{open}
A decade ago, Sé expressed a desire to open an eclectic used bookstore which feature art and live music as well. I expressed skepticism at the time. She has long since established her bookstore, {open}, in Long Beach. And this past Friday, Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, and Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction debuted ten songs at her bookstore. There is no analogy to describe this event -- rather, this event itself best serves as an analogy. I can imagine trying to explain some incredible event by saying: "it would be as if the frontmen from the Smashing Pumpkins and Jane's Addiction played at Sé's bookstore."
To top it off, SPIN magazine has a piece on the performance. "The 85 lucky fans at {open}, a bookstore 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, were rocked - often very softly -- with covers and 10 new Corgan songs... That he chose to debut them in such a novel way -- on a tour of out-of-the-way California venues -- is characteristic Corgan." The nine-piece ensemble, dubbed "Spirits in the Sky" included Corgan, Navarro, the Pumpkins' new 19-year-old wunderkind Mike Byrne on drums, Mark Tulin (the Electric Prunes) on bass, Mark Weitz (Strawberry Alarm Clock) on keyboards, Kerry Brown (Catherine) on percussion, Ysanne Spevak on violin, Linda Strawberry on backing vocals, and Kevin Dippold on flute and mandolin.
Yes, they had a flute and a mandolin. The first half of the set they played was acoustic. Now I wish I could have been there. But all 85 ticktes reportedly sold out in three minutes. A slew of pictures can be found here.
Corgan at one point said to Navarro: "You've done a lot of things, but you've never rocked a bookstore, have you?"
To top it off, SPIN magazine has a piece on the performance. "The 85 lucky fans at {open}, a bookstore 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, were rocked - often very softly -- with covers and 10 new Corgan songs... That he chose to debut them in such a novel way -- on a tour of out-of-the-way California venues -- is characteristic Corgan." The nine-piece ensemble, dubbed "Spirits in the Sky" included Corgan, Navarro, the Pumpkins' new 19-year-old wunderkind Mike Byrne on drums, Mark Tulin (the Electric Prunes) on bass, Mark Weitz (Strawberry Alarm Clock) on keyboards, Kerry Brown (Catherine) on percussion, Ysanne Spevak on violin, Linda Strawberry on backing vocals, and Kevin Dippold on flute and mandolin.
Yes, they had a flute and a mandolin. The first half of the set they played was acoustic. Now I wish I could have been there. But all 85 ticktes reportedly sold out in three minutes. A slew of pictures can be found here.
Corgan at one point said to Navarro: "You've done a lot of things, but you've never rocked a bookstore, have you?"