American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, led by the charismatic front man Billy Corgan, will be performing on December 8 at Campo Pequeno in Lisbon.
Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, The Smashing Pumpkins have a diverse, densely layered and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, grunge, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazer-style production and, in later recordings, electronica.
Billy Corgan is the group’s primary songwriter. His grand musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band’s albums and songs, which have been described as “anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan’s nightmare-land”.
The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, Siamese Dream (1993). The group built its audience with extensive touring and their follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995), debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart.
With 18.75 million albums sold in the United States alone, The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up.
In 2006, Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reconvened to record a new album, Zeitgeist. The band toured with a rotating line-up of between five and nine musicians through much of 2007 and 2008 before Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. New drummer Mike Byrne and bassist/vocalist Nicole Fiorentino solidified a new line-up and toured through much of 2010.
Tickets are available to buy at www.ticketline.pt.
