TK. MAXX PRESENTS… SCARBOROUGH OPEN AIR THEATRE 2025 - THE SMASHING PUMPKINS

Aug 13

The summer concert series at Scarborough Open Air Theatre took a turn to the alternative
rockier side last night.

★★★★★ (5/5)

**THE SMASHING PUMPKINS PERFORMING AT TK. MAXX PRESENTS… SCARBOROUGH OPEN AIR THEATRE 2025**
**PHOTOCREDIT: JOHN HAYHURST**

US icons, and grammy award winners, the Smashing Pumpkins graced the venue for the first time. This was also my first time seeing the band, which given possibly their greatest album, Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness, was issued 30 years ago this year is a major oversight on my part. Depressingly, despite Billy’s suggestion that most of the crowd weren’t born when it came out, I have to admit I was.

Billy Corgan and his bandmates strolled out onto the stage like they had always been there and owned the place, with Billy in a very fetching black and white outfit shouting out Let’s Rock. Launching into a blistering start which included Heavy Metal Machine and Pentagrams they instantly lifted the crowd and got them singing and dancing.

Then playing Tonight very early in the set sealed the deal, there was a mass sing along, the crowd were dancing and singing while smiling as they realised, they were in the presence of a truly great band, as a result the feeling of communal enjoyment was palatable. The Smashing Pumpkins are a band very much on top of their game still, which given their longevity, is a fantastic thing.

What I did find really enjoyable though was the warmth that came from the band, the sense of self-deprecation. When Billy announced we are the notorious Smashing Pumpkins you could almost see his tongue lodged in his cheek. Talking about Scarborough and how much they loved it obviously endeared them to the crowd even further, especially with the suggestion, from James Iha, that they would come back one day to get wasted on the beach.

Wasting no time, they encouraged everyone to clap along, to sign along and at times to have the audience singing on their own while Billy conducted them. This was very much an interactive gig with the band wanting the crowd to be a part of it, which they absolutely were.

How great must it be for a band to walk on stage knowing they can throw 1979 out there less than half way through, add in a bit of Mayonnaise, casually throw in a cover of Berlin’s Take My Breath Away, tease a bit of Simon and Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair and know you’ve not even played songs like Tonight Tonight and Zero yet.

The gig was a brilliant mix of older and newer material. Billy’s voice has held up well and the band couldn’t have been any tighter. This was what an alternative rock gig should be and then some! Finishing with the Everlasting Gaze, with a teaser of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love the Smashing Pumpkins came to Scarborough, threw their all at the gig and left having completely smashed it out of the park! Scarborough has set a rod for its own back though, my challenge to them is top this, I’m not sure you can!