Current mood:	contemplative
Current music:	"Jesus, I/Mary Star of the Sea" by Zwan
Entry tags:	concerts, reviews

Concert Review: Billy Corgan
Artists: Billy Corgan/The Crimea/Doris Henson
Venue: 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
Date: 2005/06/24

Billy Corgan is perhaps the greatest frontman lead guitarist of my generation and an excellent songwriter as well, but sometimes you need to take one step back in order to take two steps forward and I think that is currently where Corgan is at artistically. Smashing Pumpkins is one of my all-time favorite bands. I always wanted to see them in concert, but, unfortuantely, I wasn't able to realize that dream before they broke up. A couple years ago though, I was able to see Zwan in concert, and I was completely blown away by Corgan's guitar artistry. The highlight of that evening was an amazing 20-minute rendition of "Jesus, I/Mary Star of the Sea." Although I really enjoyed Zwan's performance, behind the scenes, Corgan was hating every minute of it. It seems there were a lot of personality issues (to put it mildly) on that tour, and Corgan killed Zwan shortly after the tour was over. After going through two band implosions, who can blame Corgan for going solo? In the liner notes to his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan writes that he never wanted to go solo and that he still considers himself a member of the Smashing Pumpkins. He also writes that this album was a learning experience for him, and I think the result is evident of that. Without a band, he basically recorded it with just him and a sound engineer, using drum machines and computers. The resulting sound is practically electronica, which is fine, but it clearly doesn't play to Corgan's strengths. Before Corgan took the stage at the sold-out 9:30 Club last night, the crowd chanted "Billy... Billy... Billy..." The audience was soon rewarded with the greatest light show ever at the 9:30 Club (in my estimation). With a wall of state-of-the-art, computer-controlled lights as a backdrop, Corgan and his backing musicians played presumably the entire contents of TheFutureEmbrace and then some, including an AC/DC cover. Billy seemed at first rather shy and then somewhat annoyed (after some heckling), but he eventually warmed to the crowd and genuinely seemed to be having fun. After the concert, he did something I've never seen done at the 9:30 Club. He went down the entire length of the stage and shook hands with as many people as he could. Then, he asked for the house lights turned on and gave a rather long and heartfelt speech thanking the audience for supporting him. He then closed the night with an amazing blues rendition of the traditional "Hail Mary" prayer sung a capella. Although I've seen better post-Pumpkins Corgan shows, I highly respect him as a consummate artist and for striving to evolve. As for the new material that he performed last night, I would say there were only 5 or 6 strong songs and only a few of those really showed off Corgan's brilliant guitar-playing skills, but at least he's out there trying to do something new rather than regurgitating the same songs with different lyrics like some artists. Not the best concert I've seen this year, but I certainly enjoyed it and I got a real thrill out of finally seeing Corgan perform at the 9:30 Club.

Of the two opening bands, Doris Henson gets the nod over The Crimea. The Crimea rocked out on a couple songs, but, for the most part, they bored me to tears. It didn't help that I couldn't understand a word their lead singer said or sang, thanks to his thick accent. Doris Henson, a five-piece band consisting of electric guitar, bass, drums, and trombone, exhibited some good songwriting and played with a lot of energy, but I rather disliked the song they ended their set with and I could have done without the trombone, which didn't really add much to their arrangements.