So last night I did the 3-hour drive to Chicago for a Pumpkins concert... and man was it worth it.
First off, this concert was a benefit concert. Matthew Leone, a bassist in a Chicago band, intervened saw a guy beating up his wife and intervened. He subdued the guy, but as he tried to call police, the guy came up behind him and beat him - to the point he needed brain surgery and had to have part of his skull removed to relieve pressure from swelling. As a touring musician, his health insurance had just lapsed, so he has to pay for all of it himself.
Well, at least till Billy Corgan came along. He scheduled a show at the Metro and made it a benefit. They sold about 20 $500 VIP tickets (meet and greet and side balcony seats) and about 100 $100 VIP tickets (guaranteed balcony seats), and the rest of the tickets were sold as a raffle. Buy a raffle ticket for $10 and get a CHANCE at a pair of tickets, no guarantees. I figured, what the hell, for that price might as well try for it and if I don't get them I'm still helping this guy out. So I bought 2 of the $10 raffle tickets last Thursday, and found out Saturday that one of them had won, so for $20 I got a pair of tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins. Not a bad deal.
Kill Hannah opened - not bad, but I didn't know any of their stuff. And then the Pumpkins came on and it. was. awesome.
arty07: I've never seen them live (in any incarnation), but it was a hell of a show. (For those who don't know, the only original member still playing with this band is Billy.) They played a lot of old stuff including most of the hits. He played a brand new song that they'd been working on during soundchecks (he needed the lyrics in front of him for it), and some other stuff I didn't recognize but the people around me did (not a HUGE Pumpkins fan... always liked them, never got seriously into them). Billy also joked around some between songs, especially before the new one when they had some time to kill while the sound guys scrambled to find the lyrics backstage.
Before the concert they also auctioned off some stuff... a pack of rare/limited edition Vinyl/CD's/other stuff went for $1600 (
), a signed poster went for $2500 ( ), and a meet and greet after the show went for $4000 ( ), and then at the end of the concert, they brought the openers up and a bunch of other people and played "1979" (with a singalong)... and then auctioned off the guitar he just played it on, with personalized signature and meet and greet. It went for... $10,000 ( ) All for a good cause though, all that money goes to the guy for his medical bills. Me, I just got a limited edition event poster (unsigned) for $20.
Oh, and at the beginning of the concert, the Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn showed up on stage and presented an award to Matt's brother Nathan for Matt's heroism in intervening in the fight to help the girl getting beat up.
It was pretty historic. I'm glad to be able to say I was there.
First off, this concert was a benefit concert. Matthew Leone, a bassist in a Chicago band, intervened saw a guy beating up his wife and intervened. He subdued the guy, but as he tried to call police, the guy came up behind him and beat him - to the point he needed brain surgery and had to have part of his skull removed to relieve pressure from swelling. As a touring musician, his health insurance had just lapsed, so he has to pay for all of it himself.
Well, at least till Billy Corgan came along. He scheduled a show at the Metro and made it a benefit. They sold about 20 $500 VIP tickets (meet and greet and side balcony seats) and about 100 $100 VIP tickets (guaranteed balcony seats), and the rest of the tickets were sold as a raffle. Buy a raffle ticket for $10 and get a CHANCE at a pair of tickets, no guarantees. I figured, what the hell, for that price might as well try for it and if I don't get them I'm still helping this guy out. So I bought 2 of the $10 raffle tickets last Thursday, and found out Saturday that one of them had won, so for $20 I got a pair of tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins. Not a bad deal.
Kill Hannah opened - not bad, but I didn't know any of their stuff. And then the Pumpkins came on and it. was. awesome.
arty07: I've never seen them live (in any incarnation), but it was a hell of a show. (For those who don't know, the only original member still playing with this band is Billy.) They played a lot of old stuff including most of the hits. He played a brand new song that they'd been working on during soundchecks (he needed the lyrics in front of him for it), and some other stuff I didn't recognize but the people around me did (not a HUGE Pumpkins fan... always liked them, never got seriously into them). Billy also joked around some between songs, especially before the new one when they had some time to kill while the sound guys scrambled to find the lyrics backstage.Before the concert they also auctioned off some stuff... a pack of rare/limited edition Vinyl/CD's/other stuff went for $1600 (
), a signed poster went for $2500 ( ), and a meet and greet after the show went for $4000 ( ), and then at the end of the concert, they brought the openers up and a bunch of other people and played "1979" (with a singalong)... and then auctioned off the guitar he just played it on, with personalized signature and meet and greet. It went for... $10,000 ( ) All for a good cause though, all that money goes to the guy for his medical bills. Me, I just got a limited edition event poster (unsigned) for $20.Oh, and at the beginning of the concert, the Governor of Illinois Pat Quinn showed up on stage and presented an award to Matt's brother Nathan for Matt's heroism in intervening in the fight to help the girl getting beat up.
It was pretty historic. I'm glad to be able to say I was there.
