Christian Renzi
I was born on August 13, 1993 in Providence, RI. The next day on August 14, 1993 in Chicago, Illinois the Smashing Pumpkins played their Siamese Dream release show at the Metro. Siamese Dream would go on to become one of the best albums of the decade and in my opinion THE best album of the 1990s. Siamese Dream and I literally grew up together. We were born in the same year and to this day it’s my favorite Pumpkins release.
A few days ago I noticed that the Smashing Pumpkins website had a timer that was clicking down to February 15 at noon. Corgan is known for hyping things up so much that they’re inevitably disappointing, so I have to admit I wasn’t that excited to see what it was. I had a good idea of what I thought it might be. Drama had been surrounding the band the past couple of weeks when it was revealed by D’arcy Wretky, the original bass player of the band, that she was not asked to join the reunion that Corgan, the drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and the original guitar player James Iha had been cooking up.
When the timer clicked to zero today the reunion tour was confirmed with a list of dates that the three original members and guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who was the guitar player in the first “reunion” of the band in 2007, would be playing.
I have a lot of history with the Smashing Pumpkins. My brother John turned me onto the band right after their original breakup in 2000. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was the first record that I had ever heard by them and I immediately loved it, even at seven years old. It was the follow up to their megahit record, Siamese Dream and it was a killer double album. The Pumpkins first three albums, Gish, Siamese Dream, and Mellon Collie are all incredible. To me they’re like greatest hits albums. Each song is incredible.
I honestly believe in the bands original run from the late 80s until their first breakup in 2000, that every record they released was good. Some of them were definitely weaker than others. In my opinion Machina is the weakest of the bunch, but it’s still a pretty great record.
On December 2, 2000 the band played their last show at the Metro in Chicago, ending their fourth encore with the brilliant song, Silverfuck, off of Siamese Dream. It would be seven years before Corgan toured under the name, Smashing Pumpkins, and when they came back it was nothing like the original incarnation.
Rumors had circulated for a few years that the band would be getting back together. Billy Corgan did a few solo tours and even formed a group that included the former drummer of the Pumpkins, Jimmy Chamberlin, called Zwan. Zwan’s debut record was actually pretty good but they didn’t last beyond that.
Finally in 2007 the band “reunited” with Chamberlin and Corgan and a few other people who were not from the original lineup. I ended up seeing them twice between 2007 and 2008, once in Providence and once in Boston. In each of those shows when they would play the old songs they sounded pretty tight. It was the baffling set decisions that made some of the concert unbearable, including them playing the 30 minute, Gossamer, a song I still detest. At one point in the show Corgan would bang on a timpani drum for some reason.
Pumpkins 2007 reunion lineup
Chamberlain eventually left the band, thus leaving Corgan as the only original member and causing me to lose a lot of interest. I never understood why Corgan had to tour under the name Smashing Pumpkins when he was the only original member of the band. I’m assuming it was probably to sell tickets.
Following 2008 I didn’t really follow what Corgan had been up to in his career. I had zero desire to ever see him play again...that is until 2016.
In April of 2016 James Iha joined Billy Corgan on stage for the first time to play their song Mayonaise. They hadn’t played together live in sixteen years. It reignited rumors of an original lineup reunion. Which brings us to today.
The band is set to start touring later this year. They’re playing a bunch of arena shows around the country, which really sucks because they will probably be pretty expensive. I want to see them play. I just wish it was at a smaller place. At least now they have ¾ of the original lineup. It will be exciting to see what songs they will be playing. One thing I do know is that it’s the first time I’ve been interested in the Pumpkins in a long time.
2018 Smashing Pumpkins
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