I am a 20 year old guy from Germany
and I would like to give you a review from their show at the Pinkpop Festival
1998 in Landgraaf (NL).
Me and three friends had to drive
about 350 kilometers (4.5 hours) from Germany to Landgraaf. We arrived
at 9 in the morning and were waiting the whole day at the Festival for
the Pumpkins. Without the Pumpkins the line-up of Pinkpop was very bad.
I mean when "The Verve" is headlining the Festival and the Pumpkins are
not, it's a little bit strange. The Pumpkins were confirmed to play at
the mainstage at 7.20 p.m. until 8.20 p.m. They actually came on stage
at 7.20 p.m. and started their set.
Set List
1. To sheila
2. Once upon a time
3. Ava Adore
4. Tear
5. Thru the eyes of ruby
6. Perfect
7. Tonight, Tonight
8. Bullet with butterfly wings with
the typical drum solo before
9. Shame
10. Blank page
They left the stage at 8.30 p.m.
So they played 10 minutes longer than usually planned by the Festival.
I think this is the reason why they didn t give an encore.
I took a lot of photos. The weather
was fantastic, sunshine around 24 degrees, the crowd hasn t seen a real
cool band for 2 days and so the expectations were high. Billy wore, like
on nearly all other European dates, black pants, a black shirt and his
leather coat. D`Arcy was dressed in black, too I think and she had her
two little horns again on her head she already had in the Shepherds Bush
Empire (I went to this show, too but I just read today on your homepage
that you have been there, too). James wore black pants with a orange-grey-black
coloured shirt. The crowd was very silent and not moving when they began
to play To sheila and once upon a time, but when Ava adore came up, the
crowd was on fire. I could notice that only a few people in the crowd knew
the new songs or the new versions of Ruby; Tonight, Tonight and BWBW. At
the Shepherds Bush Empire nearly everybody knew the new songs and sung
along. After "Perfect" Billy had his own little show. He tried two times
to throw his pick over his shoulder in order to catch it after his back
without watching, but he failed. The third time he got it and the crowd
honored his show with loud applause. The Pumpkins were in a very good mood
that day, after Billy`s pick-show he was joking: "It s the nice to be the
first time here in Holland". He smiled and the crowd understood his irony.
D`Arcy said that she sees a lot of blond-haired sun-browned guys in the
crowd and then she said "I love you". The crowd liked this compliment and
so Billy said " We dedicate the next song to you"...it was Tonight, Tonight.
Billy watched several times during the whole show to James or D`Arcy and
they were always smiling, they really had a great day, although they didn`t
talk any more, but everybody knows that they never talk very much during
their shows. It was obvious that the Pumpkins like to play in Holland.
They already said it during their show in Rotterdam (Ahoy, april 96). At
the end they played "blank paper" which they didn`t play before on their
European Tour I think. At the end Billy waved like he alweays does at the
crowd and they disappeared in the back of the stage. The crowd was shouting
"We want more" but I think the Pumpkins were not allowed to play longer
because they alreday played 10 minutes longer than planned. |