Julian Lepinski

Note: This article originally appeared on SmashingPumpkins.com.

(Alternate title: The Storied Exploits of a Resourceful Writer in the Land of Angry Venue Security)

If you’re getting sick of hearing about the Toronto shows then you’ll likely want to skip this article. In addition to attending the two shows last week I was also fortunate enough to head backstage after night #1 and chat with Jimmy and Billy. I thought some of you might be interested in my fleeting time as a Smashing Pumpkins VIP.

This past month has been busy — I’ve traveled back and forth between Toronto and Kingston, Ontario (where I go to school) a number of times, as well as to Greece briefly for a conference. On the 2nd I returned to Toronto for the millionth time to prep for the two nights of SP shows. The plan was to attend both shows and write an article on the two-night format. (Toronto was notably the first of the two-show-format stops on the tour.) At some point during the day before the first show I got the following series of messages from the shadowy figures that pull my strings:

> Hey
> You wanna meet the band?
> In fact
> you don’t get a choice in the matter anymore.

The shadowy figures elaborated that the Pumpkins were interested in sitting down to talk about issues surrounding the current tour, the community, the website. I’d love to think that I’m Everyone’s Favourite Writer™, but I’m sure that timing played a big role in it too. (Score one for right-place-at-right-time!) I had precious little time to prepare for the show and my upcoming interview, and I was supposed to be photoblogging as well. Yikes!

I arrived at the venue (with a fortunate friend) and picked up my tickets at the will-call window. Included were: one (1) media pass; two (2) aftershow passes (and my tickets, of course). We walked into Massey Hall, flashing our badges at various security personnel who couldn’t have cared less and found our way to our seats. I won’t go into the details of the show here, but they can be found elsewhere if you missed out.

Before the show started we tried to get some close-up shots of the stage and the gear (I am an Official Smashing Pumpkins Writer bearing a Media Badge, right?), which did not go particularly well. We were told variously that, “Yes, you can go up close and take some photos,” then “Well, one of you can, but you have to sit down after the first song.” Before taking a single shot, we were told by the head of security (I’m guessing — he was certainly the angriest security guard) that, no, in fact, we couldn’t take any pictures up close. None. Not even before the show started. While he was conveying this to us, we watched other audience members walk up to the stage, take pictures, and sit back down. *sigh*

After the band finished their encore and left the stage we stayed in our seats and watched the house lights come up. Somewhat unsure of what to do next, we decided to wait things out and see if we could get some pictures of the stage, now that the show was over and the true power of our Aftershow Passes came into play. As yet another angry security guard tried to force us from the venue, we brandished our passes in defense (ha!) and we told that the passes weren’t “activated” until they were stuck to our clothing. We duly stuck them to our shirts and found out quickly that, yet again, we were not permitted to take pictures of the stage.

We sat near the stage door in the now-empty auditorium and waited.

We listened in as an event security staff member detailed his upcoming armpit tattoos. (Painful, I’m told.)

Then word came, “They’re ready for you.” We marched backstage, introduced ourselves to Doug, the tour manager and followed him into the dressing room. Doug introduced us to Billy and Jimmy. We sat down and started chatting as various band members, friends, crew bustled in and out of the adjacent rooms.

The subject or our discussion has been posted previously, so I won’t detail that again. Billy and Jimmy were friendly and thoughtful and the time we spent whipped by. I’m pretty sure there were other bandmates here and there, but aside from briefly saying hi to Ginger and Kris I barely took any notice. (We were a little short on chairs, so I sat on a food-warming box.) I fired up some recording software on my iPhone to help me with quotes when I was later writing the article on the interview, and off we went.

Before we knew it we were being told that Massey Hall needed everyone out. (Apparently they’re serious about their curfews…) The room quickly emptied and we were left standing, alone, in the Pumpkins dressing room, which was a surreal experience. After snapping a quick picture (I don’t know, what else were we supposed to do? Steal stuff?) we tried to briefly explore the backstage area and encountered more event staff (yay…), to whom we feigned confusion (”Oh, is this not the way out?”). I snapped a quick shot of the stage from the wings (I’ll count that as a win!) and followed the band through the backstage door to the street.

And there, despite having just left the SP dressing room, we were told by security (angrily, of course) that we needed to keep 10 feet back from the band. So we stood and watched Jimmy and Billy, from a distance, as they chatted with the stalwart fans who had waited outside before climbing into the shuttle to their hotel.

As I drove home I started going over the evening in my head. Before going to bed I had an article to write.

Note: This article originally appeared on SmashingPumpkins.com.

Following Monday night’s Black Sunshine show in Toronto I made my way backstage to talk with Billy and Jimmy. On the agenda was the current state and future of the Pumpkins online community. (That’s us!)

With the recent website revamp (*round of applause for the incredible web team*) and the host of new interactive features that have come with it (as well as soon-to-arrive ones, like the message board), the ability for fans to interact with each other and with the band continues to grow. Billy came onstage in a white Zero shirt, I snapped a picture on my iPhone, and within minutes people online were talking about it. The great thing about all of this is, as Billy said to me last night, that it allows a fanbase that spans the planet to have a community with a genuinely small-town feel. This is definitely what the Pumpkins want.

The downside (there’s always a downside) is that this also means that there are people who will show up and, “poison the consciousness of the community,” as Billy put it. “There is an element of the fanbase that has got to go.” (Billy said, “they’ve got to go,” more than once last night.) These are the people who are, “negative, hostile, counter intuitive to the future of the band.” That means comments that contribute nothing but negativity aren’t welcome on the site, and they aren’t welcome on the boards. The new community features aren’t going to be a free-for-all - Jimmy and Billy were clear that that’s not what they want - but rather a place where people are free to express intelligent and thoughtful comments (pro and con).

The “toxic” elements of the Pumpkins online community, as Jimmy refers to them, are small, but they’re deeply rooted. These toxic elements are a direct impediment to its positive growth. I know that despite being a Pumpkins fan for years, I often kept my distance from parts of the online community because of this subculture, and I also know that I’m not the only one. Billy thinks that the Pumpkins share the blame for some of its development, noting that, “I encouraged people to feel possessive of the band.” As the band moves forward it’s clear that they’re going to have to shed these few people who are holding them back, and holding the community back.

This is one the most important parts of our discussion Monday night: Billy and Jimmy are well aware of the distinction between real, thoughtful criticism and bomb-throwing. One of the first things Billy said to me as we sat down to talk was that SP does not want a community to sit around and tell them everything they do is great. “We don’t think everything we do is the greatest thing ever,” he continued. The Pumpkins have always had a presence online, and they’ve always had an intelligent and open relationship with their fans. A relationship like this thrives on support and love, but it also leaves room for criticism and suggestions. This has always been the case, and it’s certainly not something the band wants to change.

I have to say, this also fits with my experience working for the Pumpkins. I’ve had issues with articles because I’d made factual errors (the Mellotron article had a few rewrites!) and I’ve gotten comments from Billy when he’s felt I could explore issues in more depth, but I’ve never gotten the feeling that I couldn’t say something critical of the band or the music. To be honest, if I ever got that feeling, I probably wouldn’t be sticking around for very long.

I think one of the main reasons why we’re drawn to the Pumpkins and the community that surrounds their music is because of the back and forth between the community of the band. This isn’t some textbook producer-consumer relationship: things flow both ways, and the site plays a big part in that back and forth. This two-way relationship is pretty unique, but it’s something that we can’t take for granted. If the community suffers we all lose out (and that includes the Pumpkins). In Billy’s words, “the future of the band has everything to do with creating a new sense of community.” When we have a community built around trust and support, everybody wins.