Setlist

1. Quasar
2. Panopticon
3. Starla
4. Geek U.S.A.
5. Muzzle
6. Window Paine
7. Lightning Strikes
8. Soma
9. Siva
10. Oceania
11. Frail and Bedazzled
12. Silverfuck
13. Obscured
14. Pale Horse
15. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
+ I am One (tease)
16. Cherub Rock
17. Owata
18. My Love is Winter
19. For Martha

Encore: Catherine & Billy Corgan
20. Idiot
21. Broken Bunny Bird

Encore: Smashing Pumpkins
22. Bullet with Butterfly Wings

 

 

Click for 50 pictures from the Smashing Pumpkins show at the Riviera in Chicago.

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Media Reviews

“Byrne was on the hot seat, as he replaced Jimmy Chamberlin – Corgan’s longtime foil – in 2009. Though he doesn’t swing quite as fluidly as his formidable predecessor, the 21-year-old drummer has touch, power and energy. Fiorentino locked in with him, pushing her bass to the forefront of the band’s engine room, and chipping in with lots of harmony vocals that took the edge off Corgan’s nasal tone. Schroeder has developed a nuanced vocabulary with Corgan on guitar, more of a genuine give-and-take than previous lineups. Corgan clearly was enjoying the exchanges, cracking smiles and waving his guitar Excalibur-style overhead. Between harrowing screams and falsetto cries, he toggled between two personas: ax murderer and sensitive cherub. He’s never been a technically gifted singer, but he’s found a way to embody the mood swings in his songs, whether the consoling son in For Martha or the defiant combatant in Muzzle. For all of Corgan’s dominance as a personality, the set list was designed to show off the band. It lasered in on older songs with rollercoaster arrangements such as Window Paine, Siva and Thru the Eyes of Ruby. These epics brimmed with drop-out sections that brought the music down to near silence and then back up to roaring peaks. The serpentine rhythms and soft-to-lacerating guitar passages dominated the middle portion of the set, with Oceania, Frail and Bedazzled and Silverfuck forming an acid-rock triptych. So what about those new songs scheduled for Oceania? The outlook is promising, based on Friday’s local unveiling of a half-dozen new tunes. The sledgehammering Quasar and Panoptican opened the show, Corgan hunched over his guitar with splayed legs, his combat boots touching down on an armada of foot pedals. The mix was loud, violent, a thick tangle that buried melody beneath an avalanche of corrosive guitars and racing drums. The expansive Oceania title track was anchored by Corgan’s heavy organ atmospherics and Schroeder’s guitar commentary. Owata came off as one of the better, more direct pop melodies the singer has written in the last decade. After the mid-set freakfest, the baroque pop of Pale Horse, with its delicate riff and Byrne’s empathetic drumming, and the contemplative My Love is Winter provided a much-needed reprieve.” - Greg Kot

“Corgan hasn’t softened. The band didn’t neglect faster material. A steady crush of bass and galloping drums juiced the audience. Cherub Rock practically jumped out of its skin. Songs charged one to the next. Soma arose like a soul reborn out of the murky rumble that lingered after Lightening Strikes. On Siva and others, Corgan and guitarist Jeff Schroeder keened and dueled in nimble guitar harmonizing.” - Katjusa Cisar

“Setting the tone for the night, the group launched into the bombastic new track, Quasar, which seems destined for a future as a set-closer. The appropriately named song featured glimmering guitar wails that rose up over chaotic drumming, lulling briefly for a breather on a bed of bubbling bass before blasting off again. That formula worked to help Corgan craft some of the ’90s most memorable rock songs, and it continues to serve him well. The first true test of this new lineup came when 21-year old drummer Mike Byrne rolled out the opening of Geek USA, the meatiest cut from 1993′s Siamese Dream. The drum-roll was preceded by some stumbling carnie music, which would have made it a perfectly tragic time to fail on former drummer Jimmy Chamberlin’s most impressive performance. Thankfully for Byrne, Corgan and (most importantly) the audience, the kid knocked it out of the park. I can say kid because, well, he’s probably just started his Jagermeister phase. Geek sounded as agitated as ever, an aural melee that had me pissed off at someone somewhere for, well, something. That energy was deftly shifted by Corgan into the celebratory anthem Muzzle, which played out as a grand, life-affirming bounce. Jeff Schroeder’s serpentine lead snarled around Corgan’s ‘I knew the silence of the world mantra’, a moment that had me fondly recalling what happens when you stand in a meadow at dusk. The dynamic between new and old songs proved to be what the night was about. Some moments, like Panopticon drifting seamlessly into Starla, a song almost twenty years its senior, proved that despite the role players, the classic Pumpkin’s sound is alive and well for the die-hards. Others, like the strange plopping of Lightning Strikes between Window Paine and Soma, seemed to intentionally highlight the band’s new direction. The latter did lead to one of the more theatric spots of the performance, as the sound of a crackling thunderstorm gargled over the end of Lightning and faded gently beneath the opening clink of Soma. The set closed with For Martha, Corgan’s elegant, tear-inducing elegy for his late mother. The song’s normal, grandiose piano melody was traded for a more subtle music box sound that served it well. The singer reigned in his trademark whine, preferring to let the sorrow pour out in a gargantuan guitar solo. The song was the most powerful performance of the night, moving elegantly between rococo blasts and understated lyric. One more Catherine tune, the chainsaw buzzy Broken Bird, was followed by The Smashing Pumpkins taking an energetic gambol through Bullet With Butterfly Wings. The new lineup pulled it off like they’d written it and played it a million times (knowing Corgan, practices have been tough), and the chrome-domed one even let out a hair-raising howl that brought back 1996 for a few minutes. That said, I’m glad it was only a brief temporal disturbance. As much fun as it is to listen in on The Smashing Pumpkins past, their future is sounding pretty good.” – Gene Wagendorf III

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Fan Reviews

“The show last night was incredible. From the setlist to the sound. Everything. It was a great surprise to see Catherine. The highlights for me were more than I can count, but the stretch of Starla, Geek and Muzzle was just fantastic. Siva had the crowd in an uproar. Soma was just beautiful. Silverfuck was just insane. Ruby is something I have been waiting for them to bust out for years. One of my favorite songs of all time. Of all the TBK/Oceania songs I thought Owata went over the best (in Chicago I know that is not a big surprise). I loved Oceania and the new MLIW. For Martha was beautiful and heart wrenching. I would usually say that BWBW should be on the shelf, but it was really a good closer. It really brought the house down. I cannot wait to see them again hopefully in 2012. Billy was just in a great mood and he owned the stage. You can tell he genuinely loves the band he is playing in right now. A lot of interaction with them all night. When Billy is having fun playing his music, there is no one better.” - smashp1979

“One of the best shows I’ve been to! Billy was in the best mood I’ve seen him in live, and his energy and passion definitely ignited the crowd. Besides the show, the highlight of my night was saying hi to the band and then meeting Billy. Waited more than an hour, but finally got to interact with my musical idol. Funny moment: While waiting for Billy after the show, one of the Catherine guys casually walked to his car down the block saying, ‘Back to work on Monday…’” - HereIsNoY

“Saw both the Milwaukee and Chicago shows. Truly stellar. I don’t think the youtube vids or audio bootlegs come close to capturing what this tour has been like. Dramatic, intense, dreamy. More serious and beautiful than anything the band has done since the revival. The band was in exquisite form and you could see the power of the music overtaking all four members, something that was lacking in the sometimes perfunctory performances of the 07-08 era. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a bit more post-MCIS material…Was thinking With Every Light, In My Body, or Bring the Light would have made fine additions to the setlist to better represent the full SP mythology. But I can’t complain, this was the SP show I’ve been waiting a decade to see!!!” - werideatdusk