Fred Mills
May 14, 2007
Now here??s a news item you don??t read every day from any band: in a nigh-on unprecedented move not witnessed except in the jamband milieu, the Smashing Pumpkins have just announced two sets of residency gigs: nine slated for the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC (June 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30 and July 2, 3, and 5) plus eight at the Fillmore in San Francisco (July 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30 and 31 and August 1).
The residencies will bookend the July 10 release of the new Pumpkins album Zeitgeist.
Acccording to band management, these ??very special and intimate residencies, the band will vary set lists from night to night. They'll perform songs from Zeitgeist Pumpkins classics plus retool songs that didn't make it onto Zeitgeist and even offer tunes written the day of the show. The shows will give fans a unique opportunity to see the Pumpkins inside the process of creation and operating in the spur of the moment.?
The eight concerts in San Francisco mark the first time the band has returned to The Fillmore since April of 1994 when they were invited to be the band to re-open the historic venue. The Asheville shows mark the first time the Pumpkins will have played a residency since their four gigs at the Double Door in Chicago in 1994.
And in a neat move to pre-empt the inevitable bootleggers, the band is actively encouring fans to bring audio and video gear to record the shows in Asheville and San Fran.
Here??s the rest of the important stuff??note the admirable anti-scalping measures being instituted. Not that that won??t prevent eBay from going into overdrive shortly after the on-sale? caveat emptor.
General admission tickets for these all-ages shows go on sale Sunday, May 20.
The San Francisco tickets ($25.00 each) and will be available at 10:00 AM Pacific via
www.ticketmaster.com and
www.livenation.com. For the Asheville show, tickets ($20.00 each) will go on sale at 1:00 PM Eastern at
www.theorangepeel.net or
www.ticketweb.com. Tickets for both shows will be available through internet ONLY.
Tickets will NOT be available at either box offices, charge-by-phone or ticket outlets. Two-ticket limit per person. Purchaser must pick up tickets at the box office night-of-show only. Ticket-holders must immediately enter the venue. Photo ID required for ticket pick-up. Tickets are non-transferable. No refunds or exchanges. A service charge is added to each ticket price.
