2012/10/14 The Smashing Pumpkins - Part III: Gibson Amphitheatre; Universal City (LA), CA, US
(not my) bronze VIP badge & booklet
Sunday started off with some much-needed sleep after a looong day spent almost entirely in the car. I was off the hook for driving since my license expired years ago (and I couldn't drive stick anyway), so at least there was that. Did get to show off some of my Japanese musical interests, too. So anyway. Woke up mid-afternoon (lol), showered, & headed out to a Target to look for the new exclusive SP 7"/t-shirt bundle that was supposed to be out that day. Not surprisingly, they didn't have any, and from what I read on twitter, a lot of other people were having difficulties finding them as well. Sat at the in-store Starbucks for a bit while we made plans w/ some other LA locals, & had my first ever Pumpkin Spice Latte, which was rather tasty. Eventually we decided on a raw vegan place, since 3/5 of us who were meeting were vegan. Yep, it's LA. lol
Universal City
Headed over to Universal City, which is its own city in the basically same way Disney Land is its own city (I wouldn't be surprised if it had its own zip code, actually). One of the restaurants inside had a big banner hung out welcoming all the SP fans- wonder if they do that for every concert that plays there, in the hopes of luring fans in to eat there... heh. Walked around a bit & found where the venue was, then wandered a bit more and headed back down to the restaurant, which was near where we'd parked- heading back down was much easier than the way up, which really was up for a rather long, curved hill. Guess that took care of the day's exercise!
Met our friends at the vegan place, which was actually pretty good- even the "nacho cheese" on my lettuce-wrapped Fiesta Burger was decent enough to not offend my WI/CA cheese snobbery (ah, who am I kidding- I'm mainly a cheddar & pepper jack guy). Hopped in our cars & headed back to the venue, where we met up again & sat outside on the lawn during the opener, as nobody seemed terribly interested in seeing them (again), and we all had seats, so there was no need to head in early for a good spot. Ran into an old college mate- one of the first fans I'd ever met- while checking out the goods area, where I picked up one of the T-shirts and checked to see if Meghan from The Cold & Lovely had dropped off the CD I'd pre-ordered months ago, but had never made it to Japan (lost in the mail?), as planned over email/twitter. No luck yet, so I decided to check again after the show.
Welcome SP fans!
- Quasar
- Panopticon
- The Celestials
- Violet Rays
- My Love Is Winter
- One Diamond, One Heart
- Pinwheels
- Oceania
- Pale Horse
- The Chimera
- Glissandra
- Inkless
- Wildflower
- Space Oddity [Bowie]
- X.Y.U.
- Disarm
- Tonite Reprise > Tonight, Tonight
- Bullet with Butterfly Wings
- A Song for a Son
- Zero
- Cherub Rock
- Ava Adore
- Muzzle
Since I knew the set & guitar changes by now, I focused mostly on the orb this time, taking notes on what was projected during each song. Quasar started off with a maze, some moving red polar-coordinate graphs, and pictures of auroras (aurorae? eh, either is fine, apparently). Panopticon moved to close-ups of hands, eyes, and kissing. The Celestials kicked off the recurring constellation imagery, with outlines of a man and woman with star joints and connecting-line "bones", as well as an octopus constellation. Violet Rays had what looked like lava lamp globs, and microscopic enlargements of some kind of organic structure that resembled an octopus (dandelion seed, maybe?). My Love is Winter featured a wireframe rendered face, a silhouette of a guy whose arms kept getting longer & longer (minus the Freddy Krueger glove & hat, lol), and the aforementioned octopus constellation, as well as a turtle one. One Diamond, One Heart had some string and spiral patterns, rotating arcs, and a rendered man's body, whose mouth opened unnaturally wide and sprouted vines that grew out in every direction. Pinwheels had more hand close-ups, a woman on a bridge, tentacles, and grid squares. Oceania kept the tentacles, which now spiraled, brought back the turtle, and threw in some hi-rise apartment complexes and ink flow patterns.
picking up my whammy bar back in SF-
and picking something else XD
Pale Horse projected a kaleidoscope-y pattern and some skulls. The Chimera had some rotating sin wave lines, the turtle & octopus again, and some spirograph patterns, along with a two-headed wireframe woman, with solid-rendered pumping (just typed pumpkin, lol) heart & circulatory system . Glissandra did more stripes & grids, rendered wireframe mountains, and a wireframe body that eventually became just a skeleton. Inkless started off with a wide panorama of a lone tree in an otherwise empty field, then zoomed in & panned down into the ground, followed its roots as they grew and twisted like the tentacles from earlier, then zoomed back out to show that the tree is the only thing on an entire planet floating in space. Finally, Wildflower showed more space, stars, and swirly clouds, until the swirls became a vortex.
So that was the main orb show. Space Oddity showed some blue cubes & other spacey imagery, and the Tonite Reprise/Tonight, Tonight medley showed A Trip to the Moon. Other than that, the orb was blank, or merely lit by the colored stage lights. As for banter, Billy ended up recycling the same joke from SF, slightly re-told, saying they'd be playing "stuff off Dookie, Ten, Nevermind, Superunknown, & VH-1". He also mentioned that it was nice to be home, and pointed out that Jeff is an LA native, then saying Mike was "from snob-land, up there in Portland. As soon as you're born, they give you a Pitchfork tattoo"- lmao. He also mentioned the local lawsuit- apparently his neighbor (also a rich celebrity) is suing him because a tree (which the neighbor insists he complained about) fell into his yard an almost injured his wife- or something like that- by saying "They're suing me because I care about the fans", and pointing out how he was never sued in Chicago, but is being sued in LA.
Aaaanyway. Met up w/ our dinner friends again afterward & passed off a Japanese headband that I'd bought to give Mike last year, but failed due to an after-show screwup, since it was obvious I wouldn't be seeing anyone after the show on this trip either (but they were, hence the hand-off). Apparently he loved it, which is good, even though it was a bit annoying that I couldn't give it to him myself... oh well. Said bye to Lozzy (and "hope to see you in Japan soon" hint hint, lol), and went back out to the goods table again to check for my CD- again, no luck. :( Left the venue & hung out for a bit near where we entered, which happened to be next to a Starbucks, which was good (PSL time!), but the wifi wasn't working at all. Ended up waiting w/ another familiar face, who was waiting for a friend's kids who were backstage, so she could drive them home afterward or something. I hoped to run into Meghan on her way out as well, but wifi was nowhere to be found, meaning I eventually gave up & turned on roaming, but I'm sure there was another exit hidden far, far away that the Super L337 VIPs use to go in & out without having to go through the middle of Universal City. So I didn't get to pick up my CD (and profess my adoration for the album). :P"
tacos wrapped in MELTED CHEESE OMNOMNOM
Finally headed back, updated spfc, & went to bed. Got up early the next morning to get to LAX. Where I got to sit for an extra 2-3 hours while our flight was delayed. -_-; Good thing I'd brought a magazine to read. Finally landed back in SF, trained downtown, stopped by the Target to check for the SP 7" again (which, of course, they didn't have, and oh, btw- Metreon is completely different. Like, the only thing that's the same is the theater part- everything else is gone- no Sony Store, no arcade, just a Target, Starbucks, and expanded food court), look for a Rocksmith cable (same), then headed to Chinatown to pick up a toy gun for Halloween, then back over to Guitar Center to pick up my whammy bar. Couldn't resist holding it up to Paul Stanley's nose on the window poster outside. XD Headed back to Girl's sisters, where we ate pizza, played a bit more Rocksmith (taking turns), and then headed over to their local ice cream parlor, which was amazeballs.
Next day I met Girl & her friend downtown for lunch, attempting to find an old food court I used to eat at when I worked there that had an awesome all chili place- eventually found the building, but the chili place was gone. -_-; Margh. Ended up heading over to hit another place instead, but when we got there it was closed, so we ended up getting on yet another bus to Taco Bar. Which. Was. Awesome. Started w/ 2 tacos- the "especial" version adds guacamole and shredded cheese, which is melted at an angle to the outside of the tortilla- and ended up ordering 2 more after that. XD
my new toys from the trip
From there I assume we headed back to the sister's again, possibly for yet more Rocksmith and ice cream, before heading back to pack. Left on Wednesday, arriving on Thursday (mrg #timetravel), & had the foresight to take Friday off as well, so we had a leisurely weekend, venturing out for a bit on Friday night to see a local "avant garde metal band", Ailiph Doepa. Those guys are a trip. XD Was a bit torn between my 2 newest toys, but Rocksmith won out for first play w/ the new guitar, and a bunch of new songs (although I spent so long methodically going through all the DLC, I ended up not having as much time to actually play them, lol).
So that was the TSP trip! Hopefully they'll hit Japan again next year so I don't have to worry about planning my family visiting around their tour again. :P"