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It’s taken me a few weeks to write this post, not because it’s especially long or eloquent, but because I’m really, really lazy and I tend to begin projects and lay them aside for long periods of time. I know that this account in disconnected, disjointed, and otherwise incomprehensible in places, but I hope that it’s at least partially lucid. Concerts are always sensory-overloading experiences for me, and afterward I often have trouble recalling the exact order of events (Regular concert timeline: beginning – prolonged insanity – end).
Saturday, June 12th:
I went to work, came back home and changed clothes, then Joe and I hopped into his car to leave for the Perfect Circle concert. The City Auditorium is downtown on Kiowa street (Jared will no doubt recall getting lost in that area with me late one night last summer). We left at 5:30 even though the show started at 8:00. Joe wasn’t happy about leaving so early, but I explained that the line at the doors would be huge. I wore my Smashing Pumpkins Zero t-shirt, and Joe wore his Thursday t-shirt. Some people think it’s stupid to wear shirts from other bands to concerts. I agree, but I did it anyway. We had to park a good five blocks from the City Auditorium, but the parking was free. This was APC’s penultimate show on their Thirteenth Step tour (their last one was at Red Rocks in Denver the next night, a venue that I’ve heard is insanely awesome).
APC on the cover of GO! magazine
This is it, folks, my actual ticket . . . no, seriously!
We waited in line from about 6:00 until 8:00, and it was a good thing we arrived early because soon the line stretched around the block. I don’t think that I will ever feel completely comfortable around the concert-going crowd. I feel out of place because I’m usually one of the few without tattoos, a cigarette in my mouth, a bottle of beer in one hand, and the need to say “f***” ever 2.5 seconds. The people right behind us were disgusting. All they talked about was how many people they want to have sex with at one time (including extremely graphic details). I felt like I was going to contract an STD just standing near them. Joe and I tried to ignore them by discussing which songs we hoped to hear. We both agreed that The Hollow was at the top of our list. At one point as we waited in line a DJ from KILO 94.3 walked by with a microphone interviewing fans about the show. The doors were supposed to open at 7 PM, but we didn’t get inside until 8 PM (it began to rain a little shortly after 7:00). They had to do security searches on everyone, and it took a long time.
APC
The interior of the City Auditorium surprised me, mainly because it looked like it had been there for fifty years without a single renovation. The flip-down seats were wooden, badly splintered, and in need of a new coat of paint. The seats on our tickets were unbelievably crappy (thanks again, Ticketmaster). Joe and I decided to find closer seats, so we walked over to the right side balcony. We sat a couple of rows back, but we were still only about 50 feet from the stage (as opposed to the 500 feet or so that our original seats would have been).
The opening band was The Burning Brides. Terrible, terrible band. I’m not the kind of rock fan who hears loud guitars and screaming and automatically thinks it must be good. When I go to a concert I usually don’t care to hear the opening band; I’ve heard some terrible openers, so I never expect much. The lead singer annoyed me; he played to every rock & roll cliché possible: long hair, headbanging as he played his flying V guitar, jumping in the air and doing the splits, screaming, swinging his guitar in the air, and encouraging moshing. The band left the stage and the house lights came on. Thankfully.
After a twenty minute intermission, the house lights went off, and everyone began cheering. Billy Howerdel (guitars) and Jeordie White (bass) came onstage and went to opposite corners of the stage and began playing. At the back of the stage, a curtain came up revealing James Iha standing on a platform (at that point I began to cheer quite loudly). A large curtain still dominated the middle of the stage, then red lights back-lit it revealing Maynard James Keenan’s silhouette. At first, I thought that the silhouette belonged to a woman: long hair, small frame, and he was at first singing in a very high voice.
Billy Howerdel and Maynard James Keenan's shadow
Billy Howerdel
The first song, Vanishing, was particularly haunting. When it was over, the main curtain ascended, revealing Maynard and a stage set with leafless, withered trees. Most of the fans were there to see Maynard, of course, though I was more interested in James Iha. A street sign reading “Maynard Rd.” was attached to the microphone stand. I was at first shocked that the curtain had come up at all; for all of the other APC shows this year, Maynard has stayed behind a curtain for the whole show (eccentric artist, I suppose). I guess that since this was the next-to-last show, he decided to finally show himself.
Maynard . . . yes, he is an odd fellow
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During the whole show, the crowd on the floor level was insane. A few times, security guards had to break up the moshing because it became too violent. Many people were crowd surfing, and when they reached the front pit, the security guards grabbed them, and took them . . . somewhere. They made it very clear that moshing and crowd surfing were not allowed, so I bet they kicked the people out of the place.
When you give a successful, multi-million dollar recording artist a microphone and a dedicated audience, they can’t help but rant. It seems like most celebrities hate George W. Bush, and I’m really tired of their petty slander. Maynard’s anti-Bush diatribe would have made Eddie Vedder proud. After a full five minutes of attacking Bush’s policies, Maynard told everyone to say “****" to Bush. He then blabbed on about voting responsibly, etc, etc. Stick to singing, Maynard, and leave politics to people who know what they’re doing!
Jeordie White
Josh Freese
They ended the show with the song Judith, my least favorite song of theirs. Lately I’ve been listening to numerous songs featuring slide guitars, and I was surprised to see Billy playing the slide for Judith! Very, very cool. As the song began to wind down, hundreds of ping pong balls dropped from the ceiling onto Maynard. He kicked them out to the crowd as he continued singing. I later learned that this was a practical joke played on Maynard by some of the members of the crew.
Judith ended, and much applause ensued. All the band members began exiting the stage, and James Iha came near our side. I stood up in my Zero shirt and screamed “go James!” so loud that I thought my throat would explode out of my mouth (is that possible? Hmmm . . .whatever). Under normal circumstances, I loathe fans who go insane for stars, but this was James Iha for gollywoggle’s sake!
James Iha
The biggest highlight of the show was when they played The Hollow twice in a row! After the first time through, Maynard said, “since this is our next to last show, we’re going to do that song again.” Good enough reason for me. The strength of The Package and Thinking of You were especially striking, and I was stunned by the power of Maynard’s vocals. It’s one thing to hear him on a CD, but live he’s absolutely incredible.
I was disappointed mainly by the fact that we couldn’t see Josh Freese, the drummer, from our seats. During The Nurse Who Loved Me, Joe and I got up and walked to the back of the auditorium so we could see him. That made up for it a little. I wish that they had played Orestes, my favorite song of theirs. I found out that they played Orestes and Gravity the following evening in Denver. Grrrr.
On the way home, Joe and I listened to KILO and a guy called in talking about the show. He was going crazy (in a good way) about how they played The Hollow twice. The next day I posted a review on APC’s website expressing similar sentiments.
Setlist:
Vanishing
Pet
The Hollow
The Hollow
Magdalena
Weak and Powerless
Blue
Breña
Thinking of You
A Stranger
The Package
3 Libras
The Nurse Who Loved Me (Failure cover)
Thomas
The Outsider
The Noose
Judith
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