the world is a vampire

Last night Peppy and I decided to go see the Smashing Pumpkins in Nashville. He just happened to look at a local calendar and saw they were playing, and when he looked up tickets he found two really good seats still available. The pit was sectioned off in front of us, but aside from that we were only five rows back, and there was a big screen about ten feet to my right. 

I had never been to this particular amphitheater before. It has its own parking area, which means that it was basically a mile walk to the entrance. And then after the show is over you have around 4000 cars trying to leave at the same time. The show ended at 11 and we got out of the parking lot an hour later. 

Interpol was one of the openers. We made it inside around 7 and Interpol was already playing, but they played for at least 45 more minutes so I'm assuming we got there close to the beginning of the set. I am used to not being able to see the best at night, so I really liked having the screen so close to us. I really only know their songs that are played on the radio, but that was pretty much what they played. Hearing PDA made me think of all the nights Peppy and I would stay up playing Rock Band. The bass part in the song has a portion where they continuously play the same note really quickly for quite a while and whoever was on bass would always fumble with that particular spot.

I thought this was cool because I got the two pictures fading into each other.

Right before Smashing Pumpkins came out, Peppy asked what I thought Billy Corgan was doing, and I said probably drawing on his face like a sad clown. And then, of course, it did not disappoint when he came out looking like this.

You see that Freemason logo blasted right on his chest? I have numerous thoughts about this. Billy Corgan has been a believer of some right-winged conspiracy theories, like claiming he has seen a shapeshifter. He said he found Jesus a few years back, but his Jesus seems a little new-agey. I'm going to straight up tell you that I really don't know anything about the man William Corgan. When I was probably twelve or thirteen I remember being so into their music and reading an interview where Billy said that he knew they were the most talented band in the world. That really disgusted me, and that was when I decided that I really never wanted to know anything about the particular musicians themselves. Let me enjoy the art, not the artist. I never followed anyone famous on social media for that same reason. 

I could easily see Smashing Pumpkins as a brainwashing tool just like anything else, but Billy Corgan also gives off narcissistic troll vibes, and most high degree masonry is secret and not blasted on your chest. 

I forgot that Billy Corgan owns something to do with wrestling, so I was initially confused when these wrestling people came out with Corgan's two kids (I think, two kids came out at the last show as well and he introduced them as his children.) Even when I remembered his involvement with wrestling it was still really odd, because nothing was ever explained. Just two random people come out, do some 'sexy' dancing, throw a couple wrestling moves, and then leave with the kids. 

Like I mentioned earlier, I don't know anything about the band members other than their names. At the smaller Smashing Pumpkins show Peppy and I went to last year, James Iha didn't say anything, but he was basically the announcer last night. I don't know anything about this guy's normal personality, but he kind of seemed like he was just ready to go home, and I don't mean that in a bad way. The man is in his mid 50s and there is only one more night on this leg of the tour. I just watched him closely on the big screen and all of his movements for every song were all planned and sometimes his eyes looked in another world, while his fingers did what they could do in their sleep. It made me realize just how calculated every step of these concerts are. Maybe sometimes the banter is organic, but the way they move with each song probably becomes second nature, especially when you've been doing it for over 30 years. 

The female singer was from Australia and she had the stereotypical bubbly Australian smile that didn't fit in with the moody vibe of the older Pumpkins stuff, but she fit right in with the new stuff that I didn't know, and didn't really like either. It was waaaaaaaay too poppy. Fortunately they only played two or three of these new songs. Everything else they played was amazing. I've seen so many live bands that didn't even remotely sound like the studio songs, but not this. This was good.

People were dancing and singing, but the applause was....not that great. It reminded me of being at theme parks now and being aware of the lack of people screaming on roller coasters. Everyone just seems to be much more tame in their joyful emotional reactions. People are still overreacting all the time, but I've noticed the positive emotions have been tampered down greatly. I wonder how that would feel to be an artist and watch the crowd devolve over the years. Billy even commented that it takes a lot more effort to get a response from a hipster crowd. Are hipsters still a thing? And this really wasn't a young crowd or what I would consider a hipster crowd. It was a mixture of all ages, but this was mostly elder millennial and up. Lots of parents with their younger kids too. This is just general societal apathy caused by worldwide psychological trauma and radiation poisoning.

The girl directly in front of me watched the entire concert through her phone. I'm not exaggerating. She didn't put it down for a single second. Even Peppy noticed. Her friend tried to engage her multiple times and she just stood straight ahead, not moving, like her phone had completely bewitched her.

I am really glad we went last night, It was a completely different feel to see them at an amphitheater that seats 7500 compared to seeing them at a place that only holds around 1500 people. This was the Smashing Pumpkins concert from my childhood that I never got to see. 

And I hope the blatant Freemason sign wasn't an 'in your face' sign that the concert was just a massive energy harvesting event, because some of these people have already been sucked dry. Loosh, loosh, baby. 

The world is a vampire, am I right?