Smashing Pumpkins Is Still a Heavy Metal Machine

I hope Virgin decides to keep its Festival in Pimilico for the next several years. It will be a welcome replacement for the HFStival and a good place to hear new bands. And this year's show was replete with excellent performances by some of the best bands around. It was a hard choice at first when deciding between this and Lollapalooza in Chicago. I love Chicago, and I love My Morning Jacket. But the Pumpkins weren't playing there this year, and all the other Lollapalooza bands I wanted to see were at Virgin Festival. (oh, and I liked the jokey riding guitar pick logo - very cool post-modern allusion to Preakness.

The atmosphere was free and fun, and as the Washington Post alluded to, there was plently of pot to go around if you're into that. I have always adhered to the South Park philosophy: "There's a time and a place for everyting, and it's called college."

One not-so-new-band that continued to Rock the House was Smashing Pumpkins with a tour de force performance of their new material interspersed with classics from their past CDs. They even hit "Heavy Metal Machine" from their ill-fated Machina/Machines of God concept double albumn. Of the six performances I've seen beginning with the inaugural date on the Siamese Dream tour (more out of luck, than rock knowledge), this was by far the best. The performances were outstanding, and the giant screens focused a lot on Billy's chord-play and Jimmy's stick banging. The fact that it dien't really focus on the bassist or other guitarist reminded me of rumors that D'Arcy and James Iha have not rejoined the band. However, Jimmy is back in despite almost dying of a heroin overdose.

While I got a teasing taste of The Police at Live Earth, their full-on concert rocked from beginning to end, demonstrating why theirs has been one of the most anticipated reunion tours in years. Evey song was played perfectly, and they thrived off the crowd's energy with one of the best performances I've ever scene. And Sting was gracious enough to reintroduce Stuart Copeland and Andy Sommers after their 20 year eclipse by Sting's solo act.

The Beasties of course rocked the house as well, setting up the crowd for the afore mentioned performance. Like the Pumpkins, they performed a variety of classics from each albumn. Unfortunately, they did not perform the always crowd pleasing"Paul Revere". Either that or I was overserved at that time.

Panic At the Disco won thousands of new fans with their performance. Reports of their eleclectic sound are not to be dismissed, and a major reason why you should see them at the next opportunity.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs put on a solid performance, that slowly built the crowd into a frenzy as Karen O crooned all our favorites.

Interpol was good. They may be a good studio band, but they need more festival experience. Not that they didn't rock, but they just didn't seem to connect with the crowd as much as they could have.

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals put on another first rate show and converted me to full on fan. Their music is complex, mellow, funky, and radically fun. Anyone who hasn't checked them out, should definitely do so.

Incubus put on the first great performance I witnessed at the show. Though I got there late due to working on Saturday.