Smashing Pumpkins light up Canadian Tire Centre with high octane performance

After two shows with smaller turnouts (Rod Stewart and Alabama) The Smashing Pumpkins and special guests the Rival Sons and Interpol pack Canadian Tire Centre for a night of unapologetic hard rock.

Rival Sons kicked things off with a powerful, vocal heavy, 8 song set. Their placement in the lineup surprised me especially considering they have 3 singles that hit #1 on the Canadian rock charts (“Keep On Swinging”, “Open My Eyes” and “Do Your Worst”), and 2 others that hit the top 10, compared to Interpol who have had only one single chart in Canada, “The Heinrich Maneuver” which peaked at 96. It was also disappointing that so few opted to come out early for their set, remember sometimes the best acts are the ones that kick off the show and they’re included in the ticket price.

The Sons kicked off their set with “Feral Roots”, off the 2019 album of the same name, followed by their latest single “Sweet Life” and then a selection of songs from across their career to date. Before they started into “Where I’ve Been” Jay Buchanan took a rare moment to talk to the crowd about forgiveness…self-forgiveness to be specific. He told the crowd a pair of stories, one of an addict who turned her life around and another of a friend who went to war for his country and came back a changed man. Both shared the mentality that they weren’t worth it anymore because of what they had been through. Buchanan said to the crowd “you are allowed to forgive yourself”. A rare emotional connection at a rock show but it’s moments like this and songs like “Where I’ve Been” that I love about Rival Sons. The band closed out their set with their first even Canadian #1 single 2012’s “Keep on Swinging” from the album Head Down.

Interpol exploded into the arena next. And when I say exploded I mean exploded. Heavy strobes of all colours, a giant disco ball in the middle of the stage and the heaviest guitar I’ve heard at an arena show in a very long time. I’m a big fan of their style of music but last night just didn’t work for me. I don’t know if it was a sound issue or what it was but Interpol’s 14 song set couldn’t end fast enough, although we did get a bit of a reprieve halfway through with “Evil” for which we could actually hear Paul Banks’ vocals.

I don’t like to write completely negative reviews so I will leave it like this for Interpol. The light show was incredible, even with the Smashing Pumpkins that would follow, I don’t think I’ve been to a show that wasn’t EDM that had that kind of lighting. I suspect the confines of the Canadian Tire Centre were simply too restricting for Interpol’s sound, just like a band like Rammstein could never live up to people’s expectations in a venue like the CTC. Should Interpol show up on a festival lineup I think it would become a must see show so I look forward to the opportunity to catch them on a big festival stage sometime in the future.

I’ve been a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins since the summer between high school and college.when Siamese Dream was released, all the way back, in July 1993. After high school I went to school for radio broadcasting and I’ll never forget the day that I was running the campus station and the new Pumpkins single “Disarm” was on my playlist for the day. The nice thing about the radio booth is that it’s soundproof, by design, so I could listen to my favourite tunes as loud as I wanted and it wouldn’t bother anyone lol (probably part of the reason I need hearing aids these days). My radio journey came to a permanent end in the spring of 1995 as we both opted to go our separate ways, but my love for the Smashing Pumpkins would only grow stronger later that year when Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released. With songs like “1979”, “Tonight, Tonight”, “Zero” and the anthem of our youth “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” it became one of the soundtracks for my 20s.

30 years after I first heard, and fell in love with, The Smashing Pumpkins I finally got to see them live. Granted the lineup is a bit different than when they started 30 years ago but, like GNR with Axl, as long as Billy is on the vocals the rest doesn’t matter. It occured to me as I watched the show that The Smashing Pumpkins took the first two acts of the evening and combined elements from both into their set. They incorporated the incredible lighting and driving guitars from Interpol’s set with memorable lyrics you can sing along to from Rival Sons and turned it into an, almost, 2 full hour musical marathon. 21 songs that spanned across the last 30+ years it was pure magic. The songs sounded exactly like they did on the original albums. Another bucket list show to cross off my list.

The tour continues tomorrow night with stops in Cincinnati, OH, Clarkston, MI, Franklin, TN and Noblesville, IN remaining. Their ATUM
A Rock Opera In Three Acts is Available Now visit https://smashingpumpkins.com/ for full details.

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