The Smashing Pumpkins And Jane’s Addiction Kick Off North American Tour
The bands kicked off their 32-date Spirits on Fire tour at Dallas’ American Airlines Center on October 2.
The Smashing Pumpkins kicked off their 32-date Spirits on Fire tour at Dallas’ American Airlines Center on October 2.
Special guests Jane’s Addiction featured the return of original bassist Eric Avery to the fold, while Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen filled in for Dave Navarro while he recuperates from long COVID symptoms.
The Californian quartet’s 11-song set consisted solely of their earlier material, opening with “Up The Beach” from their 1988 debut Nothing’s Shocking and “W____s” from their 1987 self-titled live release, and closed with “Stop!” from the 1990 staple Ritual de lo Habitual.
The Smashing Pumpkins headlining set opened with “Empires,” taken from their three-part rock opera Atum, while new songs, “Beguiled,” “Neophyte,” and “Harmageddon” were included alongside “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “I of the Mourning,” “Cherub Rock,” and a cover of Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime.”
“We’re about to go on tour with one of the greatest bands ever, [and] The Smashing Pumpkins are, by nature, a competitive lot, and to share a stage with Jane’s Addiction each night… they’ll kick our ass if we’re not careful,” said Corgan in a statement. But the beautiful thing is that there’s so much family love between the two camps… I really want Jane’s at their best and I want us at our best, and that’s the way we’re going to show our love for each other to the audience. We will give our supreme effort each night.”
Last year, the band celebrated the 30th anniversary of their groundbreaking, platinum-selling, critically acclaimed debut studio album Gish.
Produced by Butch Vig and Billy Corgan at Vig’s Smart studios in Wisconsin from December 1990 through March 1991, this genre-defining break-out placed The Smashing Pumpkins well and truly on the global map. Gish became the highest-selling independently released album of all time upon release. The album featured tracks such as “Siva, “Rhinoceros,” and “I Am One.”
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