Smashing Pumpkins @ M.E.N. Arena
Went to the M.E.N. Arena last Friday to see the Smashing Pumpkins, now I know they are an established band and have been around since 1998 but they’ve never been my cup of tea, I went with a big (from their older stuff) fan and I must say after seeing them at Leeds was actually looking forward to it.
I don’t claim to know much about their songs and have only recently listened to ‘Zeitgeist’ and it was a little ‘Placebo(ish)’ for my liking (again not a big fan of Placebo but have seen them live and they are an excellent live band and thoroughly enjoyed it) so off we went.
We had excellent seats and on arrival the support band were already playing but didn’t catch our attention, so off to the bar we headed, a couple of beers later and seated comfortably the band came on, for me personally the acoustic songs were the highlights of the night, Billy Corgan and an acoustic guitar was musical heaven, the heavier songs were not to my liking but played with passion and enthusiasm and the arena did liven up a little when the more popular and newer songs were played.
One thing I did notice was the crowd seemed a little sombre for such an occasion and one person did mention if in fact the crowd were asleep at one point, overall though a great night of quality music from a great live band.
A big thank you to XFM Manchester.
