Critique de Sebastien Cuvelier du concert du 28/05/98; Jardins du Botanique, Bruxelles

This concert took place in the Botanique Gardens in Brussels, on May 28, 1998. This is a superb place, and some bands havealready played at that exact spot, including French band Indochine.
Only 2,000 tickets were put on sale, and everything was sold in 2 hours the day when the information was made official. I hopefully got the information and phone number the previous day and managed to get tickets number 16 and 17! As the stage is quite close to the road, many people watched the concert for free from about 150 meters away.

Scheduled at 20.00, it began around 20.30 with a surprising support act: Sacha Toorop, leadsinger of Zop Hopop, a Belgian band from Liège. This guy actually takes care of everything, and tours with some musicians. Here, he played on his own with only a guitar, so that the songs looked a bit different. He sang on the right of the stage, and said some words both in French and Dutch to the audience. It rained a little bit during his show, which was quite funny because some of the words to a song he played are "Let it rain". He played 5 songs, 2 from his debut album Red Poppies, 2 from the EP and another one which seems to be a new song.

The Smashing Pumpkins finally arrived at 21.20, wearing their now-usual dark outfits (Billy with grey trousers, long black leather jacket on a black jacket, James with black trousers, a brown suede jacket and a brown fisherman hat and D'arcy with black leather trousers, transparent top and cat ears on the head), and instantly began to play To Sheila. There isn't anything special to say about the setlist, which is pretty much the same everywhere. Most people seemed to discover the songs (the album was not out yet), but I knew most of them. I was just waiting for the moment they played Tear, because as I already saw the London show and knew the words, I was going to get heard (the beginning of the song is without music), and all the people around me looked at me with a surprised face when I sang along with Billy. Unfortunately, I can't be heard on the recording...
Some special moments were during Ava Adore, as Billy once sang "and you'll always be my whores, as you're the ones that I adore", and on Bullet with butterfly wings, as Billy and James did some kind of a jam session at the beginning, each one playing the guitar riff the other just played.

Billy talked to the audience to dedicate Daphne descends to and Tonight, tonight to, said we were great, that Belgium is a place where they like to come, and so on. James only talked during the encore, as he asked the crowd: "Let's go back to a certain year... nineteen..., ...seventy... I can't hear you! 1979 !". D'arcy didn't say anything, but seemed to be waiting anxiously for the end of the first part, as she was talking to Billy during For Martha. He laughed and asked her several times to wait (putting his fingers to show there wasn't much left to play). My friend and I guess she had to go p!

Billy introduced every musician at he end, calling himself Jack and D'arcy Jesus Christ. Everybody was cheering for an encore, but I was the one who started the "We want more", and of course they came back.

As usual, they played 1979 andTransmission by Joy Division at the end, which lasted about 25 minutes (!), and Billy even sang some words of Help by The Beatles.
He then waved at everybody (even the people in the streets), and they left the stage one by one, D'arcy being the last.

This wonderful gig lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes, and hopefully I could catch the last train to get back home!

The album was out the next day, and I can tell you it was a great feeling to be able to listen to it, at last...

© Sébastien Cuvelier 1998