This was before every camera man avoided her and every sound engineer turned her way down in the mix. Go watch SP concert footage and see how shamelessly everyone but her gets face time on stage. It's like cameramen all conspired to avoid anything more than a second here or there. Truly bizarre.
Just to think that bands like the Pumpkins, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, ...were once mainstream, and thus were on every radio and every bar PA all over the world makes me very nostalgic.
I had the privilege of seeing them in Seattle at one of the bars off fisherman's wharf when I was in the Navy 1990. I wasn't in the grunge at all and didn't really like the smashing pumpkins until I was reintroduced in about 1998.. They had already been around and a big hit and I got to really see what a good tight band they were.
I was there! Halloween 1993... Front row balcony, me and 2 others... After they played, we were backstage hanging with the entire band, host Christian Slater, legends, Sandler, Farley, Hartman, Deuce Bigalow, Meadows, Spade.... I was in the elevator with half the cast, like a fucking dream.... Went to SNL studio right after a JV football game in pouring rain... Corgans guitar has stickers of bats on them for Halloween... I got all 4 autographs on the sleeve of the Gishh album, ON CASSETTE!!!!
Marcus Aurelius-Quinn I'm not sure you have enough evidence to convince us??? 🤔 What JV game did you go to? CASSETTE huh? Stuck in an elevator with half the cast? Must have been a big elevator... 🤔 hmmm, Sandler, Farley, Hartman, Deuce Bigalow... Wait, Deuce Bigalow was a movie. HA! I knew it. Can't get one by me, better luck next time.
More amazing than the time Michael Jackson came over to your house to use the bathroom? More amazing than the time you saved those old people from that nursing home fire, right? Yeah, and I bet it was even more amazing than the time you ate your weight in Godfather's pizza.
afirefox my guess is because the musicianship was real. It easier to mesh real instruments as opposed to some real instruments and tracks. And more tracks.
Its simpler than that....analog baby. Beta max baby. All broadcasts are on betamax....sure. Knowledge in part to "6 days to air"...imagine all the bs digital filters it goes through bc they condense it into analog to broad cast it via betamax....the audio takes a shit off that alone nvm the mixing and sound checking....thats also on the band to sync up with what snl has to offer.....prime example arcade fire....they give a damn...enough to not sound like shit on snl like most "modern shit acts". Im not even a big fan of theres but they put out a respectable effort that gains my respect....to actually sound check for an hour....bc classic snl respect of playing live etc on snl....vs some hack out there to collect a check and have kids going "the album versions better trust me" to their parents...."cant play live...or do a sound check right" eat shit as far as im concern....ramones always #1 snl and again not a huge ramones fan...just another prime example of "not blowing it on snl" at its best....all those damn mics and band members though with arcade fire ro sound that good....rappers and wanna be rock bands with 3-5 chords of progression will sound exactly like the terrible shit it is im glad
@@itsadamtruitt as a shitty musician who had a PA in high school my band got invited to all the shows where they needed a PA, so I've mixed lots of crappy bands and a few tight ones. I can say the number one thing that makes a band sound well-mixed is their musicianship and how tight they are. I've seen setups where a band sounded horrible then the next act came out on the exact same equipment and sounded incredible.
Longtime "SNL" stage manager Joe Dicso, who had the job from the original premiere in '75 until retiring on the June '96 finale -- which had Jim Carrey as host. (In fact, the lady who succeeded Joe has been in the job ever since Sep. '96)
PJ Neslo the grunge/alt rock movement of about ‘89-‘99 was probably the last great wave of pure artistry to crash the mainstream before the digital age. I’m so glad it happened. So raw and gutsy. I graduated high school in ‘95. It was a magical time for music.
I miss these days so much..I was 9 years old when this took place and was really starting to get into music. I was more into the gangsta rap during that time but I really enjoyed songs by Smashing pumpkins, Alice in chains, Pearl jam, Faith no more nirvana etc etc..Now that I'm older I despise modern rap and only listen to 90s rap occasionally but I ADORE the grunge and alternative bands of this era. Wish I had appreciated it more when it was actually happening.
I must be the luckiest bastard in the world. Born in 1961. I remember the Beatles, early years of high school was Disco dancing. Late High School and early college I was there for Punk and New Wave. Early rap in the mid 80's. I was 29 in 1990 at the start of the Grunge movement. Wow. I never realized how much I was enjoying it all until recently. I still seek out interesting music and the picking are getting slim.
Modern new wave of music is bladee, and best modern rock bands are title fight, pretty sick, portrayal of guilt, the Chats, and an Autumn for Crippled Children. This coming from someone who loves all the types of music you mentioned(besides disco lol:p)
for what is supposed to be just a practice rehearsal, they sound incredible. tight and visceral. goes to show their musical prowess, when it was actually the 4 of them together.
I caught an SNL performance in person once (not SP, Wilco). I can attest that the mix was probably the best I have ever heard for a live rock performance.
His vocals are always a little rough live, but they're still fun to see. I remember seeing them at Maxwell's in New Jersey back in 1991 at the recommendation of a friend who was living in Chicago at the time. They didn't disappoint. I was a fan from that night on. Gish and Siamese Dream are still a couple of my all time favorite albums.
In the early 90s I would watch SNL music performances from the 70s and they seemed so aged, from a time I saw as so long ago, historic. Damn. This 1993 footage now seems ancient to somebody else, and really, it kinda is. Damn.
Yeah the VHS quality is what makes it look dated. If the quality was better it could pass for something films recently. Maybe because I feel that the clothing and hairstyles could pass in modern times while clothing from the 70s really looks dated.
I love how Jimmy grabs the drum key to tune his low tom after just ONE song. That guy was (and still is judging by his newer jazz work) incredible. And just as some "extra credit" you can hear how the drums even for live TV are stereo-panned with the low tom hard left. SO that makes the recorded panning musician-orientation instead of audience-orientation in case anyone has some bets to win or lose on that question.
Wow, it's crazy to think in only a few hours River Phoenix would OD and then the following April we'd lose Kurt. So much amazing music during this time and so much heartache.
I actually drove by that night and saw the OD of R. phoenix.....my brother and friends went to a halloween party in LA, that night...right down the street.
I remember watching that episode. I was excited and wanted to show the group to some friends who were still into hair metal. They hated them and I was wtf. They thought they wouldn't go anywhere but the bands that they were into were the ones that disappeared into obscurity.
man i was 21, i was really not into the whole thing that was going on at the time. i was very frustrated that everything underground "music, films, comics" was exploding into the main stream and getting over exposed. now its like i took a nap and my whole life just passed by and the things i was irritated by seem so trivial. and everything feels so much worse than it was back then.
I love it too but the band is centered around Corgan. Much like the way Nirvana was centered around Cobain. Both assembled the perfect band for their thing. Chamberlin on drums was probably the bands greatest asset.
Uhh yes she is basic. She is hot and a oddity so she brings presence to the band. But anyone who says they dont have deep melodic vibes and great solos is insane. You clearly havent seen them play much. Billy manhandles that fucking guitar at times. And some melodies are insanely clever and beautiful.
drofnoise555 Being from Seattle. It’s kind of dumb, though. Pearl Jam was labelled grunge as was Nirvana yet they sound nothing alike. Same with bands like Soundgarden and AIC. “Grunge” was just a lazy generalization for bands from the Pacific north west. Don’t get me wrong, saying Smashing Pumpkins isn’t grunge is anything but a knock on them. They did their own thing and were awesome at it.
lol, cherub rock, probably the loudest D'arcy was ever mixed in the history of this band. and not unpleasant. actually a pretty decent mix overall for a TV show, which were and are pretty notorious for shitty sound, particularly back then. 2nd take is GREAT. and D'arcy is absolutely the epitome of 90s hotness.
"Bury Me" is probably the most bass-featured song in the Pumpkins' catalog - assuming that was D'arcy, she shreds. Unsure if Corgan recorded the bass himself in Gish...
Real good sound for such an old vid. The music is still so amazing. I'm still in love with D'Arcy and the guitars -wonderful. Thank you so much for the upload.
I was never a big Strat sound fan. Always wondered why I loved the Pumpkins guitar sound. Then realized James plays a Les Paul so the mix of them sound great to my ears. Love Billy's style though.
Hehehe. I like the apostrophe in the "D'ang". And yes, that response is appropriate. When I was a teenager, man, I wished I had her clothes and shoes and hair. She was so hot. I do however, when my hair IS long, braid it and do the loops like she had here.
JenniferOcious79 Haha I totally agree with the fact that D'arcy was hot and a fashion icon. But oddly, I had a huge crush on James Iha at this time in the 90sand I emulated his hairstyle with the blonde streaks in front. To this day, when I see a woman with blonde streaks, I think, "Did you have a crush on James Iha, too!?"
Cool, yeah, I had quite the crush on James, especially seeing him in the dress in the Today video and it was something I'd never seen someone do, and I was like, "Guys in rock bands in dresses, I think I like that!" Man, his striped as Mom called it, "skunk" hair was classic. He did that look for quite a while too. I actually also liked when his hair was that rusty red, but he never went back to that. And to look at him now, how the heck has he not aged a day?
What made their sound so cool was the wall of sound. You had everyone in the band basically playing the same thing. They would just get behind the root notes and create a rhythm that kept going without any breaks. The rhythm was relentless. It was so different from the rhythm of the 1980's in which the guitarist would maybe do a few downstrokes with his chords and leave empty space all over the place. They would let one chord ring out for too long. So much space. All they cared about was playing their solo. The only thing keeping the groove going was the bass. Rhythm guitar was so shitty in the 1980's. In fact, you could barely hear it in many hit songs from that era. Not so with Smashing Pumpkins. Their rhythm had no empty space. They filled up all of the space. It was really kind of a revolutionary thing. It's almost as if the guitarist were playing the drums with his guitar, if that makes any sense. I started playing guitar in 1992 and Smashing Pumpkins played a major role in the way I play guitar.
It is a raw performance that just blows me away. This is awesome to watch and wish I could see some great new bands live that play like this. Its like I went back in time to when I first bought the album.
SP were and still are the best band of their era - their ferocity, competency and vulnerability were what set them apart from their peers - Corgan is a genius on the guitar (that TONE!!!) and Chamberlin is hands down flawless - this moment of their career was truly special - I had a hard time following them from here on out, as they only ever occasionally were able to re-create this magic, but capturing lightning in a bottle is no easy task for any band - I'm so thankful for this video, and D'arcy's bass sounds positively crushing and monstrous!!!
I still have a copy of this live performance on VHS. I watched it so much. The entire show was great. Halloween episode. Christian Slater hosted. Chris Farley was a gigantic pumpkin. Smashing Pumpkins fucking slaughtered. One of the greatest SNL episodes ever.
The way he busted STP's balls by continuously saying their name wrong,even when corrected,during their rehearsal told me he was pretty secure in knowing he was going to keep his job.ha.If he's the guy wearing the headphones.
I'm curious. How does the internet get a hold of such footage. I use to think this stuff was destroyed or placed in a vault to never see the light of day ever again. AMAZING that it exists.
there's an organic magic about watching SP live that few other bands can emulate...Tool and Steely Dan maybe. I listened to this through my phone and it was still pure and incredible.
I was waist deep in college studying civil engineering back in the 90s. I would crank this album along with 5 others in my 6 disc CD player and work on thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, soils and steel design homework. I'm a C- student but God man...I feel like an absolute genius when I listen to this stuff today.
That mix and tone on the instruments are amazing. That bass is so powerful and clean too, and than I learn D'Arcy can literally do this sh*t in her sleep 26:18 WOW!
