This show was fantastic! Over 2 hours of Smashing Pumpkins goodness came our way at the Brisbane Convention Centre and it was fun and exciting from the word go. Kicking it off was the sweet and romantic Porcelina, and it just got better from there. Nightmare was phenomenal. Mayonaise was simply beautiful. Crowd pleasers were the usual - Today, Tonight Tonight, Bullet with Butterfly Wings - and they were all performed with a sense of ease, spontaneity and familiarity. Superchrist was spectacular, as was Stellar and The Rose March. Lily was unreal (when I was singing along to it, I changed the words to Billy!). United States, which went for at least 14 minutes just kept the crowd in an absolute trance, tripping out all the stoners and inspiring all the drunkards. Billy, as usual, showed us just how talented he is with a guitar and how good he is at putting different sounds together. There was many a murmer of awe during United States.. many a profanity of disbelief uttered. Most definitely a sign of an A grade performance. 2 hours later I still wanted more. I could listen to them perform forever.

The only disappointing thing about this show was the apparent lack of noise from the crowd. I couldn't even scream because I was all screamed out from the V festival performance (I tried many times but at best sounded like a dying bird making its last cry of despair), but no one really seemed to have a passion for the music. Billy even stood there and asked us what we wanted - "I like you, you kinda sorta like me.. what's goin on? What the f%#! do you want me to do??". Had i any remnants of a voice left, I would have shouted as loud as I could "GOSSAMER!!" but sadly it wasn't to be. I particularly liked his song called "nothing" where he silently strummed the guitar and claimed that it was a song that changed his life. Great to see his sense of humor is still very much alive.

I think the Pumpkins have the potential to be massive over here in the land of Oz, but there's certainly not enough exposure. We're seemingly forgotten down here. I could almost guarantee that I was one of maybe 10 people who knew how Stellar went (I wanted to punch the people who had no idea whether it was an old or a new song), how the Rose March went (and by the way, gold star performance there!!), how My Blue Heaven went.. and that to me is a sad sad thing. No one seemed to know Cash Car Star or Crush or even Drown. I bet most of the "fans" who attended had no idea what Machina II was all about. We hear about a law suit, but the whole point is lost. "It's just a scam to make money" - NO. If you knew about how Virgin has screwed over the pumpkins for years it would all make sense, but its just lost on us here. WE DO NOT GET ENOUGH EXPOSURE. We were forgotten with iTunes when American Gothic was released, (sadly I had to download it from a torrent but would have gladly forked out a stupid amount of money for it had I been given the opportunity, and still will if and when it becomes available). We get the standard version albums and they are very hard to come by. Music stores don't give the band much, if any, credit at all. Their excuse - "no one knows them" or "not enough people like them" to justify shipping in music. The Australian Rolling Stone magazine, along with a handful of the other music magazines over here barely cover any fabulous bands - it's all about Panic! at the Disco or Eskimo Joe or the hundreds of other no-name bands who release one song and then disappear, never to be heard of again. Some of the bands at V Festival were a joke in terms of performance. The Pumpkins clearly performed at a standard so much higher than the others that it just seemed to be wasted. Australia seems to be all about "supporting home grown talent" which is fine, but we need to acknowledge the talent that inspired these bands to begin with - which in some way always comes back to the Pumpkins.

So to the mighty SP - may I just say as the self-professed BIGGEST AUSSIE FAN - on behalf of us Aussie fans, I do apologise that we weren't that excited as a collective. Just know that there are a select few of us out there who considered this time to be the highlight of the year, who love you, adore you, sit online for hours pouring over you, spend hours of our days listening to your music on long train rides to our mind-numbingly boring jobs and on our way home after another unfulfilling day at work (personally I've listened to the Grand Rex concert from start to finish over 30 times since I downloaded it off this website, and it always puts a brightener on my otherwise boring day stuck in a job I hate while I finish my degree and start doing what I want) and who share the passion and the energy that you guys try to put out there. It gets through to some of us and it's what keeps us coming back for more. So far nothing has discouraged me and the only thing that will is if you guys stop making music.

Please don't be discouraged at making appearances here more regularly - I know it's a long way from home and we are rude bastards, but the comments I heard after both V Fest and the Brisbane concert were all very very encouraging (many a "Billy is f%$&ing unreal and that guy on the drums.. insane!! were uttered) and I hope that this appearance has at least awoken a few more people to just how great, grand, marvelous, wonderful and inspiring you guys really are. Disbanding probably did a bit of harm for all of us rock-lovers down under.. it's been so long since we've heard real music here (not the britney's or the black hip-hop eminem crap) that we forget what it sounds like after a while. Please try to work on Australia - we're a rich country with a lot of money to spend and there's nothing better that I can think of spending money on than seeing you guys work your magic. Top effort! Thank you for coming and I hope we see you again really soon.