The Smashing Pumpkins' Spirits on Fire tour hasn't totally gone according to plan. Most notably, their jaunt with fellow alt-rock veterans Jane's Addiction has hit a speed bump, with the latter band having to pull out of five shows — including three Canadian dates — due to an injury Perry Farrell suffered earlier in the tour. Refunds were not offered to ticket-holders who'd be going mainly to see them.
Not only did Billy Corgan and co. have to play without Jane's Addiction, their replacement during the Canadian dates is Our Lady Peace—a choice that feels a bit like swapping a Lamborghini for a rusty, beaten-up Camaro.
Due to an unfortunate mixup with media passes, I entirely missed Poppy's set and almost all of OLP's. As a result, I don't have anything to share with readers about either opening act, other than that Raine Maida sounded from afar like he was having a definite off-night. This tour's going perfectly fine, people — move along, nothing to see here!
After that entire ordeal, I wound up getting excellent seats, immediately parallel to the left side of the stage. All's well that ends well, right? As the Pumpkins started at 9 p.m. sharp, the crowd — one that swung heavily toward Gen Xers and older Millennials — roared while a projection of a huge, psychedelic white butterfly bearing the band's logo showed up for four solid minutes before kicking things off with "Quiet." Playing under a massive neon star and some spooky backdrops behind them, Chicago's foremost '90s alt-rockers gave a packed (but not too packed) Bell Centre a set balancing their newer material with their bonafide classics.
Of course, this meant some of those classic Pumpkins tunes were left off the bill for the evening. The most notable snub was 1993's "Disarm" — on the way out, a couple dudes were overheard bemoaning how "fucked up" it was that they didn't play it. Although the band's dark, menacing take on Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" is heavy, creepy and basically unrecognizable, most fans surely would've preferred "Disarm" or "Thirty-Three" or "Mayonaise." Then again, such is the quandary of a band celebrating their 34th year. ("When I started this band, I was about 19, James was about 4," Corgan joked while discussing their anniversary.)
The setlist wasn't quite career-spanning, as they went heavier on tunes from Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (even playing deep cuts like "We Only Come Out at Night" and closing the show with "Silverfuck") than other releases. Even though the band tried a couple tracks from their forthcoming album, Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, the audience reaction seemed attentive but somewhat muted, and even attempts to get fans to sing along on "Eye" (from the 1997 David Lynch film Lost Highway) didn't quite land. But playing hits like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "Today" very early on is sure to get crowds riled up fast, and they did — as did eventually getting to "Zero," "1979," "Ava Adore" (where Billy seemed to briefly forget the lyrics), and a fully acoustic version of "Tonight Tonight" with only Corgan and James Iha on stage.
Adorably, Iha made several attempts during the evening to address the crowd en français, and he and Corgan jokingly teased covers of Hanson and Hootie & the Blowfish before launching into "Tonight Tonight." Both drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and guitarist/keyboardist Jeff Schroeder got solos in, and Iha even briefly played a tongue-in-cheek guitar cover of Ratt's "Round and Round."
Dressed in black and wearing what appeared to be white face paint with black spots around the eyes, Billy Corgan looked every bit the enigmatic figure we've always known him to be. He had the appearance of someone auditioning for a role in the Hellraiser franchise (it is Halloween soon, after all), and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Oh, and we even saw some crucified scarecrows on stage at one point. Not really sure why they were necessary, but it added to the macabre nature of the show's whole aesthetic.
Above all, the band were tight and as effervescent as the good old days (even if D'arcy Wretzky's presence remains dearly missed). Billy's live voice sounds as strong as ever, and the sound was surprisingly good for an arena show — then again, this may have had more to do with my relative proximity to the stage.
Though the show ended without an encore (have those just stopped being a thing at concerts now?), the Pumpkins still gave a deeply satisfying performance, and the audible "Olé, Olé, Olé" chants in the crowd — typical in Montreal — at show's end served as confirmation. For all the gripes one can have about which songs should or shouldn't have been played, this show kept the dream of the mid-'90s alive and well within reach.
Not only did Billy Corgan and co. have to play without Jane's Addiction, their replacement during the Canadian dates is Our Lady Peace—a choice that feels a bit like swapping a Lamborghini for a rusty, beaten-up Camaro.
Due to an unfortunate mixup with media passes, I entirely missed Poppy's set and almost all of OLP's. As a result, I don't have anything to share with readers about either opening act, other than that Raine Maida sounded from afar like he was having a definite off-night. This tour's going perfectly fine, people — move along, nothing to see here!
After that entire ordeal, I wound up getting excellent seats, immediately parallel to the left side of the stage. All's well that ends well, right? As the Pumpkins started at 9 p.m. sharp, the crowd — one that swung heavily toward Gen Xers and older Millennials — roared while a projection of a huge, psychedelic white butterfly bearing the band's logo showed up for four solid minutes before kicking things off with "Quiet." Playing under a massive neon star and some spooky backdrops behind them, Chicago's foremost '90s alt-rockers gave a packed (but not too packed) Bell Centre a set balancing their newer material with their bonafide classics.
Of course, this meant some of those classic Pumpkins tunes were left off the bill for the evening. The most notable snub was 1993's "Disarm" — on the way out, a couple dudes were overheard bemoaning how "fucked up" it was that they didn't play it. Although the band's dark, menacing take on Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" is heavy, creepy and basically unrecognizable, most fans surely would've preferred "Disarm" or "Thirty-Three" or "Mayonaise." Then again, such is the quandary of a band celebrating their 34th year. ("When I started this band, I was about 19, James was about 4," Corgan joked while discussing their anniversary.)
The setlist wasn't quite career-spanning, as they went heavier on tunes from Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (even playing deep cuts like "We Only Come Out at Night" and closing the show with "Silverfuck") than other releases. Even though the band tried a couple tracks from their forthcoming album, Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, the audience reaction seemed attentive but somewhat muted, and even attempts to get fans to sing along on "Eye" (from the 1997 David Lynch film Lost Highway) didn't quite land. But playing hits like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "Today" very early on is sure to get crowds riled up fast, and they did — as did eventually getting to "Zero," "1979," "Ava Adore" (where Billy seemed to briefly forget the lyrics), and a fully acoustic version of "Tonight Tonight" with only Corgan and James Iha on stage.
Adorably, Iha made several attempts during the evening to address the crowd en français, and he and Corgan jokingly teased covers of Hanson and Hootie & the Blowfish before launching into "Tonight Tonight." Both drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and guitarist/keyboardist Jeff Schroeder got solos in, and Iha even briefly played a tongue-in-cheek guitar cover of Ratt's "Round and Round."
Dressed in black and wearing what appeared to be white face paint with black spots around the eyes, Billy Corgan looked every bit the enigmatic figure we've always known him to be. He had the appearance of someone auditioning for a role in the Hellraiser franchise (it is Halloween soon, after all), and I wouldn't have had it any other way. Oh, and we even saw some crucified scarecrows on stage at one point. Not really sure why they were necessary, but it added to the macabre nature of the show's whole aesthetic.
Above all, the band were tight and as effervescent as the good old days (even if D'arcy Wretzky's presence remains dearly missed). Billy's live voice sounds as strong as ever, and the sound was surprisingly good for an arena show — then again, this may have had more to do with my relative proximity to the stage.
Though the show ended without an encore (have those just stopped being a thing at concerts now?), the Pumpkins still gave a deeply satisfying performance, and the audible "Olé, Olé, Olé" chants in the crowd — typical in Montreal — at show's end served as confirmation. For all the gripes one can have about which songs should or shouldn't have been played, this show kept the dream of the mid-'90s alive and well within reach.
