Sunday was an interesting night. Britney Spears crashed and burned at the MTV Video Awards, while the Smashing Pumpkins did much of the same at the second and final night at Toronto's Virgin Festival. Corgan and his new lineup played to a typically jaded and unresponsive Toronto audience, save of course when it came to the big hits, which were granted the requisite polite applause. The Pumpkins have a history of reworking their repertoire, and a non-electronic version of '1979' continues the trend. 'Zero' came off as a bit sloppy, though it may have been a 're-imagining' or sorts... a shadow of the former song for a shadow of the former band. The band's usually eclectic additions of covers and teases to their set is also noticeably absent in the band's current incarnation. And despite good intentions, associating 'O Canada' with their new, lackluster track 'United States' is not the way to win over the audience. That was a bit of a joke before about the Pumpkins crashing and burning... as disappointing as it is for Corgan to bring the band back and tarnish what was left of the band's legacy, it's still endlessly watchable and listenable in comparison to the embarrassing sight of the pop industry attempting to revive the career of a chewed up and all-too toasted pop tart.
Links:
Smashing Pumpkins - Virgin Festival setlist, September 9, 2007 [spfc.org]
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