Not so Smashing Pumpkins

Went to see the Smashing Pumpkins at the O2 last night. It was the first time I've been to a gig there and my first time seeing the Pumpkins (I'm trying to erase from my memory seeing Billy Corgan solo as it was by far the worst gig I've been to).
The O2 fits between Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena in size but feels a bit more upmarket with padding on the seats, cup holders in the arm rests and even proper places to eat inside the venue.
Shame then that the Smashing Pumpkins put on a show more befitting an old flea-pit cinema. They certainly didn't embrace the size of the venue. There weren't any big screens for a start so if the band did get up to anything interesting on stage only the first few rows of the audience knew about it. And the sound was pretty terrible at times making the faster songs in particular sound muddy.
Having seen two-thirds of the pitch at Wembley jumping up and down when Muse was playing, the size of the venue can't be blamed for the lack of atmosphere. I've seen more activity in a crowd of pensioners boarding a bus to Bognor than I saw in the audience last night. Some of the people sitting around us starting leaving half way through in fact it didn't take much to persuade Mosh that the encour wasn't going to be up to much so we might as well make our own sharp exit and beat the crowds at the tube.
If it had been at a venue the size of the Brixton Academy, I'd have probably thought it was a pretty good night. There were a handful of songs that gave glimpses of what could have been the rest just was just a load of badly executed, self-indulgent twoddle. Shame really.

Smashing Pumpkins at the o2