The Smashing Pumpkins ‘The World Is A Vampire Festival’ @ Entertainment Centre, Adelaide 26/4/2023
The Smashing Pumpkins ‘The World Is A Vampire Festival’ descended on the Adelaide Entertainment Centre which featured a stellar line up of bands and wrestling. There was plenty on offer to make a good day/night of it kicking off at the early time of quarter past four with Soda. For many, the early start and juggling work and other commitments meant some weren’t able to make it to later. Soda and Battlesnake would have relished the opportunity to play in a big venue such as the Adelaide Entertainment Centre which was followed by wrestling on a ring at the back of the GA area featuring the Billy Corgan’s National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and Wrestling Alliance of Australia (WAOA). The wrestling matches made for an interesting contrast compared to any other gig of sanding around and listening to whatever is played over the speaker waiting for the next band.
Amyl and the Sniffers came charging out of the blocks with a fiery set covering both of their albums and EP’s. There’s no doubt that they would have picked up plenty of new fans with their brand of punk rock. Starting with Control and Freaks to the Front it was on. There was plenty of fire power in their set with the likes of Shake Ya, Capital, Security and Guided By Angels. Interesting that someone would yell out a stupid comment calling them punk sell outs, far from and this band has definitely worked their arses off to get where they are. If anything that fired them up a bit more with highlights in the back end of their set being Starfire 500, Hertz and Some Mutts (Can’t Be Muzzled).
Adelaide fans had been waiting a long time for Jane’s Addiction to return to our city. From what I can recall it was Soundwave back in 2010, so there was a bit of time to make up for.. Speaking to a few people after the show the opinions vary about their show. For me personally I loved it. The sound mix wasn’t perfect but I liked the way they went about it. The crowd had built up considerably just before they took to the stage opening with Up the Beach. Perry Farrell was in a jovial mood commenting on a fan’s hat saying he didn’t have enough meth to keep up with Motorhead. Set staple Whores was classic Jane’s and I didn’t mind Had a Dad and No One’s Leaving either. The stripped back version Janes Says was gold with Eric Avery on acoustic guitar. There was a lot of meaning behind Mountain Song where Farrell talking about post traumatic stress from this fucked up world, perhaps blame our parents but stressed to right the world that we needed to be unified asking with we were with them. Fans might have felt robbed not getting to hear the song that they had been waiting for in Been Caught Stealing. I guess we can’t have anything finishing their set on Three Days and Stop!
The Smashing Pumpkins set was epic and as an avid fan it was great to sell all the bells and whistles of this production. I enjoyed their set a lot more than I thought as they balanced the old with the new really well. Opening with Empires it was on to the super popular Bullet With Butterfly Wings. Oh yeah! Today from Siamese Dream was great and the Talking Heads cover Once In A Life Time was a odd choice given what they could play from their illustrious back catalogue. Solara and Eye were solid then back to the familiar with Ava Adore with Billy Corgan welcoming Adelaide to the rock show. New tune Spellbinding worked well in their set and James Iha sung on The Church cover of Under The Milky Way. Both Billy and James took a moment to reflect on all the great Australian bands they liked such as Hoodoo Gurus, AC/DC and Amyl and the Sniffers then going on to talk about their day at the ‘arcade’ or as Corgan said a fancy name for a shopping mall where you buy your lingerie, chocolates, batteries and phone cases. Iha spoke about seventy percent of the world’s most dangerous animals live in Australia with Corgan asking how do you kill them, Iha responded saying you stomp on them with Corgan cheekily saying chicken salt.
The Pumpkins set really ramped with Tonight Tonight (dedicated to their Australian fans), Cherub Rock and the blistering Zero. Fan favourite 1979 was awesome and Beguiled saw the return of wrestling on the main stage this time. Finishing on Silverfuck I think I could walk away feeling very satisfied with what I saw.
Live Review By Rob Lyon