Smashing Pumpkins @ Festival Hall Review

Gerard Way was placed as the support act at almost the last minute. The American musician and comic book writer was the lead singer and co-founder of My Chemical Romance, but tonight he was on stage as himself.

Dressed in a gnarly suit and sporting soft-looking white hair, he entertained the audience for an about an hour. Gerard did well considering the circumstances and fulfilled his task as a warm-up for the headliner.


There was a buzz in the air; everyone was curious to see the new Smashing Pumpkins line-up.

Image © Carl Neumann

The Pumpkins have always been one of the most ambitious artists of their era, so it only makes sense that Billy Corgan would want to share the stage with very experienced musicians. Enter bassist Mark Stoermer (The Killers) and drummer Brad Wilk (Rage Against The Machine).

Wilk’s heavy-handed playing didn’t feel out of place at all, especially during ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ when the song builds up near the start. But while the all-star rhythm section is noteworthy, you couldn’t ignore guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who has been with the band since the grey days of ‘Zeitgeist’.

Just like the rhapsodic prog of ‘Oceania’, the new material from 2014’s ’Monuments To An Elegy’ fitted in well. Of course, the band offered a few olive branches to the older fans. The most obvious of which was the one-two-three punch of ‘Drown’, ‘Disarm’ and ‘Zero’.

Image © Carl Neumann

With a new Smashing Pumpkins album coming later this year, we’re going to be seeing a lot of Smashing Pumpkins and could see another Australian tour next year. This tour couldn’t have been better timed for them as it invoked the spirit that is the one and only Smashing Pumpkins. After last night’s stellar performance, we are all waiting with baited breath.

Image © Carl Neumann

Playing quite a different setlist than the Melbourne Soundwave show, this is the Festival Halls set:

Cherub Rock
1979
Ava Adore
Being Beige
Drum + Fife
Stand Inside Your Love
Glass And The Ghost Children
Monuments
Drown
Disarm
One And All (We Are)
United States
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Heavy Metal Machine

Smashing Pumpkins Encore:

Tonight, Tonight
Fame (David Bowie cover)