|
February 15, 2008 - MEN Arena - Manchester, UK Concert review by Neal Plews They did exactly the same at the Manchester Gig tonight. After an interminable feedback/jam session that seemed to alienate most of the crowd they played an even more long winded version of 'United States' (and lets face it its a long drawn out song on the album). Exactly the same as the Nottingham gig, band left the stage, house lights stayed down for about 5-10 minutes then the lights came up to a huge chorus of booing. Is there some unwritten rule that bands cannot play the classic songs that their fans (the paying audience) want to hear. When I checked out the setlists for some of the European dates they at least got Zero and Cherub rock usually as an encore and instead we are left with a bad taste in our mouth. Now I have been looking forward to seeing the Pumpkins since I wasn't able to get to the last Manchester gig on that Halloween night along time ago and I wasn't expecting a full on Pumpkins experience since its a fairly new band. As they rolled through Porcelina at the start I swear I was close to tears getting to see a band I loved so much play songs I think are real classics. It was all down hill from there... I don't feel they have the pace of the gigs right they seem to follow each classic full on song (Bullet etc) with a much slower paced number and the song they played off the new EP met with a muted reaction (Billy even commented himself when people cheered when he annouced it that 'you should save your cheers until you have heard it'). I am sure there will be alot of fanboy worship but at the end of the day the tickets for this gig were £30 (which is one of THE most expensive ticket prices I have ever paid even at the MEN) and you expect a certain quality of music and professionalism that was sadly lacking in tonights show. I have been waiting over 10 years to see this band play (in whatever configuration of musicians) and obviously they would never live up to my expectations but tonight has just left me feeling crushed. I feel like one of my musical heroes has really really let me down. Billy himself said during the gig that when he was young he used to believe in Rock and Roll and giving a [bad word removed] (his words) clearly the unspoken comment here then is that he no longer does and its all about the hard cash.
|
