“. . . Strangers Down the Line . . .”

Billy Corgan Book Signing
The Tattered Cover, Denver CO
10-23-04

Joe and I left at 3:30 yesterday afternoon for Denver. The drive was hectic, since it was just about rush hour when we arrived on the outskirts of the city. We found a parking place and walked a few blocks to the Tattered Cover bookstore. *Side note: downtown Denver rocks!* I had been to the book store last summer with my Dad, my sister, Joe, and my old pal Jared, and it is a truly awesome place to hang out (you know, if you are the literary type).

We went upstairs and found a line of tape on the floor leading into the “Event Room.” The room was full of people sitting on the floor; it looked like a line for a ride at an amusement park. We waited for over two hours before the signing began, and luckily I brought along some homework. Poor Joe just played with his cell phone the whole time and cracked jokes about Tibetan love slaves (don’t ask).

At 6:30 PM, a Tattered Cover employee came onstage and told us that he had good news and bad news. The good news: Billy would arrive at 7:00 PM for the signing as planned. The bad news: he had a bad case of laryngitis, and he couldn’t talk. A friend of his would read his poetry aloud at the Soiled Dove immediately following the signing, but Billy would not be able to perform any songs. To say the least, I was very disappointed. We soon heard grumblings nearby that the Soiled Dove only allowed people ages 21 and up to enter. Joe called the place on his cell phone and confirmed it. He was extremely upset. We finally had a chance to see Billy perform live, and Joe wouldn’t even be allowed to enter the building, and Billy had laryngitis! Since it wouldn’t be much fun to go to the show alone and leave Joe to sit in the car, I decided that our only option was to go home after the signing.

At 7:00 Billy came out of a back room led by a few Tattered Cover employees and his personal entourage. Everyone in line began to cheer. He was dressed in an overcoat and a beanie (I hate that word), and as he walked he wrapped a scarf around his neck. He sat down at a desk in the middle of the stage, and the signing began. The setup was interesting: on one side of the desk stood the manager of the Tattered Cover, and on the opposite side an employee and a rather burly fellow who appeared to be Billy’s bodyguard. Behind Billy sat a Tibetan woman dressed in a red silk kimono-type dress (sorry, I really have no understanding of Tibetan fashion). She has been touring with him, and I’ve heard that she is an amazing singer. When it was the next fan’s turn in line, they handed their copy of Blinking with Fists to the bodyguard, and he passed it to Billy. Billy then opened the book and signed it as the fan passed in front of the desk and said a few words to him. Since he had laryngitis, Billy only whispered to a few people, and he acknowledged others with a nod or a smile.


BC at Harvard bookstore in Boston last week
(no photos online of Tattered Cover signing yet)

After he had signed five books or so, the building’s fire alarm suddenly went off. The siren was terribly loud, and lights flashed everywhere. Billy and his bodyguard looked concerned, but he kept signing for two more minutes or so while the store manager ran to investigate. I didn’t see any sign of smoke, so I wasn’t worried, but I imagined a headline reading: “Five-Hundred People Die in Bookstore Fire.” Everyone in line around us began to freak out, not about the possibility of dying, but rather the fear that they would lose their place in line. At that point, Joe and I were only about twenty people away from the front of the line, and if we had to evacuate, we would surely lose our place. In another minute, the Tattered Cover employees began walking down the line informing everyone that we had to evacuate. We proceeded outside single-file and waited for a good fifteen minutes out in the cold until they confirmed that it was just a false alarm (we later hypothesized that someone at the end of the line might have pulled the alarm in an attempt to reach the front of the line. A clever, if despicable plan). Theoretically, we should have made it back into the building in the same order we exited, but when we re-entered the Event Room, that was clearly not the case: instead of being behind twenty people, we were now behind about eighty. So much for showing up two hours early.

When it was our turn, I handed the book to the bodyguard and stepped in front of the desk. For the past ten minutes I had been frantically trying to come up with something wonderfully original to say. In actuality, for the past month I had been pondering it, but what could I say to someone who has doubtlessly heard all forms of praise from thousands of fans over the years? When I was directly in front of him, he was signing my book, then he looked up at me. Predictably, I immediately became a nearly incoherent fool. I muttered something about it being amazing that he was here, then I basically told him that his music had influenced me greatly over the years, and I said thanks for everything. He smiled and nodded at me. Joe was a bit smoother: he said, “Your Gravity Demos have been an inspiration and a huge influence on my own music.” Billy’s reaction was great! He gave Joe a very surprised look and grinned. Billy’s Gravity Demos are a series of extremely rare instrumental versions of Smashing Pumpkins songs recorded before the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness album, and I managed to acquire them a year or two ago. I’m sure that of the hundreds of people at the signing, only ten or fifteen had ever even heard of the Gravity Demos, so it’s no wonder that Billy appeared surprised. I had really wanted to prove that I wasn’t just some goofy kid who bought Siamese Dream five years ago, listened to it once, and then just decided to come to the signing on a whim. I wanted to show him that I was a true fan! But unfortunately we only had a few seconds to speak to him. Oh, for the chance to sit down for an hour and chat . . . oh well. Yes, I know I am very pitiful, and I won’t try to hide that fact.



We left the bookstore and drove home. I was disappointed that we couldn’t see him perform live, but in a way everything worked out for the best: I’ve had a bad cold all week, and I had to work today and study for a test, so it’s best that I wasn’t out until 2 AM. Besides, he’s finishing up his solo album, and when it’s released next year, he’ll hopefully stop in Colorado on his tour.