The Smashing Pumpkins, live in Melbourne, 1998

Smashing Pumpkins
Date: June 20th, 1998, Adore Tour
Venue: Rod Laver Arena
Supported by: Jebediah
Cost: $53.90 AUD
Setlist:

1. To Sheila
2. Behold! The Night Mare
3. Ava Adore
4. Pug
5. Crestfallen
6. Tear
7. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
8. Perfect
9. Tonight, Tonight
10. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
11. Daphne Descends
12. Shame
13. For Martha
14. Encore:
15. 1979
16. Transmission (Joy Division cover)
17. Zero



In early June, 1998, Smashing Pumpkins released Adore, the follow up to their ground breaking album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Prior to Adore’s release, the Pumpkins were at their peak in popularity and the follow up to Mellon Collie was highly anticipated. Things had changed in the Pumpkins camp, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin exited the group and was replaced for the most part by drum programming for the album. In the live arena, a new drummer filled in, who was backed by two additional percussionists. There was also no trace of the grunge rock featured on albums before, the style was now a mellow and sometimes acoustic arrangement.
Australian fans had little over 2 weeks to get used to these changes after the album was released when the Smashing Pumpkins arrived on our doorstep.
The day before the Melbourne show, the Pumpkins played a ‘secret’ gig at Circular Key in Sydney that was broadcast by Triple J live around the country, and Australia got to hear the new Smashing Pumpkins set. The set consisted mostly of new material and a few re-workings of older tracks, but was missing many of the hits that SP became famous for.

When the Smashing Pumpkins played in Melbourne, the set was a little longer but followed the same tune. To their credit, the songs from Adore were improved with the live arrangements, featuring live drumming as opposed to programmed drums which brought a new life to these tracks. Daphne Descends rocked a little faster than on the CD, and the single, Ava Adore, featured a distorted electric guitar riff that brought back a bit of their grunge flavour to the mix.
Tear was also another stand out track, once again, faster and heavier than on the album.
The new songs were not the only ones to differ in musical arrangement to their original recordings. An acoustic based rendition of Tonight, Tonight pleased the crowd, as did a re-worked version of Bullet With Butterfly Wings, which featured a drum intro and followed a different format and feel to what fans were used to. Another song that received a different treatment was 1979, which dumped its usual clean guitar and mellow feel for a distorted electric versions.
While these 3 of their major hits were played, the crowd was becoming restless and mid set a chant for Zero began, with Billy Corgan dismissing the crowd saying ‘I don’t wear that shirt anymore’. When the band returned for their encore, it became apparent that the show was drawing to a close and there would be no more hits played, the chant for ‘Zero’ grew in intensity.
Corgan could only give in and give the audience what they wanted. Despite the fact that James Iha had already left the stage, SP started playing Zero, and it was a obvious that it was unrehearsed. Corgan forgot the lyrics, and even stopped playing guitar through parts, leaving Darcy and the drummer to carry the song. That was the end to an interesting evening, and a memorable concert for many different reasons.
The Pumpkins did not put on a bad show. The Adore songs were the highlight of the set and the live show gave a different perspective to that offered on the album. There was great musician ship and the additional percussionists and piano added to the shows mood. The crowd however did grow restless with the abundance of new material, and when the few hits were played they were not familiar versions, which didn't help with their mood. Perhaps if the album had been out longer, the fans may have been more ready for a show like this and more accepting of the performance, and you cant always please everyone anyway!

Dimmu Borgir - ABRAHADABRA

Dimmu Borgir have boosted the role of the symphony in their latest album, titled 'ABRAHADABRA'. The result is epic, a perfect blend of metal and orchestra.
Forget Metallica or Kiss with a symphony, entertaining as they may have been, on this album these two different styles are blended together so well and compliment each other throughout.

Here is a clip of the orchestra playing the song 'Gateways' and the album version below.




The iTunes edition of the album inlcudes 2 bonus orchestra only tracks! There is also a limited edition of the album which includes a book and bonus track. It will be released in the US on Oct 12th and is out now Australia.
Dimmu Borgir will the play Soundwave Festival in Australia in 2011.

Slipknot - Melbourne, Festival Hall 12/02/2000

Slipknot - Festival Hall 12/02/2000
Supported by: The Wolves, Segression
Price: 39.90 AUD

Setlist:

1. 742617000027
2. (sic)
3. Eyeless
4. Wait and Bleed
5. Liberate
6. Surfacing
7. Purity
8. Me Inside
9. Spit It Out
10. Get This
11. Scissors


When Slipknot arrived on Australian shores in early 2000, little was known of the men behind masks. There was still a great air of mystery surrounding the band and these gigs definitely fell into the honeymoon period of the release of their first self-titled album.

The bands arrival to Festival Hall was delayed, possibly due to the signing session held at Sanity in the Melbourne CBD, and hundreds of fans waited outside listening to the brief sound check going on and things were getting rowdy. Singing, chanting, screaming, and signs getting ripped from the doors of Festival Hall, the growing crowd was getting impatient waiting for the show to get underway.

Festival Hall was packed that night and sweat dripped from the roof. The stage was decorated with a Slipknot logo banner behind Joey’s drum kit and also two “people = shit’ signs either side.

After the 2 support acts, the lights dipped, and the over the PA a clip from the movie Gummo, two kids screaming obscenities, which leads into Slipknot’s album intro began the the 9 slowly started appearing on the stage. Joey first appeared by the drum kit, then Clown carrying a large flood light, and the suspense built over the next 5 minutes or so while the rest wandered out, the crowd waiting for the mayhem to start.

The band plowed through their first 5 songs without taking a breath, (SIC), Eyeless followed by Wait and Bleed, Liberate and Surfacing. Half the set was done with the songs being played even faster than they are on the album and the energy on the stage is intense. Sid dives into the crowd a number of times while percussionists Clown and Chris dive and climb allover their drum kits and push each other around the stage. The crowd takes a breath while slower paced and darker track Purity is played, which is followed by Me Inside, which at the time was only a bonus track on the digipack edition of the album, and seems to be lesser known the previous tracks played. The climax of the set is reached when Spit it Out is played, which was the single at the time. What follows next, is Scissors,which is usually an 8 minute track that was dragged out to around 15 minutes, and felt even longer. Scissors was filled with lots feedback and noise in the mid section, and extra rants by Corey, which created a menacing atmosphere but perhaps also brought the set to an anticlimax because it went on for so long.

The set lasted no more than an hour, with a 3rd of it being taken up by the intro and Scissors. It would have been good to hear more of the tracks from the album such as No Life & Prosthetics, but with the energy and madness in Festival Hall that night, it was perhaps not a bad thing that the set ended there. The band definitely gave it everything in that hour and left a huge impression when they left Australia.

Leaving the gig, you knew that it was one of those shows that people who would become fans in the future could only dream about seeing. The band was still new, fresh, mysterious and in the ‘nu-metal’ scene at the time, were a lot more aggressive than the other bands such as Linkin Park and Korn. It was also very raw. They didn’t have the more expensive stage shows with pyro and rotating drum kits that would come on later tours and they wore the original masks and jumpsuits that they first became famous in .

There is a really bad bootleg around of the show, and also this audio clip of ‘Me Inside’uploaded by seeme45 on Youtube.





update! this show has now been posted on youtube!