This was my second Smashing Pumpkins concert. I saw them at the Aug. 1, 1998 show at Radio City Music Hall. I must say that this is my first review I have ever written and it's quite long. Here we go... my friend John was supposed to pick me up at 3:00 to head down to the Strip District to get something to eat before waiting on line at Metropol. However, the traffic was backed up just outside Pittsburgh so he didn't arrive until 3:30. After we were dropped off, we scouted out the line around 3:50 and there were no more than 150 people there. The doors were scheduled to open at 6:00 so we figured we'd go eat and return. Around 5:00, John and I were walking back to Metropol when we noticed several gray tour buses parked in front. One bus had a sign on it that said "Cheap Trick". I'm thinking, "Hey, that would be cool if Cheap Trick were here tonight too!" So we got on the line which had doubled in size since we arrived. However, by the time the doors opened at 6:00 there were more people behind us than in front of us. Waiting on line for an hour was a breeze, after I had waited 8 hours on April 3rd to buy tickets at Metropol! John and I held each other's place in line (as other people were doing) so that we could use the bathroom in this restaurant/bar that was right there. It was convenient, but let's just say that the signs to the bathrooms are quite misleading if you don't look at them for too long. Anyway, back outside it was lightly raining and there were people with umbrellas. We did get some entertainment though when the restaurant/bar owner came out to complain to these two police officers about the line which he claimed was hurting his business. This owner was really mad and he was arguing with the officers who didn't appear like they wanted to help. It was 5 minutes until the doors opened and people in line were telling them this, but the owner was not satisfied and was taking a very harsh tone towards the officers. They just walked away and one of the police officers even cursed him aloud!

So they started letting people inside which took some time because people were being checked for cameras and recorders. This was good because as people were being let in, Billy and Jimmy (and I think Yelena was in between them) walked from inside apparently onto one of the tour buses. I didn't catch where they came from, and I only saw them right before they got on the bus. Billy was wearing all black and was smiling as he got on the bus. These girls in front of us were freaking out, "I saw him! I saw him!" So the line moved forward somewhat more until John and I were right in front of the door that we thought they came out of when the door opened again and out came James with a few bodyguards. James didn't really say anything as he walked a few feet in front of us to cut through the line and go to the buses. This is when I heard one of the bodyguards ask another "Is that it?" and the other said "Let me go see if D'arcy wants to come out too." By now, we were past the door they came out of, but sure enough D'arcy came outside. D'arcy looked like she was thinking about something deeply and she looked stressed. The fans in front of us started chanting "D'arcy! D'arcy!" and for a moment it didn't look like she was going to respond at all. But she turned in the direction of the chant and raised here right index finger kind of like E.T. and just bent it slightly, which was pretty funny, and this satisfied everyone.

Okay, so they took our tickets after checking for cameras (one guy simply asked if I had a camera in my jacket pocket and I said "No" and that was sufficient). I didn't have a camera, but apparently some people did and made it past security, which I'll talk about. Inside Metropol you can stay downstairs or go upstairs to the bar if you are 21 or over. Not quite being 21, I stayed downstairs, where John and I were surprised to find that there weren't too many people on the floor. "Where did everyone in front of us go?" we thought. I knew there was an upstairs but there couldn't be that many people because the crowd was very young. It turned out that there were more people on the side platforms than I initially thought. If I knew how crowded it would get I would have stood on the side initially too. So John and I thought for sure that we had a great spot on the floor.

Ten minutes to seven and Queens of the Stone Age take the stage. "Should we start?" ... "Hello we are Queens of the Stone Age." So they started playing. Now this band is not that bad. Reviews I had read kept saying that they were horrible, so I was not expecting much at all. But they played some songs which reminded me of Nirvana. The lead singer Josh played pretty well, and their drummer looked like he was enjoying himself. Not too many people really cared too much for them, waiting for the Pumpkins and all, but there were some kids near me who were getting into it a little. I thought the first song they played was cool. They finished their set in a half-hour and the crew came on stage to get ready for the Pumpkins. There was this opera music being played while we waited for them. Everyone thought they would be right out when one of the opera songs ended, but then more opera music came on. Then when this next one finished, the fans were getting very anxious, and one guy behind me shouted out "Let's here another f ' ing opera song!" which was pretty funny. A few minutes before the Pumpkins took the stage there was a huge crowd surge forwards. I heard someone say, "Alright, let's make this feel like a concert" and I thought of the girl who said her sternum broke at the concert she went to. I got pushed up very close to the stage which I wouldn't have minded too much if there was more room and if it wasn't so hot from the crowding.

The Smashing Pumpkins took the stage and they went right into I Am One, which was really cool. Billy was wearing his usual all-black attire. D'arcy were her cowboy hat, a black shirt covered by a red vest-thing with stars on it. James had some dark shirt on, and Jimmy had on a sleeve-less shirt. Everyone was jumping up and down and moving back and forth in all four directions and in group-surges, singing the lyrics to the song. They stopped playing in the middle of the song and everyone is shouting and applauding and raising their arms at them, and then they continued to finish out I Am One in euphoric style. Next song they played was Zero, which rocked. You could hear everyone singing the lyrics "emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness and cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty just like me!" which was really cool. Billy was smiling as he played guitar and he was throwing things (picks) into the audience. D'arcy was really moving around on the left side as she played and James was standing relatively still on the right side. Jimmy was really getting into it and everyone was chanting "Jimmy! Jimmy!" between songs. After Zero, they played Pug and then La Dolly Vita. Hearing both songs was great. Everyone kept singing along. It was "cool as ice cream" so to speak. The only thing that wasn't so cool was how hot it had become with people so close that the people in back of you would have their arms on your shoulders and you would have to have your arms on the person's shoulders in front of you. It was a chore just to maintain your balance. I wouldn't really call it a mosh-pit because there wasn't a lot of room to really move. One kid was crowd surfing and he went right by me on my left. He was passed along to the front row where a security guard caught him and put him down.

I have the worst memory so I can't remember the setlist exactly but I do know what songs they played from Adore and earlier. I think it was too hot to keep track well. After La Dolly Vita they played some new songs if I remember correctly. I know they played Cash Car Star early on which people recognized and enjoyed. They also played the new song with the words "tell me where you are" early in the concert which I recognized from hearing the soundcheck of the Detroit concert on www.smashing-pumpkins.net. I think they played one more song from their fifth album before I got sick and tired of the people pushing and shoving and the intense heat from the crowding which being so close to the stage brought. It was great to be so close, but it had its disadvantages too. So after the song I felt pretty bad and dropped back all the way to the back of the room and actually took a 2 minute break to recuperate in the cool lobby area where they were selling the T-shirts. The band was playing another new song, which I could hear well enough, and I went back inside at the end of it. They were selling drinks in the back so I got some soda (pop here in Pittsburgh) and was happy to find a place to stand with elbowroom, wow what an idea! The band kept playing unreleased songs. They played Blue Skies Bring Tears and quite a few more. There was one song with lyrics like "she counted the spiders as they crawled up inside her" and this song was my favorite of the new songs they played. It was really mellow and sounded great. In one song they stopped playing and Billy thought it was really funny, cause someone missed the notes, and Billy said something like "That's part of the song too". Well they finished the song and Billy commented "I am sorry about that, it wasn't very professional". D'arcy then said, "Yeah, Rock and Roll is all about being professional. ;) "

Like I said earlier, I forget the exact order of the songs, but they played Ava Adore which sounded even better with Jimmy on drums, and they did Today which got a good response from the crowd with the first few words. There were several encores. By the time of the first encore I had moved once again to get closer on the side platform to the stage. Someone in front of me had taken a picture with a camera and a security guard was quickly on the scene after seeing the flash. The kids next to me pointed out the person who took the picture to the security guard. It was kind of bad for a minute or so because the guard was talking on a walkie-talkie. Well luckily the incident was resolved. I didn't want to miss anything because of some people who can't follow the rules. So I heard Muzzle which was great, Billy was really getting into it on vocals. During one of the encores, Billy and James got close together and everyone knew what was coming. Yes, it was the awesome intro to Soma. Wow, even though I knew they were going to play it, I still could not believe what was happening. It sounded so good. It was probably the best song they played all night (the new song with the spider lyrics would be a close second). I savored the moment as I listened to Soma, with lots of elbowroom I might add.

But all good things come to an end, and after the last words "and I'm all by myself as I've always felt and I'll betray myself to anyone", a lot of applause, the final notes of the song, and more applause, it was over. During the encores, they played If there is a God, which Billy used a different guitar for. The final song, which everybody knew meant the end of the concert, was Geek U.S.A. I thought the people there were very good fans, for it seemed like everyone knew that Geek U.S.A. would be the last song. There were people shouting for Starla for quite some time, but they didn't get it unfortunately. So with Billy's final words, I'm sure everyone was thinking, "I really love the U.S.A.!!!" They took quite some time to get off the stage and Billy waved and bowed many times.

At the end of the concert I met up with my friend John again. We got separated right when the crowd surge started a few minutes before the Pumpkins came out. He saw some friends who gave us a ride home which was cool. I can't believe John made it through the concert, because he was up since 6:00 p.m. Friday night working on a compiler program! Well thanks for reading my review; I hope I was able to share some idea of what it was like. Thank you Billy, D'arcy, James, and Jimmy! Until the last goodbye, farewell and goodnight to every hour in every day to all you great Pumpkins fans!