Live And In The Flesh
The Smashing Pumpkins - October 28, 2012
The Smashing Pumpkins finally returned from their hiatus and had just released their second album since reforming in 2005, Oceania. They were definitely on my list of bands to see, and I didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity to see them live. Even though the entire backing band was completely different than their original line up, it was better late than never! Early in June 2012, the Pumpkins released their eighth studio album titled Oceania. It seemed as though Corgan was heading back to his roots with this one, more so than the band’s previous release five years earlier, Zeitgeist.
The band had announced a full-fledged tour in support of the album and planned stops in Toronto and Montréal at their respective sports arenas. Montréal’s show landed on a Sunday night, the weekend before Halloween. What better way to get primed up for the festivities than with a Smashing Pumpkins show! Four of us made our way into the city with plenty of time to spare for a few pre-drinks at a sports bar down the street. They offered up these mega-pitchers of beer called “Giraffes” and we managed to put a couple of those away before the show. The free popcorn certainly helped the beer go down. Morning Parade was slotted in as the tour’s opener. We weren’t too familiar with them so we decided to enjoy ourselves at the bar as long as we could before making our way to the Bell Centre for show time.
I was lucky enough to get in on some fan club presale tickets which secured us some pretty stellar seats down in the lower bowl, dead center stage. These seats were going to provide us with the ultimate view throughout the entire night. Unfortunately when we made our way down to the seats we noticed that they had been covered by a black sheet. We found security and were told that the view was obstructed due to the massive video projection device the band was using, and we needed to find ourselves some different seats. We couldn't believe it. Why they even bothered selling these seats in the first place, your guess is as good as mine. Right away we had thought that we were going to be shafted to the nosebleeds as there didn't seem to be an empty seat in the house in the 100 level. After chatting it up with security, they hooked us up with seats two rows up from ice level just to the side of the stage. We no longer had the view of the stage head-on, but we were substantially closer to the band. No room for complaints that was for sure, even though the guys beside us were moaning about having to turn their heads to see the show. Only in Montréal!
The Pumpkins' stage set up for this tour was quite Floydesque, similar to their Dark Side of the Moon Tour set up with the giant circular video screen center stage. The band had actually enlisted some of the talent behind the latest Roger Waters’ The Wall Tour to help out with their visuals. I had actually caught that Roger Waters Tour earlier that year in June and the visuals for that show were some of the best I had ever seen. I was looking forward to seeing what they had up their sleeves for a Pumpkins show! Once we were all settled into our upgraded seats it wasn’t long before the lights went out and the band stormed the stage! Going into the show, we knew the band was planning on playing their latest album in its entirety, followed up with some of their classics from over their 20+ year career. The opening notes of Quasar started up and we knew we were in for a trip. The visuals were already picking up and things were just getting started. The use of the 3D visuals within the sphere throughout the entire night was awe-inspiring.
Oceania finished up and we were quite surprised to hear them start up Space Oddity, a David Bowie cover. I would love to catch Bowie live! The set of older material had begun and they weren’t holding anything back diving right into X.Y.U., a classic from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. We were already fifteen songs deep into the setlist and we weren’t expecting much for the throwback set, certainly not an entire concert’s worth of songs! Disarm, one of my favourite tracks from Siamese Dream came up next followed up by one of their most notable tracks, Tonight, Tonight after their Tonite Reprise b-side was played of course. Bullet With Butterfly Wings was thrown into the set, another Pumpkins staple. I couldn’t believe we were actually experiencing this band in person at last after all of those years of listening to them throughout my adolescence. A Song for a Son, one of their newest tracks at the time from the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope series came next before Stand Inside Your Love and Muzzle wrapped up their regular set.
By this point in time our minds were blown away with what we had just encountered. The Smashing Pumpkins were back in full swing and we loved every minute of it! We weren’t sure how they could possibly finish off the night with an encore, but they came out to the cheers of their screaming fans for three more songs. Ava Adore, Cherub Rock, and Zero, of course! The twenty-six track setlist had us counting our blessings that we jumped at the opportunity to finally see this band out on the road. Thankfully for us, Billy decided to release a 3D tour video that captured the entire New York stop on the tour. Needless to say I had to jump on that as soon as it was released to help relive the moment when we were finally lucky enough to witness The Smashing Pumpkins live and in the flesh.