read in several reviews that they had been playing Starla (played it the next night apparently), and would have loved to hear that, as well as ANYTHING from Gish. I know they're promoting a new album, but I would have enjoyed a little more attention paid to the stuff that got them to where they were before the end.

With Chamberlain and Corgan there, I assumed that the most important parts of the core were there and the rest were interchangeable, but that was not the case.

Difficult to expect the same things I saw so long ago, but this band is not only not the same, they're not as good. Most everything seemed so overwrought and the music just wasn't there. Jimmy Chamberlain was unbelievable on the drums, though, and when Billy brought the kids from the audience up on stage, that was a great moment.

Great moments aside, this most recent Pumpkins show was probably my last. "I want something new, but what am I supposed to do about you? Yeah, I love you - it's true," kind of ironic, right?