The first time I saw Muse, I only knew a handful of songs. Muse was one of many bands playing at KROQ's 2004 Almost Acoustic Christmas.
I was floored. I even got a little teary during "Butterflies and Hurricanes." I felt terrible for poor Modest Mouse who played right after Muse. You just can't follow Muse. Through no fault of its own, Modest Mouse sounded like poo.
Then we saw Muse at the Forum. Then at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. Then at the 2007 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas as headliners. Then at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.
And then at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on April 10.
Epic.
Undoubtedly the best live band touring right now. Maybe the best live band of our time.
Uprising
Resistance
Map of the Problematique
Supermassive Black Hole
Hysteria
United States of Eurasia
Feeling Good
Starlight
Time Is Running Out
Plug In Baby
Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture
Stockholm Syndrome
Knights of Cydonia
Incredible show.
But that wasn't the end of our Muse experience. No, no. It gets better, guys.
As we were waiting for the valet the next day at THEhotel, Mrs. Oro spotted some very familiar hair across the way. Could it be?
Yes. Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard posed politely as I mugged maniacally.
But this photo was even better. Mr. Oro is lucky he snagged Mrs. Oro when he did. Ha!
miX sits atop THEhotel. If you haven't been, you absolutely must go sample Chef Alain Ducasse's brainchild. Las Vegas is a lot closer than Paris after all.
I really liked the design. Stunning.
You'd think that a restaurant that provides a pad of paper and pencil would be quite food-blogger-friendly. But, despite its stark white interior, miX is sort of horrific for food photography because of its dreadfully dim lighting. Boo hoo for me.
Assorted complimentary bread. See that brown square closest to you? That's some awesome house-made peanut butter. Swell stuff.
Japanese sea bream sashimi, corn emulsion, and popcorn ($18). This wasn't my favorite, but it was an interesting effort. I'm not sure I've ever had sea bream before. It was a little on the chewy side. I did enjoy the dots of corn emulsion.
Tender potato gnocchi, pumpkin, and crispy bacon ($26). Man, oh, man. Li'l nuggets of heaven on a plate. Like happy dough pillows.
Roasted Maine lobster "au curry," coconut basmati rice ($54). Superfreakingdelicious. YOU MUST GET THIS. YES, I AM SHOUTING. The combination of flavors and textures knocked my socks off. It's not often that you have lobster prepared so creatively. This was my favorite dish of the night.
Beef Rossini ($75). Decadent with a capital "D" -- one of the biggest pieces of seared foie gras I've ever seen perched on prime filet mignon swimming in a luxurious black truffle reduction, accompanied by the creamiest, most buttery mashed potatoes ever. Rich, rich, rich, rich. Jealous? You should be. Superb.
miX Dessert Tray ($20).
Very pretty but not as tasty as I'd hoped. Sad.
Complimentary madeleines and chocolate. Now this mignardise was something. Blew our "real" dessert out of the water. Glad we ended with these warm sweet goodies.
I'm definitely visiting miX in the future and doing the tasting menu.
Why didn't we do the tasting this time?
Because of time constraints due to this.
Like our trip last weekend, our December trip to Vegas was planned around Muse. In December, Muse headlined Holiday Havoc '09 at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. We had to sit through some crappy bands, but even a truncated Muse set is worth that.
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of Clarity, Jimmy Eat World played the album during 10 shows from February 23 to March 7. We were lucky enough to go to the concert at Club Nokia on March 5.
I enjoyed Club Nokia. It's kind of like The Wiltern, minus the beautiful art deco architecture and infused with a slick modern sensibility, more comfortable seats, and cupholders.
Thanks to Young_Love and her long legs, we had some nice centered seats! No thanks to No Knife. Ugh. No Knife? No talent!
We were so happy when Jimmy finally took the stage. I was so jealous of the professional photographers with press passes. Here's Mr. Adkins. "Just Watch the Fireworks"
"For Me This Is Heaven"
"Blister"
"Goodbye Sky Harbor"
After Clarity, the band treated us to an encore with treats from other albums.
The last time I saw The Smashing Pumpkins on tour (not just as part of a festival) was November 5, 1996 at the Fleet Center in Boston. James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky still played guitar and bass. Garbage opened the show. I was a 19-year-old college junior.
Lots of things have changed since then. No more Iha. No more Wretzky. No more Garbage (for now). And I'm a 31-year-old lawyer.
But Billy Corgan remains the same. Aggressive. Anti-establishment. Bald.
To get an accurate feel of what the current Smashing Pumpkins tour is all about, one must attend both the "Black Sunshine" and "White Crosses" shows. The setlists are entirely different.
Tuesday night was "Black Sunshine." Mr. and Mrs. APK accompanied us, which was great because Mr. APK is a real Pumpkins fan. I had fun giving Mrs. APK weird looks when the tunes were "experimental," which is a nice way of saying "sucky." That was pretty much 95% of the songs I didn't video.
Roctopus Everybody Come Clap Tarantula G.L.O.W Siva Mayonaise
Tonight,Tonight
Speed Kills Stand Inside Your Love Superchrist United States Once Upon A Time The Crux The Rose March Today
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
The Beginning Is The End Heavy Metal Machine Glass Set The Controls
Encore: We Only Come Out At Night (on kazoos!)
Close To You (on kazoos!)
Wednesday night was "White Crosses." We went with Brother Monkey, his friend Matt, Fitty, and her friend Anna. Fitty and Anna were fun concert pals and were great sports during the horrible second half of the concert. I couldn't stop laughing.
Ava Adore
Cupid De Locke 1979
99 Floors OWATA Sunkissed Soma Cherub Rock
Zero
Bodies Crestfallen I of The Mourning A Song For A Son Landslide
Disarm
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Galapogos Gossamer As Rome Burns The Sounds of Silence The March Hare Suffer Age of Innocence
Encore: That's The Way (My Love Is) I Am One Part 2
I strongly preferred "White Crosses" over "Black Sunshine." Tuesday night made me grimace much of the time, although the funny encore definitely put a smile on my face, so I left pretty happy. Billy Corgan seemed to be in fairly good spirits and talked a lot to the audience. You must play these clips of his banter from Tuesday night.
Corgan offers his thoughts on the 405 freeway.
Corgan tells the audience to "just give up."
Corgan informs us we are "the most beautiful-smelling crowd" and that "tonight's been all about getting closer to you." Totally fun way to end that show.
While the banter was not as free-flowing on Wednesday, the "White Crosses" setlist was so incredibly impressive up through "Galapogos."
And then it all went to shit.
It was unbelievable how amazing the first half of the show was and how abysmal the second half was.
(Thank goodness for Fitty and Anna and their pronounced headbanging and samba shimmying. Very entertaining. Oh, and the humongous guy in front of us whom we named Gigantor danced like a swaying tree at a disco. Amusing.)
But, seriously, the contrast between the beginning and the end of the concert could not have been greater. Really bizarre. Toward the end, it was like endless electronic thrashing with some weird howling and Latin rhythms thrown in.
The nutso noise notwithstanding, Corgan did make us laugh again.
Corgan calls out a couple who gave him the thumbs down. Hilarious.
Corgan reminds us he's "nobody's fuckin' bitch."
Incomprehensible music, bad attitude, and all, I rather enjoyed the two shows combined. It's crazy talk, I know. But you simply don't experience anything like this very often. It was something special to behold indeed.
I got to hear a fair number of hits. I got to see Gabriel McNair and Stephen Bradley in action (i.e., No Doubt's lovable horn section). I got to see a rad psychedelic set. I got to hang out with fun people. And I got to witness the insanity of a self-destructive genius.
The Smashing Pumpkins played two nights in a row at the Gibson Amphitheater. 'Twas an interesting experience to attend both shows. We went armed with ample knowledge of how poorly received the tour has been.
With that knowledge, the shows weren't really that bad.
Ok, that's not true. They were bad. I can't lie. But the blow was definitely softened a lot by our prepping.
This is not to say we didn't enjoy ourselves. We did. Both nights. At times, the shows were so bad, all you could do was laugh and shake your head at what an asshole Billy Corgan is. Talented asshole, but asshole through and through.
Who doesn't love watching an asshole taunt a crowd?
Some stills from Tuesday night.
Setlists, video clips, and commentary on both nights to come.
It was a dark and stormy night. Really, it was. When we got to the Honda Center, it was drizzling a bit, nothing major. We were comfy in our heavy-duty rain gear, but we got such weird looks from people when we got to our seats.
You can guess how this turns out.
I ventured to the restroom and saw this in the stall. Yes, a cup-holder. Gross.
Then we settled in our seats and watched this travesty.
This crap went on for over 20 minutes. When the guy was done, Mr. Monkey said, "Thank God it's over," and the row in front of us laughed.
I watched in awe as this dude climbed high above the crowd to prepare for Coldplay's set.
Then this guy took the stage.
Violet Hill
Clocks
In My Place
42
Fix You
And that's all I captured. Why? Because Camera Usher Nazi Tramp shut me down. Who is Camera Usher Nazi Tramp? Camera Usher Nazi Tramp is the bitch who got in my face and said, "No recording. Regular pictures only." When I protested that at least a dozen other people in the vicinity were doing the same thing, Camera Usher Nazi Tramp just glared at me. Camera Usher Nazi Tramp watched me the whole time. Unbearable. Shackling. Fucking Camera Usher Nazi Tramp.
Now that I got that out of my system, let me tell you my thoughts about the concert. Upon further reflection today, I think my experience was rather colored by the above, but I still maintain that last night's concert simply wasn't as good as the one we went to in July at The Forum.
The Forum show was more alive, more exciting, just...more. The Forum show also included "Trouble," a favorite of mine. Further, I think "Yellow" worked better acoustically than "The Scientist" did. Hearing "The Scientist" done all folksy in the crowd did nothing for me, whereas it almost made me teary-eyed in its heartfelt original form with Chris Martin on piano at The Forum.
Aside from that, Martin flubbed a number of times, which I found odd, in light of the fact the band has been on tour for many months now. The audible "Oh, fuck" was endearing, yes, but we were expecting a more polished show. That was not the only error, though. Martin was quite the butterfingers on the ivories all night. It was sort of ghastly actually and made me wish for the amazingness that is Matthew Bellamy.
* Martin injected a little of The Killers into "Viva La Vida" and sang a small portion of "Human" during the song.
* During "The Hardest Part," Martin altered the lyrics to "..and the hardest thing was seeing the Jonas Brothers younger than me [sic]."
* Martin mentioned that "Viva La Vida" was written by Joe the Plumber in 1981.
Were we still happy we went? Of course. And we laughed all the way to our car in our rain gear, while the dolled-up masses stood huddled and stranded at the doors, unable to brave the torrential downpour.
