90s alt rock royalty Smashing Pumpkins coming to NJ

Let’s just put it this way. I once saw Smashing Pumpkins at Madison Square Garden and they opened with “Disarm” and just the visuals and soul and plaintive sound of that one masterpiece alone was worth the money.

This is a band led by the musical genius of Billy Corgan that sold more than 30 million albums. They are arguably the most instrumental band to shape alternative rock and without question they owned the 90s.

If you never saw them live you need to scratch this off your bucket list this summer. They are going on tour and they’re stopping in New Jersey.

“The World Is A Vampire” tour hits PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on Aug. 24. General sale tickets available through Ticketmaster beginning Friday, March 31.

Joining them that night looks to be special guests Interpol and Rival Sons. What does Billy Corgan say about this night?

I grew up in a world where I needed to know bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure existed, it meant there was a place for people like me to hang out and belong. That’s what The World Is A Vampire is about,” Corgan said in a statement. “Bringing back that sense of community. If you don’t fit in, you belong here. It’s about having a shared experience and respecting others, but ultimately having fun. A true alternative festival, where all the self-proclaimed weirdos and outsiders of the world can get together and have a party.

And a party it shall be.

Just for fun here’s some Smashing Pumpkins trivia for you.

Did you know Billy Corgan dated Courtney Love? It was brief, and it was before she hooked up with Kurt Cobain.

Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was once fired over a heroin overdose. At another point, the band tried so hard to keep him away from the drug they relocated to Marietta, Georgia just to keep him far away from his dealer.

They played themselves on “The Simpsons.” Homer went on tour with the Hullabalooza Festival and winds up partying with Smashing Pumpkins along with Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill.

Speaking of cartoons, the guy in the “Tonight Tonight” video is Tom Kenny who plays SpongeBob SquarePants.

Billy Corgan washed dishes in a Chinese restaurant before hitting it big.

According to past band member D’arcy Wretzky, the Smashing in Smashing Pumpkins is an adjective not a verb. As in “those are some beautiful, smashing pumpkins” and not as in “Let’s go smash some pumpkins.”

“1979” was nearly excluded from the band’s third album when a producer deemed it not good enough. It turned out to be a major hit.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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