It was a Tuesday in February, Leap Day to be exact, when my friend Ruth from Brown University told me that the Smashing Pumpkins were to play at a small nightclub in Providence on the coming Thursday. I expected tickets to sell out very quickly, so I asked her to buy me one, since she lived at the time down the street from a record store. I was to meet her after class on my way back to school from home. On the way to meet her, I heard on the radio that the show had sold out in TWO HOURS. Fortunately, Ruth bought a ticket two hours before I heard that.

That Thursday, I had a concert scheduled with the URI Concert Band, which was over a half hour before the Pumpkins show began. It takes me 45 minutes to get to Providence, not counting time to find a parking spot.

Thank God shows start late!

They played for three hours. Now I have most of their albums, but they played three hours of songs that I had never heard...

Glorious...

And I even listened to Underworld and Andrea Parker on the ride back to school.