The Smashing Pumpkins: Spirits On Fire Tour 19/11/2022

Where: Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles, California (USA)

Venue rating: 8.5/10 (Iconic venue but I was too far back to see/hear incredibly well. I did appreciate being able to view the Hollywood sign above the dome, though!)

Who I went with: Myself

Where I stayed: Magic Castle Hotel (I had doubts but it was fantastic for the price, being one block away from the Hollywood Walk of Fame and within walking distance of The Hollywood Bowl. It also had unlimited complementary snacks/drinks and a 24 hour heated pool. I wish I’d stayed there the entire trip)

How I travelled there: Walked from the hotel (Maybe around a twenty minute walk but there were plenty of other people)

Beverage of choice: Mountain Dew (I found it at last… I don’t think Dodger Stadium had it)

SETLIST:

1. Empires
2. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
3. Today
4. We Only Come Out At Night
5. Cyr
6. Once In a Lifetime (Talking Heads cover)
7. Solara
8. Eye (with The Veronicas)
9. Ava Adore
10. Tonight, Tonight (with Mike Garson)
11. Starla
12. Stand Inside Your Love
13. Cherub Rock (with WILLOW)
14. Zero
15. 1979
16. Beguiled
17. Silverfuck (with Frank Catalano)

I’m not a hardcore Smashing Pumpkins fan but have been familiar with a handful of their most well-known songs for years (mainly ‘Today’, ‘Tonight, Tonight’ and ‘1979’, which show up in movies and TV shows all the time) and didn’t want to pass up the chance of seeing them live when I realised they were ending their 2022 tour at The Hollywood Bowl on a night I was in the area and had nothing else planned. The last night of a huge tour like this one is usually a massive event, so I knew it would make for a memorable night and fans would be in high spirits. Their music is difficult to fit into one genre but I’d say they have a unique style and no other band sounds like them, though some may try and emulate them. Their music can be very “rocky” and definitely a lot heavier than what I usually listen to. I unashamedly adore a ton of pop music but I’m always open to new musical experiences and everyone knows I have an eclectic taste. I was excited to see what the atmosphere would be like at this iconic venue and experience TSP live as they’re so highly respected in the music world and I knew they wouldn’t disappoint.

I was extremely tired and struggled to keep my eyes open all night. Though I was enjoying the show, I practically had to hold my eyelids open at some points. I wish I was kidding. It had nothing to do with the performances but was because I was kept awake half the night by unruly hotel guests. The hotel supplied me with ear plugs (is there anything they don’t have?) and I got some rest but I had to get up early for a hike (my holidays are always pretty full-on) and I struggle to get back to sleep during the day, especially when I’m not at home and I’m feeling pressured to make the most of my time away. I relaxed in the pool between returning from the hike and attending the show, which made me feel somewhat refreshed but not exactly re-energised. It gets very cold in LA in November when the sun goes down and I should have learned my lesson from shivering at Dodger Stadium a couple nights before and been sensible enough to take a hat/scarf/gloves with me. The cold air helped keep me awake but I wasn’t comfortable, though the $1 cushion I bought when entering the venue helped. The seats are long cramped wooden benches and looked a lot worse to sit on without a cushion, so I definitely made the right choice with “renting” one.

I could see the two beacons of light shooting up in the air from The Hollywood Bowl as I approached it, so I felt assured I was heading in the right direction. Google Maps is very dependable but with my phone being broken it’s sometimes difficult to judge distances, as I’m unable to zoom in or rotate the map. Nobody spoke to me as usual but I did hear some interesting and funny conversations. When I was queuing with my ticket and bag open ready to be searched, a man beside me excitedly complimented all the “young people” around him who came along, saying they have super cool taste in music. I overheard lots of people hype up the band as I was going up the escalators, which made me more excited to be there after developing a bit of a “can’t be bothered going” attitude because of my exhaustion. The men who sat down to the right of me were two of the most excited people I’ve ever seen at a concert and were head-banging and pretending to drum along with each of the bands, obviously knowing each and every song intimately. Before Smashing Pumpkins came on, a friend of theirs materialised out of nowhere and bragged he got to see Jane’s Addiction up close for the first half of their act before someone (the rightful owner of the seat he was occupying) came and moved him. People were smoking a lot of marijuana (which is legal in California) so I was a bit wary of everyone in my general vicinity but didn’t witness any foul play. I was amused by how relaxed the girl in the row in front of me was, sitting by herself peacefully reading a book between acts and ignoring the more intense fans.

Poppy came on first, to an adoring crowd. A lot of people were really into her and yelled “YEAHHH!” every time she began to rock out and scream the lyrics. She would go from screaming her lungs out to coyly thanking the crowd in a very small/shy voice. I overheard a girl gushing about how “cute” Poppy was when I was leaving the venue but I still haven’t totally made up my mind about what I think of her yet. I spent most of her eight song act wondering if “Poppy” is a persona she is just putting on for show, what she’s like in real life if that’s the case, how she became associated with The Smashing Pumpkins and whether or not I’d come across her years ago on YouTube. If it isn’t her I’m thinking of, there was a similar music artist who rose to fame with the same kind of quirky personality and style. I’ve become seriously out of the loop, so I will need to get on Wikipedia. She is definitely talented and there’s no doubt she wowed the crowd of thousands. There is something captivating about her and she mostly held my attention, even though I didn’t know any of the songs. It was interesting to see what she was going to surprise us with next. She has a nice voice and is also excellent on the guitar, dabbling in contrasting genres. She is a mysterious and unpredictable performer and I’m interested in listening to her again and researching the history of “Poppy” to hopefully answer some of my questions.

Jane’s Addiction came on next, to a deafening applause. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know this band at all. I realise now that they are famous and have been “on the go” for a long time. I’ve seen their name pop up all over the place since I saw them live, especially now I’ve taken an interest in popular festivals and have been looking up/memorising who’s performed at certain venues in the past. The band’s frontman, Perry Farrell, was full of zest and energy as they blazed through over an hour of their crowd-pleasing songs. Everything about their set was extremely flamboyant and over the top, including Farrell’s cowboy outfit, his strange/random/crude sense of humour and the naked girls erotically parading around the stage from start to finish. He did touch on some serious topics too, such as people we have sadly lost over the past couple of years and the women who were protesting earlier in the day at Hollywood Boulevard about their heart-breaking situation in Iran. Most of the time he kept the atmosphere light and fun, musing over things such as expensive bottles of wine and Californian sunsets. Farrell was obviously thrilled to be back in LA (his home and also where the band started out), shouting “HOLLYWOOD! It is definitely swinging tonight!” The crowd seemed to agree with him and laughed along as he interacted with people sitting in the first few rows, commenting that they looked nice and warm before ridiculing one man’s “disappearing beard”. He warned us they’d been waiting for this night as it was their homecoming show and that we were in for quite a show. I enjoyed the songs and there’s no doubt they gave it their all. None of their songs come to mind as I write this so I’ll need to go back and re-listen to them, like Poppy’s. PF also talked about how they’d been on tour for eight weeks and have suffered a couple bouts of Covid, stiff necks and arguments but emphasised how much he loves it regardless and how much he’s going to miss touring.

The Smashing Pumpkins came on stage eventually (the night at least felt long to me) just after 9pm, once their butterfly/moth logo illuminated the screens. Don’t shoot me, it looks like a moth but a butterfly would make more sense because of their song ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’. Like I already said, I’m not a massive fan of the band and don’t know all of these details. I was mostly anticipating hearing my top favourites but I enjoyed all of the songs in the setlist and the many surprise guest stars. The Talking Heads cover was unexpected and I loved hearing their rendition of it, which was a completely different take from the original. I have a habit of looking up reviews of concerts I’ve attended to see whether people agree with my positives and negatives (I do the same with films) and lot of people agreed that the sound wasn’t as clear as it could have been and that the camerawork was a bit lazy, just showing a static far-off image of the stage on the screens either side of the dome. I would have liked to have seen close-ups of the band and guest stars since I was so far back but all I could see was a shot of the stage, which was the exact view I could see with my own eyes anyway. The camera people did a much better job showing the Poppy and Jane’s Addiction performances, so I’m not sure what went wrong when The Smashing Pumpkin’s came on. It would have been more interesting to get different perspectives of the show, instead of that one shot. So it’s safe to say I didn’t get any particularly great photos of the band from where I was seated.

The guest stars included The Veronicas, Mike Garson, Willow Smith and Frank Catalano. I knew half of them (The Veronicas and Willow Smith), so that’s not bad. I readily admit I still have a lot to learn about musicians and have tons of research to do before I possess even a reasonable amount of knowledge. I don’t remember The Veronicas being introduced but I heard the band thank them for accompanying them on stage after ‘Eye’. Everyone on stage looked like ants from where I was seated, so I struggled to keep up with what was happening at times. I’m not convinced they added a whole lot to the performance but it was cool to “see” them anyway. It did feel like they had guest stars just for the sake of having them instead of fully planning it out and it making a ton of logical sense but I didn’t feel fully conscious that night, so maybe I was just “out of it” and missed the point. I only found out for sure afterwards that Willow Smith didn’t actually sing but instead played guitar with the band throughout ‘Cherub Rock’. Again, the whole thing would have been so much better if the camera zoomed in so we could properly see what was going on. I didn’t know Mike Garson and Frank Catalano but a quick Google search tells me Garson is a pianist who has worked with incredible musicians such as David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails and Catalano is a very well-known jazz saxophonist. Fair play to the band for gathering all of these guest stars together. I always appreciate surprise appearances like these and getting the opportunity to say “Guess who I saw?”

The band were thankful for everyone who came and ecstatic to announce they’d completely sold out The Hollywood Bowl. That must be a good feeling to know so many people still want to come and see you after so many years of making music and witness how meaningful it obviously is to so many people singing along etc. It was a very special night, tiredness aside. I’m glad I had the experience to see these bands live as it was a very different night than what I’m used to when I go to concerts and it added some diversity to the musical experiences I’ve had this year. It was an aesthetically gorgeous show, with the lighting and effects matching the songs perfectly and giving it an overall artsy feel. I was looking forward to seeing which stylistic choices had been made to suit each song and continue to be fully absorbed in the music. Luckily, nobody was talking over the music, which usually happens and frustrates me to no end. Everyone around me was enchanted by it all. There was a lot happening on stage that I missed or didn’t fully understand (I read somewhere that Billy Corgan’s children were dancing in costume at one point, in relation to one of their music videos) because I was so far away and also not completely “in the know”. As I’ve said, I’m happy I decided to go to this and did really enjoy the night. The stand-out track for me was probably ‘Tonight, Tonight’, which also happens to be my favourite of theirs. I was introduced to a lot of their material I wasn’t already familiar with though and now know about the new rock opera ‘Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts’, which sounds like an interesting endeavour. I’ll keep an eye out for its release.

GALLERY: