What the locals are saying, I'm not going to post all of these but they're compiled at smashville.com:
CITIZEN-TIMES.com
Pumpkins at The Orange Peel may lead to more big shows
Tony Kiss and Michael Flynn
June 22, 2007 12:15 am
The Orange Peel club has hosted its share of must-see concerts, from Dylan to Daughtry, but nothing can compare to the frenzy surrounding its sold-out, nine-show run by reunited alt-rock superstars Smashing Pumpkins. The band??s concerts start Saturday at the downtown entertainment venue.
Out of action since 2000, the Pumpkins are back and playing their comeback U.S. shows at the Peel in what may be the biggest music event here since Elvis rocked the Civic Center in 1975.
All 8,478 tickets sold in just minutes, in a burst of pure Pumpkins power that crashed an online ticketing service and frustrated many fans who were left empty-handed. But 20 percent of the tickets went to buyers in Asheville, and half were sold in North Carolina. Other buyers are traveling from as far as Canada, the Northeast and Midwest to see the band here.
The Pumpkins are doing only a handful of U.S. shows, including a similar run at the legendary Fillmore auditorium in San Francisco and a few major American festivals. ??This is huge for us,? said Karen Ramshaw of Public Interest Projects, which owns and operates The Orange Peel.
??It??s an automatic home run for Asheville,? said Mike Rangel, co-owner of the Asheville Brewing Co. brewpub and restaurant, just a few blocks from The Orange Peel. ??It puts us up there with the big boys.???
It??s also big for area restaurants, pubs and hotels, and may perhaps lead to more major shows for The Orange Peel.
Why Asheville?
Simply put, the band requested The Orange Peel, said music promoter Ashley Capps, of Knoxville, Tenn.
Capps has booked his share of huge concerts at his AC Entertainment agency, including last weekend??s Bonnaroo festival. Through his longtime contacts in the entertainment industry, the band reached out with the idea of an East Coast ??residency? ?? a series of shows at one venue.
??We started the discussions two or three months ago,? he said. ??They were already interested in The Orange Peel at that point. It??s testimony to The Orange Peel, and to the Asheville community. The region has been so supportive of live music. Asheville is such a cool town.?
While the band is not doing interviews, Capps believes that the Pumpkins were tuned in to Asheville. ??From what I understand, they are excited about spending a couple of weeks? here, he said.
Capps and Orange Peel management began putting the concept together.
Clearing the decks
To make room for the Pumpkins, The Orange Peel had to cancel some already scheduled dates. Among the casualties was a June 29 joint CD-release show featuring Asheville bands Menage and Stephanie??s ID. The two groups scrambled to find new venues, with Stephanie??s ID relocating to the new Biltmore Garage music room near Biltmore Village on June 29, and Menage heading to the Westville Pub in West Asheville on July 1.
??We were extremely disappointed,? said Stephanie Morgan, lead singer with Stephanie??s ID. Still, Morgan said, ??If I (ran) the Orange Peel, I would have absolutely booked the Smashing Pumpkins over our band.?
Ramshaw said the Pumpkins?? residency ??was not something that we felt that as a club, or for Asheville, that we could say no to.?
The ticket tangle
The club set an on-sale date of May 20 through its usual ticketing service, TicketWeb. When sales began, demand overwhelmed the system, and only a few fans managed to place orders. Switching to the much larger Ticketmaster network, sales were restarted May 21, and every admission sold in less than five minutes, club spokeswoman Liz Whalen said. ??I barely got any for myself,? Capps said.
After staying at his computer for more than three hours on May 20, Asheville??s Cory Gates managed to buy tickets to all nine shows. As the site was going up and down May 20, Gates kept working the Web to get his tickets.
??It was just relentless, persistence and patience,? said Gates, 33, a longtime fan who saw the band play live in New England in the mid-??90s.
Why did he go to the trouble? ??It??s a legendary band in a small setting,? he said about the appeal of the hometown performances. ??I don??t know if you can get much better.?
After coming away from her computer empty-handed, Grace Robinson said tickets should have been available at the box office, which would have helped out local fans.
??They took the experience away from Asheville,? said Robinson, one of many locals who ended up with no tickets. ??I tried both days.?
Whenever possible, Orange Peel management works to make tickets available for local residents, but the band wouldn??t budge on selling them all online, said Public Interest Projects President Pat Whalen.
Most tickets were sold in the U.S., largely in the Southeast, with 20 percent in Asheville, 50 percent in North Carolina, and some sales in New York, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio and Indiana, said Bryan Benson, talent buyer with AC Entertainment, which has worked with Ticketmaster to track sales.
The only international purchases were from Canada, he said. ??Most people are only attending one concert,? he said.
Business impact
With more than 8,000 Pumpkins fans headed to town, Biltmore Avenue businesses will get an immediate punch, but the ripple will extend across town.
??When you have a sold-out show (at The Orange Peel), it??s good for all the restaurants? on the street, said Doug Beatty, founder of Barley??s Taproom and Pizzeria, 42 Biltmore Ave. He??s scheduling extra staff during the Pumpkins?? residency.
At the Fine Arts Theatre, manager Neal Reed expects to see an increase in business, with some fans looking for something to do while waiting for a show. A few blocks away at Asheville Brewing, 77 Coxe Ave., Rangel is uncertain of the impact. ??We will get a surge? of hungry concert-goers, he predicted.
Will parking be tight? Bet on it.
But Asheville hotel and motel rooms are still available during the band??s run, said Marla Tambellini, director of marketing and public relations with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Public safety
One person who won??t be in attendance is City Councilman Carl Mumpower, who has recently called for stepped-up drug enforcement at Asheville Civic Center concerts.
??I want their fans to obey our community??s drug laws and our police to step in when they don??t ?? nothing more,? he said about the Pumpkins?? shows.
Unlike the civic center, The Orange Peel is a private facility, noted Mumpower, who said the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium ??smelled like an Amsterdam hash bar? after dropping by a March show from the band Ratdog, which features founding Grateful Dead member Bob Weir.
??I??m not interested in policing their house ?? our police need to do that,? he said about The Orange Peel.
Asheville police Lt. Wally Welch said the department plans additional downtown patrols in connection with the Pumpkins?? concerts.
??There will be random vice operations going on in the surrounding parking lots,? he said, which will include uniformed and undercover officers on patrol. There are no plans to have Asheville police officers inside the venue, he said.
What??s next
A successful run by the Pumpkins could bring bigger acts to the club, Ramshaw said. ??We get turned down (by bands) way more often than groups agree to play,? she said.
??One of the reasons to do big shows is to do more big shows,???? Whalen said. ??The more great music we get in town, the more Asheville is on the map.?
You??ll pay big-time to see sold-out Pumpkins shows
By Tony Kiss,
Tkiss@CITIZEN-TIMES.com No actual tickets have been issued for any shows by the Smashing Pumpkins, but that hasn??t stopped ticket brokers or fans from offering them online ?? for steep prices.
Originally sold for $20 (a price set by the band), the GotTickets.com Web site has a pair on sale for $950. TicketsNow.com has a pair for $890. At the online auction site eBay, another pair is up for bid at $450.
But Orange Peel management is going to great lengths to thwart scalpers. Official sales were limited to two per person per show. Anyone who successfully ordered tickets online must bring the receipt, photo ID and the credit card used to the club box office. They (and any guest) will then be issued a wristband and escorted into the club.
This is where scalpers might step into the picture, meeting a customer before the show, and actually stepping into the box office with them to complete the transaction.
??If you bought two tickets online, you could sell your second ticket and bring the stranger as your guest,? said Karen Ramshaw of Public Interest Projects, which owns The Orange Peel. ??There is nothing you can do to stop that.? But she advised extreme caution in dealing with scalpers and being certain they can actually deliver a ticket.
Any attempt to break the club rules ??will result in the ticket being confiscated and the purchaser banned from the club,? according to The Orange Peel??s Web site.
