By Alfred Branch, Jr.
Apparently, the Smashing Pumpkins are not just another punk relic from the early ‘90s.
Ticket sales for the partially reformed band’s upcoming multi-date tour stint at the Orange Peel in Ashville, NC were so frenzied Sunday that the onslaught crashed the TicketWeb servers. The Orange Peel uses TicketWeb, a subsidiary of Ticketmaster, for its ticket sales, and as of today tickets were still available for all of the shows. Published reports quoted officials as saying ticket sales could resume either later today or Tuesday, but this time they will be sold on the Ticketmaster site, not TicketWeb’s.
According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, the servers went down two minutes after tickets went on sale at 1p.m. Fans kept receiving error messages as they continued to refresh their web browsers. TicketWeb officials could not be reached for comment. . .
Slated to begin the European leg of their two-continent summer tour Tuesday in Paris, the Pumpkins are scheduled to hit U.S. shores June 23 at the Orange Peel for the first of nine shows there over a two-week period. Guitarist/singer/songwriter Billy Corgan and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin are the only two original members in the group; guitarist James Iha and bassist D’Arcy are not part of the tour. Guitarist Jeff Shroeder and bassist Ginger Reyes, formerly of the Lassie Foundation and Halo Friendlies respectively, are filling in for the two absent members.
The band’s 41-date tour is in support of Zeitgeist its first album in seven years. The album goes on sale Tuesday, July 10; Corgan reportedly tried to have the album released July 7 (07/07/07), but the band’s label, Reprise Records could not accommodate him.
Announced tracks on the album are:
Doomsday Clock
7 Shades of Black
Orchid
That’s the Way
Tarantula
Starz
United States
Never Lost
Bring the Light
Come On (Let’s Go)
For God and Country
Pomp and Circumstance
