Smashing Pumpkins @ V Festival, The Esplanade, Perth, WA, Australia

6th April 2008 | Canon 400D

After bullshitting my way past security (“I just came from work on public transport, but my camera battery really is dead!”), my trusty 400D and it’s 75-300mm lens were inside the V Festival. Sure, I had to suffer through Duran Duran’s perfect example of why so many people view reunion tours as being without any artistic merit (seriously, a Simon Le Bon quote for you; “We were backstage with your police commissioner just before we came onstage, and he said it was alright if you guys and girls wanted to take your shirts off.” Fuck off Le Bon, you’re old, it’s just creepy) but it was certainly worth the effort.

While the Pumpkins’ set was a tad underwhelming for me (basically being the same as the Adelaide set I caught the week prior, while the Melbourne dates inbetween were somewhat more diverse), the energy was great, the sound was solid, and it was a great way to close Perth’s inagural V Festival. Plus, I got to take some photos of one of the biggest names in the annals of alternative rock: Mr. William Patrick Corgan Jr.

That, and the version of “Cash Car Star” they were playing on the tour was simply fantastic.

There’s a ton more stuff on all things Smashing Pumpkins over at the wonderful Ozphoria by the truly great duo of Simon and Bree. Simon also writes some great articles over at the official Smashing Pumpkins site under the name Sunky. Well worth a read.