Friday night I saw the Smashing Pumpkins play an awesome show at the Fillmore (the indoor venue of the Music Factory complex) in Charlotte. I’m not sure how Cheecho felt (he and Moxie accompanied Tali and I), but I know my doubts about the band (Billy Corgan is the only remaining original) were swept away by the performance. Most impressive to me was the young replacement of all-time great drummer Jimmy Chamberlin who Corgan fired from the band last year. Mike Byrne, all of 20-years old, was more than adequate backing Corgan’s signature vocals with the thundering, driving beats so often associated with Chamberlin.

As an added bonus, the opening bands did a great job of getting the crowd going. Bad Town was my favorite. Apparently that’s either a completely new band name or they have only existed for a week because I can’t find anything about them on the internet. Correction, the band was called Bad City…which would explain the lack of information on the web. Thank to CC for pointing this out to me. In any case, they were a totally over the top, straight-out-of-the-’80s band reminiscent of The Darkness (also one of my favorite bands of yesteryear). The lead singer worked the stage with some mic-as-weapon moves, the guitarists combined for a few synchronized solos (duos?), and the drummer kept the energy up. Unfortunately, as the opening act, they weren’t treated to the same technical support as second act Kill Hannah, not to mention the Pumpkins. The volume was too low to do them justice and the lights were static, but they still rocked it out the best they could.

There’s nothing like a good concert to get the musical juices flowing. The next day I dusted off the ole drumset and played along to a few Smashing Pumpkins tunes. One of my favorites, Doomsday Clock, comes off their newest album Zeitgeist. I’m not sure about the merits of the song as a whole, but it has a cool solo I’d tried to figure out for the longest time a year ago and gave up. I tackled it again yesterday and mastered it! It’s strange how a common beat shifted a sixteenth forward and backward can totally warp your mind. The beginning two measure solo is cool, but wasn’t too hard to figure out. I struggled to get the part at 23 seconds in. It’s subtle but sweet. Check it out above.