The Smashing Pumpkins, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The SP were coming to Buenos Aires I was so F**king excited, that that was the only thing I was thinking about, and as I told before they also were playing an unplugged for the " rock&pop" radio station (www.rockpop.com.ar), the unplugged was at the coolest place to a concert of SP I could think of, it was in a culture center in an old auditorium used for classical music concerts so the sound was AWESOME!!! and the capacity of the place was for 250 persons AND I WAS IN THE FRONT, ok but that's later, well the radio was doing a contest and giving up like 100 entries (you couldn't buy' em since it was an event for the radio), but you have to call to the radio and answer different SP questions (which almost noone knew, and they were damn easy like which SD song was written about Jesse which is James dog name and those were the hardest a question was how many songs does MCIS have!!!!) well but I could never call because the line was always busy I was stressed like I never been thinking that they were going to play an unplugged here and some a**hole that knew how many songs does MCIS have was going to see them (but fortunately because of that I could later met the band!!!), I went personally to the radio station twice but they told me that it was a telephonic contest, well I tried to call everyday in vain, but the day before the show (thu 8/20, the show was on 8/21) they told that if you went to the radio with an instrument and played and sing a SP song they give you tickets for the show, well I took my guitar went there and played WOCOAN and won!!!!! but that's not all I started answering all the questions and the hosts of the show were amazed of how much of SP I know so They told me that I deserve to meet the band since was the biggest fan they ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (well now on the acoustic show).

1st show Friday 21 of august Centro Cultural Recoleta 13:00

I arrived to the C.C. Recoleta at 11 since the show was starting at 13:00 when I got there there were like 5 or 6 fans which I knew from the radio and a girl which I knew from a Radiohead special at the Buenos Aires Hard rock cafe, so I recognized her and start talking with here and with the other fans I knew from the radio, It was cool now I'm making a fans club in Argentina since I know lots of fans from the concert, I brought a silver and a golden marker and my adore booklet for the band to sign if I met them, I was with the spaceboy starla t-shirt and a SP hat, at 12:30 a van with black glasses arrived to the cc r and like at 12:45 a car with James gooch, on the van there were billy yelena & darcy.We all started screaming. at 13:00 the first 15 persons got promo adore flats, and i was like the 7 person. we were let in in the place the first 2 rows were reserved for the media so I got a 3rd row seat, which finally was better since it was at the same level as the stage, and billy. At 13:10 billy get on on the stage and we all started screaming again, he went to the piano and started the checking the sound he played little parts of blissed and gone once in a while for martha and other non sp songs.he was wearing all black and a fisherman hat then he left the stage and 5 minutes later he entered the stage again I screamed billy really loud and billy saw me and he said "Si, Billy"after that james and darcy got in the stage james was wearing a dark blue jean shoes a jean jacket and some cool blue sunglasses, d'arcy was wearing a white leather pant with red stripes and the same t-shirt she wore at the dusseldorf festival (4/7/96 if you have the video you know which one i'm talking about, its a black tight long sleeved t-shirt with blue draewings, no transparences hehe) the radio hosts made some questions to them asking if they were tired of touring since this was their last date, and billy answered that he wasnt tired because he was superbilly hehe and then the host aked him why now he is superbilly if before he was zero and which were the differences beetween superbilly and zero, and billy told that superbilly has powers but zero didnt hehe well after that the show started i'll write a review of each song.

To sheila: Beautifully done acoustic, I was singing very loud and everybody told me to shut up, saying they wanted to hear billy not me hehe, billy was using a gibson dawn acoustic, james was using another acoustic gibson and d'arcy was using and used all throughout the show her black Fender Pbass

Perfect: Done acoustic/electric with acoustic guitars but kinda fast lovely version, this is were I first made eye contact with billy and he make a funny face I was soo happy (without knowing the best moment of my life was 2 songs away)

Tear: AWESOME VERSION!!!! when the song started I started singing soo loud that billy looked at me again and smile and d'arcy also looked at me and wave her hand like saying hi I waved back, at the middle of the song there was a beautiful piano solo where james statred acting like a mime (he was later asked if he was a relative of marcel marceau and said he was marcel marceau hehe).

1979:Fantastic version kinda faster that the original one everybody was singing along, on the justine never knew the rules partbilly sang something like '...(i dunno what) and i was grease and gold" the best moment of my life was 2 minutes away from happening!!!

THE BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE: After 1979 the radio hosts told well now a couple fans will ask you questions and I started screaming I I I, so the radio host (juan di natale) recognized me and said, He deserves to come here to be with you more than no one else he he is a great fan of you and he is the person I know which knows most about the band, while I was walking onstage, It felt like I was flying I couldnt believe it!!!!!! I got to the stage and there was a translator which tokld me to make the question in spanish and that she will translate to english but I told her that I wanted to speak to band so she said ok, I was sh**ing in my pants, this was so similar to my dreams that it was scary, i started shaking and didnt knew what to ask, so d'arcy and billy which had already saw me told me that they understood what was like for me being with them darcy told "You already know everything about us you dont need to ask us anything, go and tell the world about us" and laughed i also laughed and a question came to my mind I told that I knew that on some shows they were playing blissed and gone which is a song i love and I asked billy what were they gonna do with that song If they would relase it as a b-side or they'll put it in the next album then the host asked me admired "which song ehh?" and I told him "Blissed and gone 17 is an..." and billy interupted me and whisperd to me "yeah you are right but shh" after that Billy told "Wow, He really Is a fan" and said "well I dunno if its gonna be in the next album probabbly we'll be relasing it as a b-side, yeah we'll relase it as a b-side" I had the silver marker and the adore promo flat so I asked billy if he could sign it and billy said "Yeah of course" and wrote "Ola (hola but without the h, hehe which means wave, hehe" Billy 1998 and did a weird drawing" then I shooked his hand and he had the pick which he was playing with so when we were shooking hands it fell on my hand and billy told me "ohh keep that one" its the blue one with the sp heart!!!!, then i went were d'arcy was and shook her hand too, and she told me looking to billy "sorry but i have no picks" i laughed and gave her the adore promo flat to sign and asked me what my name was I told her daniel, daniel pumpkin, and she laughed and said nice name and signed "To Daniel from D'arcy Pumpkin and draw a heart and a star" I told her that I love the way she signed her autographs finishing with pumpkin and i told her that I also use pumpkin as a last name she laughed and shook my hand back then I went to the james side, I didnt realized that when I was on the stage other fans were asking questions,l but none of them were allowed on stage I was the only one!!!, james was really quiet and with his head down he had a pick in his mouth and it fell down so i took it and gave it to him and he make a hand gesture saying keep it, This one is the orange one with the heart and with the toothmarks of james!!!! hehe then I gave him th flat and wrote only "James Pumpkin" but with his weird hand writting so it looks like "@mes pumpknn" hehe then I told him a 1000 thanks for everything and told me'ok ' I waved to billy and d'arcy billy was answering a question so he mad anothe funny face and d'arcy waved back again.
after that someone asked a question about them being grunge and blah blah blah and billy told we are now gonna play some grunge and broke into an acoustic/electric version of:

Ava Adore: as perfect it was done acoustic but with the same elctric feel no solo, but a piano solo

TTODAPP: BEAUTIFUL a weird intro with pianos sounded very strange no one recognized it until billy said "dusty screams..." the 'let the waste " sounded as "letthewaste" and he ommited the "she calls to him" part during the "ordinary catacombs" part I was singing very loud but now no one cared and billy hear me and smiled to me l;ike for the 6 time!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS WAS LIKE A DREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but the best song was still to come

LET ME GIVE THE WORLD TO YOU: Before the best song on the show started james strummed the first two chords of take me down and we all started screaming again, LMGTWTY started and no one knew the lyrics except me so in a moment of the song when I was singing really loud billy laughed and pointed at me like saying "he knows the lyrics" THAT WAS AWESOME all the people there started looking at me and I kept singing, the song was beautiffuly done acoustic kinda like in the viper room.

Shame: The last song of the show another excelent song ACOUSTIC WITH A REAL DRUMMER AND WITH LOTS OF PIANO PARTS and Soloing near the end billy looked at me again, then the show was over.

While they were leaving I ran to were they were And told them "Bye june" billy laughed and waved James didnt do anything and d'arcy laughed waved and told me "Bye Bye"

Then I went out and there were lots of fans asking me things about sp asking me to show them the picks and the autographs, making me $300 offers for the autograph hehe I asked for phone numbers to various fans because I'm planning to form a fans club here.

I went home after that which is 15 blocks from the cc recoleta to prepare for the show at the parque sarmiento which was at 22:00pm many friends told me they were coming with me but finally none of them could/wanted to hehe, but going to a concert alone and meeting ppl there is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I arrived to the parque sarmiento at 16:00 there were like 100 people already and everybody knew me hehe I was a personality Everybody started calling me little billand suddenly there were like 100 people surrounding me asking me questions about sp, I asked for mor e-mails and telephone numbers for the fans club, at 16:30 I realized I havent brought my ticket with me with all the excitement so I had to call home and my dad came at 17:20 with the tickets it was cool being in the queue with other ppl asking mequestions and talking about sp, the doors of the stadium opened at 20:30 there wasnt a t-shirt and memorabilia stand =( (however yesterday I bought the adore and the 3 face t-shirt woo hoo!!!!) I runned to the stadium since it was general admission I got to be in front row in the middle of the middle hehe beetween D'arcy And Billy, the first 1300 to come got to be in a "little cage" the front part of the stadium the attendance to the concert was of 7000 persons the Parque sarmiento was full the acoustic sucked though and the non fans moshing too, there were some a**holes moshing to TT grr well the show started at 22:20 I wont get onto a full description of each song but here's the tracklist. I already have the show on cd and I have a tape of the cc recoleta show if you want to trade let me know

The show was very good but the acoustic of the place was horrible and the stupid moshers ruin the atmosphere, Billy Saw me and recognized me at some point of the show and he threw me his water bottle!!!!

The highlights were: To Sheila, Tear, Annie dog, Ruby, Blank Page, Shame and For martha, during transmission billy sang a little part of dont cry me for me argentina which was very funny and they sang &play the "this is how her garden..." after that billy took a girl from the public to come on stage and play but she only kissed billy and didnt played, so they didnt picked anymore people from the public, also before bwbw they played like 10 secs of the zero intro, billy was wearing his infamous black coat and black pants james jeans and a brown/green/blue/red/orange 70's like shirt and d'arcy was wearing the same t-shirt as in the morning and black leather pants with red flames, she was using black makeup, at the morning she was using white makeup, but with the black one she was wonderfull!!!! billy used his fender jaguar brown fernandes a couple of fender strats and the same acoustic gibsons as in the morning, james used his black telecaster like almost throughout all the show except when he used acoustic guitars darcy used fender precission and jazz bass, she even used the one with the white rats stickers, she used to use on the gish era!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when the concert finished I asked for more phone numbers for the fans club and went home fewling happy, excited, and sad knowing the best day of my life was over.

A few misc. pictures:

Thanks to Daniel for the review.

Thanks to Federico for the misc. pics.

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