By Chesney Hearst, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Two more international artists from the upcoming São Paulo Lollapalooza music festival lineup will arrive in Rio to perform on Wednesday, March 25th. The California quintet Young The Giant will open the night at Citibank Hall in Barra da Tijuca and American guitarist and vocalist, Billy Corgan will follow with his band Smashing Pumpkins.
Corgan founded the Smashing Pumpkins in 1988 with Jimmy Chamberlin, James Iha, and D’arcy Wretzky rounding out the band. Through the years, after many lineup changes, breakups, reunions and reformations, Corgan remains the only original member.
The band first saw mainstream success in 1993 with the release of their sophomore album, Siamese Dream. Gaining a reputation for being able to skillfully shift from subtle and gentle sounds to loud and aggressive ones and for featuring overdubbed guitar tracks in their recordings, Smashing Pumpkins would go on to become one of the most important alternative rock groups of the decade.
Their double-album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, released in 1995, received widespread critical acclaim. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the release contained 28 tracks that ranged from angst ridden pop metal to navel-grazing indie to joyous orchestral ballads.
The double set spawned five singles: “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”, “1979”, “Zero”, “Tonight, Tonight“, “Muzzle”, and “Thirty-Three”. It went on to be nominated for multiple awards including MTV Video Music Awards and seven 1997 Grammy nominations. Smashing Pumpkins won the Grammy that year for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal for the lead single “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”
In 1998, the group would follow with the release, Adore, an album that many saw as a complete departure from their earlier work. Embracing more gothic tones and incorporating more electronic elements, the album originally received a lukewarm public reception but is now considered by many to be one of their more underrated works.
Breakups, side projects, reunions and reformations followed. Then in 2007, the band, at that point officially consisting of Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, released their seventh album, Zeitgeist.
In 2009 Chamberlin officially left the group and in the years since Corgan has been working with various musicians to release songs for the Smashing Pumpkins Teargarden by Kaleidyscope concept album.
In 2012, Smashing Pumpkins released their eighth studio album, Oceania, part of the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope set, followed in 2014 by their ninth album Monuments to an Elegy, also part of the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope set. A followup album to complete the set is scheduled for release later this year or in early 2016.
Opening for the Smashing Pumpkins on Wednesday will be the quintet Young The Giant.
Formed in 2004 in California, the group, with members Sameer Gadhia, Jacob Tilley, Eric Cannata, Payam Doostzadeh, and Francois Comtois, released their debut album, the eponymously titled, Young the Giant, in 2010.
The album, filled with enjoyable hooks, sugary vocals and pop guitar riffs, propelled the band into the indie scene spotlight and spawned the alternative hits “My Body”, “Apartment”, and “Cough Syrup.”
In 2014 they released their sophomore album entitled Mind over Matter. Singles include the title track and “It’s About Time” and “Crystallized.”
Before moving on to perform at Lollapalooza in São Paulo on March 29th, Smashing Pumpkins and Young the Giant will play at NET Live in Brasília on March 27th.
Additional artists from the Lollapalooza lineup performing in Rio this week include Robert Plant and St. Vincent on Tuesday, March 24th at Citibank Hall; Skrillex, Major Lazer, and Dillon Francis at Estação Leopoldina on Thursday, March 26th; and Foster the People and Bastille at Citibank Hall on Friday, March 27th. Check back with The Rio Times for more information about each show.
What: Smashing Pumpkins and Young the Giant
When: Wednesday, March 25th, 9:20 PM
Where: Citibank Hall, Av. Ayrton Senna 3000, Barra da Tijuca
Entrance: R$100-R$450