The Smashing Pumpkins began their North American Tour with a pair of shows in Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan hotel.
Fresh from resting after rocking Australia for a couple of weeks in April, Billy Corgan (vox, guitar), James Iha (guitar), Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), Jeff Schroeder (guitar), James Bates (bass), and Katie Cole (keys) are back on stage supporting the triple album Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts.
On opening night in Vegas (7/28), the Chicagoans treated the 3,000 attendees with a number of treats.
The first came on the second song in the set, "Doomsday Clock," a track off 2007's Zeitgeist which the band hadn't played since 2008. Hardcore fans might remember that Iha wasn't with the group in 2008, Schroeder was the second guitarist at the time, thus Friday night was the first time James had rocked the "...Clock."
The crowd-pleasing "Today" was the fourth song in set which was followed by the sticky-sweet "Perfect," which for some odd reason the Pumpkins hadn't played in 8 years.
Because the hits and rarities kept coming, after "Disarm," Billy and Co., broke into "The Celestials" from 2012's Oceania, an album and a period when neither James nor Jimmy were getting along with Billy.
The tune was a regular in the tours of 2012-2013 but hadn't been heard from since then.
As the show went on the band got into "This Time," a MACHINA track that was played plenty in 2000, but then only twice again in 2006 and not unearthed again until the two Vegas shows.
And if that wasn't enough, the wild "Jellybelly" made it back to the set for the first time since last century.
Must be nice to have so many rockers sitting on the bench willing to blow the faces off an audience if need be.
All in all, it was a nice balance of songs from the many moods of Mr. Corgan. Just three songs from the new 33-track triple album made their way into the set.
The World is a Vampire Tour stays in the west through August then heads south, then up the east coast and midwest until 9/9.
Depending on the date openers could be Interpol, Stone Temple Pilots along with Rival Sons. So don't be late.
Tickets available at the Pumpkins website.
