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Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has a thousand stories to tell. The group’s only remaining original member helped found the Pumpkins in 1988 after relocating to his native Chicago from none other than St. Petersburg, Florida. He had moved to the Sunshine State briefly in ’85 after graduating from high school because he was fearful of the Windy City’s reception to his goth band, the Marked. After playing a little more than a dozen shows here, bassist Dale Meiners suddenly quit, and Corgan moved back to Chi-Town and soon started Smashing Pumpkins.
Florida still figures in, though. Corgan regularly visits family in Coconut Creek, and there’s a sold-out crowd awaiting him at Revolution this coming Tuesday during a stop on Smashing Pumpkins’ latest tour. He’s scaling back, playing only small shows for his biggest fans, and signaling SP’s return to heavy guitar rock. If the tour kickoff at L.A.’s Viper Room June 30 is any testament, a lot of the band’s early songs will show up, and a handful of the first people in line could be rewarded with a more intimate performance at sound check before the show.
