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Pumpkins Mania Seizes San Francisco's Fillmore

July 5, 2007 at 10:39 AM | 0 Comments

The Fillmore has seen its ups and downs. The famed music venue where The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin got their start has survived earthquakes, foreclosures, name changes, and an owner who died in a helicopter crash. When The Fillmore finally reopened for good (for now) in 1994, the Smashing Pumpkins played the first show.

Well, Pumpkins Fever is back, and has spread through San Francisco like crabs in a cheap Cancun hotel. On June 15 and 16, Billy Corgan and the gang return, stopping at the theatre to play 11 shows, yes 11, from July 15 through August 1. The performances are part of a reunion tour (which, technically, only reunites two of the original members).

This relatively major detail hasn't deterred the half-Pumpkins from selling out every performance. While The Fillmore almost always charged $25 per show, tickets are now going for up to $400 through ancillary brokers (read: scalpers dressed up in a pretty Web site). Craig's List trades and sales are feverishly taking place as we write. The theatre only holds 1,250 people, and, it seems, many more Pumpkins-loving San Franciscans want to relive the 11th grade and see a bald Corgan in his trademark Zero T-shirt crooning "Tonight, Tonight."

For Eastern Coasters who can't shake their love for 90s nostalgia rock, the band is playing in Asheville, N.C. today and at Live Earth in East Rutherford, N.J. Saturday. So you can try your luck at these venues. That is, if sell your body or first born for tickets.

Where To See Live Music In San Francisco Map.

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Celeb Travel

San Francisco: The '90s Are Half Back With Smashing Pumpkins Sorta-Reunion

May 15, 2007 at 9:10 AM | 0 Comments

If at first you don't succeed, you might be Billy Corgan. The most recognizable member of alternative standard bearers the Smashing Pumpkins has never quite been the same since the band broke up in 2000; short-lived side projects like Zwan and his solo album got noticed not as much for their musical merit as for comments Corgan made about his past among the squash fruit. Yet in 2005 Corgan took out a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times announcing he wanted to reunite the band. So, the Smashing Pumpkins are back!

...Kinda. It's true that a band called the Smashing Pumpkins will be in residence at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium from July 22 until August 1, playing new and classic songs both (according to the San Francisco Chronicle's CultureBlog). But guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy Wretzky won't be there; they never agreed to be in the "reunion," and somehow that's not mentioned anywhere on the press releases. So, for full disclosure: That pie is only 50 percent Pumpkin. Buy tickets ($25) at your own risk.

[Photo: The Chronicle Baby Blog]

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