Billy Corgan shows off Smashing Pumpkins legacy during wonderfully weird Dallas concert
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Billy Corgan has been famously blunt about his band Smashing Pumpkins, its standing in 1990s rock hierarchy, and just about any other topic thrown at him over the past 33 years he’s been in the public eye.
Unnecessary feuds and spats with his contemporaries over the years have been well-documented in the music press and made for a lot of fun dirt-dishing.
But all of that soap opera, at times, obscured what was happening on stage, when the Pumpkins, in whatever form, were performing their brand of what was labeled “alternative rock” in the early 1990s.
All of that sideshow, it seems, has subsided for the Pumpkins’ “The World Is A Vampire” tour, which stopped at Dos Equis Pavillion in Fair Park on Tuesday night.
About 15,000 were in attendance, taking advantage of the brief temperature respite (it was in the high 80s when the Pumpkins took the stage at 9:10 p.m.).
The 21-song, one-hour, 45-minute set included most of the band’s well-known songs and three tunes from their latest release, “Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts,” the third and final act of which was released in May.
“We’re so appreciative you’re here with us,” Corgan said during the first break in the show after the opening nine songs.
“I’d love to just sit here and talk about my feelings for about 10 minutes but you know all my feelings are in all the songs anyway so we can skip that part,” he quipped before acknowledging a fan down close to the stage.
“I can see it’s your birthday and I don’t care,” he said to laughter. “I hate to tell you.”
Corgan and guitarist James Iha were alone on stage to perform an acoustic version of “Tonight, Tonight,” one of five songs featured from the band’s 1995 smash double album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.”
“Sing along if you care,” he said.
Corgan joked to Iha that perhaps they could discuss their relationship, which has been strained in years past.
“That’s good, we’re good,” Corgan joked. Before Iha urged him to “move on to the next song,” Corgan noted that the Pumpkins were created in 1987.
“I’m getting sick of being referred to as a ‘90s band. We’re not a ‘90s band. We’re an ‘80s band,” he protested.
All jokes aside, the Pumpkins are indeed one of the touchstone bands of the ‘90s, providing guitar-snarling rock for the masses when genres, styles, and tones were splitting into a thousand directions.
Corgan and Iha, along with original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Jack Bates, and vocalist (and guitarist) Katie Cole, drenched the amphitheater in the band’s guitar-crunching oeuvre.
Nearly half of the set was material from their two biggest releases, “Mellon Collie” and “Siamese Dream,” the 1993 record that made them famous and alternative rock darlings.
One of the many highlights included a weird cover of Manfred Mann’s “Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble).” Weird because of the seemingly random selection of such a song to include in the set. And also weird because, unlike the three-minute original, the Pumpkins turned it into a six-minute showcase of moody guitar licks before bleeding into “Jellybelly,” one of the head-turning songs on “Mellon Collie.”
Another oddity, but just as intriguing, was a raucous, hip hop-styled cover of Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime.”
Corgan, 56, was dressed in a long black dress buttoned down the front, bulky black combat boots, slashes of makeup accenting his eyes and face, and a symbol temporarily tattooed on his forehead. His thin, white-haired beard offered some machismo grit to his androgynous goth ensemble.
“You know what I love about Dallas, James? Home of the Cowboys,” Corgan said to his bandmate during a brief pause. A smattering of boos could be heard.
“They don’t like the Cowboys anymore,” Corgan feigned. They’re America’s Team? I know you’re a big Jerry Jones fan.”
Whatever the inside joke Corgan and Iha had about the Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager remained inside. It was a non sequitur, not unlike much of the band’s set, which at times suffered from a muddled sound mix that was exacerbated by three guitars fighting for bandwidth. A few times, one of the guitars was so overamped it sounded like a fuse was about to pop.
Pumpkin devotees, however, reveled in the iconic riffs, the plaintiff emo lyrics, and the caustic introspection found in much of Corgan’s best-known songs.
Although, if I’m being honest, not including either “Drown” or “Silverf----” in the set was a bummer. They’re the first two songs I’d suggest to anyone looking to explore — and understand — the quintessential Pumpkin experience. I mean, you played for 1:45, guys. How about pushing that up to an even two hours and giving us a proper “Drown” feedback meltdown to end the night so we could accurately relive 1993 awash in all your sonic glory? Ahem, but I digress.
Besides, the three-song finale of “1979,” “Cherub Rock,” and “Zero” more than supplied a fitting coda to the evening.
“Intoxicated with the madness, I’m in love with my sadness,” Corgan wailed in “Zero.”
A fitting couplet that perfectly captures the aura of the Pumpkins and the fascinating dichotomy of Corgan.
Smashing Pumpkins Setlist, Dallas, Aug. 15, 2023
The Everlasting Gaze
Doomsday Clock
Once in a Lifetime
Today
Perfect
Disarm
The Celestials
Purple Blood
Ava Adore
Tonight, Tonight
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
This Time
Spellbinding
Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble)
Jellybelly
Empires
Hummer
Beguiled
1979
Cherub Rock
Zero
