Billy Corgan’s 1990s behemoth Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness) is slated for a nine-show residency at the Orange Peel (June 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30 and July 2, 3, and 5) in Asheville, advancing the upcoming album Zeitgeist, their first in seven years.
The idea of an embedded band is a new one for Asheville, and a considerable coup for the town: The only other residency the band will do is at the Fillmore in San Francisco (July 22 through Aug. 1). The idea, of course, is that the Pumpkins’ pull is still considerable enough to lure fans from all points east of the Mississippi.
Tickets are $20/per person, limit two, and available online only. They go on sale at 1 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, at www.theorangepeel.net and www.ticketweb.com.
Co-founders James Iha and D’arcy Wretsky are no longer with the Pumpkins; only drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and Corgan were confirmed at press time. Corgan has always been a bit of a grandstander, but do the kids still care what he has up his mercurial sleeves? The dreamy-heavy Pumpkins did/do have a certain cult following. However, most of the original fans have mortgages and 1.5 kids by now, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out, so to speak.
— Melanie McGee Bianchi, A&E editor
what gives? what’s the connection to A-town for the Smashing Pumpkins? Just curious, maybe this can be addressed in further posting…
yeah, I don’t understand this at all. are we practice for an upcoming tour? do they think they’re going to fill the OP all nine nights? i could be wrong, but i don’t see that happening.
Asheville’s weird in a lot of ways. Hosting Smashing Pumpkins is just one.
The Orange Peel, which booked them, is another.
Some other Asheville wild cards: George Vanderbilt, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Lucy Morgan, Olive Campbell, a whole host of Appalachian mountaineers replete with fiercely independent spirits, and more recently, Roger McGuire, Julian Price plus some on-the-ground, ready-to-work grassroots folks who took up the challenge and the cash left by McGuire, Price et al, and set about tending intensely local creative fires.
To understand what the pumpkin has to do with the peel requires you to consider the connections among such factors.
The Peel is one of those creative fires, with lots of folks helping since its inception, but engineered (and currently tended by) Pat Whalen, who’s part of the McGuire/Price legacy. Whalen continues daily to scheme and badger in his trickster fashion, a developer of a sort who, now along with a growing number of others, sees creativity as the best, wisest and most fun long-term investment — with the “bottom line” yoked to its service.
To get the connection, you have to do more than follow the money.
Naturally, there are some mundane details, like a surprise Saturday night phone call, that finally led to booking the Smashing Pumpkins. But in the end, it seems to me, the connecttion is that Asheville’s lovely and weird, full of people who each wants to do it his or her way; has been and continues to be.
This is a total joke. Billy needs money, and Joe Shannahan at the Metro in Chicago smells sadness too.
Musical Jetsom is depressing, next month we’ll have Dee Snyder and some remake of Quiet Riot at Stella Blue for 10 nights.
The report that the only other US show is in San Fran is incorrect:the Orange Peels own website includes East Rutherford New Jersey and Washington, DC.
Last time I checked they were still part of the US!
Dear “local”: To clarify, the post says that the only other “residency” the band will do is at the Fillmore in San Francisco — not the only other appearances in the U.S. The band will indeed be playing single gigs in other cities.
asheville is the san francisco of the east coast.
lol