The Smashing Pumpkins w/ PVRIS @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

Wednesday night technical difficulties did not stop The Smashing Pumpkins from rocking the fans at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis, MO.

The band kicked things off with a one two punch of ‘The Everlasting Gaze‘ and ‘Doomsday Clock‘ before doing a cover of ‘Zoo Station‘ by U2. About midway into the set after performing ‘Mayonaise‘ front man Billy Corgan told the crowd that “We were rocking so hard that I blew my guitar rig”. During the next near twenty minutes both James Iha and Corgan talked with the crowd saying they would take request, Iha brought up local sports teams the Cardinals and Blues to which the crowd all in unison said Blues in the long drawn out way that the fans chant the local NHL team. Corgan told Iha that they were not booing him but saying Blues. The band was also introduced during this time with new guitarist Kiki Wong, who played the intro to Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’, Katie Cole on backing vocals and acoustic guitar, Jack Bates on bass (he is the son of Peter Hook bassist and co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division and its successor New Order.), and Jimmy Chamberlin on drums. Corgan also sang part of the Fleetwood Mac song ‘Landslide’. Eventually Corgan opted to grab his acoustic guitar and played ‘Rocket‘ from 1993s ‘Siamese Dream‘. It is moments like this that I find special when going to concerts. You can look up setlists and see what they are playing and most bands play a cookie cutter set night to night with maybe a song pulled out and replaced here or there but moments like this make the show a bit more personal to me. After ‘Rocket‘ the guitar tech fixed everything and the band jumped back into the planed set with ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings“‘. The night ended with fan favorite ‘Zero‘. Overall it was a perfect night for an outdoor concert even with the technical difficulties fans went away with a great experience.