It’s a big week for the Smashing Pumpkins, and I mean the actual Smashing Pumpkins, not that group that Billy Corgan has with him now.

This Tuesday we get new Deluxe Editions of both Gish and Siamese Dream. For many children of the 90s (myself included) these records hold just as much weight, if not more, as Nirvana’s Nevermind and Pearl Jam’s Ten. While those albums showed that rock could work when it was stripped down and bare, the best stuff by The Smashing Pumpkins proved that sometimes bigger (and bigger) was still sometimes the way to go. I love the bombast, guitar wankery and batshit self-indulgent grandiosity of the classic Pumpkins tracks. Nothings sounds like them, even to this day.

The extras on these Deluxe Editions look to be pretty stellar, let’s just hope they don’t fuck it up this time (Bob Ludwig is mastering it…). Expect a full review by yours truly later this week. Until then, here are a couple Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs that are absolutely smashing (see what I did there)?

Smashing Pumpkins: Live at the Axis Nightclub – September 23rd, 1991
Intro
Rocket
Tristessa
Window Paine
Bury Me
Siva
If that date above looks familiar, that’s because it’s the same date as this Nirvana show. That’s right, The Smashing Pumpkins were the opening act for that night. That’s a lot of awesome for one night.

This recording is a little muddy, but it definitely sounds better than the Nirvana recording that was made the same night. The nine-minute version of “Siva” is fucking awesome too.

Like the Nirvana bootlegs I’ve hosted, this is yet another gift from the awesome Duane Bruce. I thank him for hooking me up with the files.

Smashing Pumpkins: Live at the Cabaret Metro – October 5th, 1988
There It Goes
She
My Eternity
Under Your Spell
Bleed
Spiteface
Nothing And Everything
The last (real) Smashing Pumpkins concert was at the Chicago Metro in 2000. Attendees of that legendary show got this CD, which is a bootleg recording of the group’s very first concert as a complete band (before this show they played with a drum machine). It’s not unlistenable, but it’s definitely more of note for its historical relevance than its actual quality: there’s a reason why you probably never heard of any of these songs.

Still jonesing for more Pumpkins bootlegs? Head over to the Internet Archive, they have an amazing selection of high-quality Smashing Pumpkin bootlegs from the 80s to today. If you don’t know where to start I highly (highly) recommend their second-to-last show from November 29th, 2000.

I was at that concert, I’m certain my ears never completely recovered from it (wear earplugs kids) and it was totally worth it. And it’s a high-quality FM rip, so it sounds amazing.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 28th, 2011 at 12:32 am and is filed under bootlegs, The Smashing Pumpkins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.