The World Is a Vampire tour brought three generations of great rock to rain-soaked Tampa on Sunday night. Rival Sons kicked off the show at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre with a dynamic set covering 14 years of material. They opened the set with the twangy power ballad “Feral Roots,” featuring singer Jay Buchanan on acoustic guitar and Scott Holiday on a double-neck electric. The song had a free-flowing vibe and extended intro and outro jams.
Then Buchanan set down his guitar and was free to dance and strut along the stage barefoot to two of the band’s best rock bangers. “Tied Up” combined soulful bluesy verses, with Buchanan serenading a lover over a swelling organ, with a rapid-fire hard rock riff-fest in the choruses. Contrasting the fretboard speed of that song, in “Open My Eyes,” Holiday showed the power of a slow, heavy groove played with a menacing tone.
The band was at its best when rocking out, leveraging Holiday’s heavy riffing, Mike Miley’s pounding drums, and Buchanan’s fierce bellow. Later in the show, Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan said of the band, “They have the blues, but it makes me feel good.”
The protest anthem “Get What’s Coming” encapsulates that edgier hard rock sound that Rival Sons has mastered since its 2009 debut. Aggressive rhythms buttressed Buchanan’s full-throated pleas. After Holiday shredded through an extended guitar solo, the band went silent. “You sit on your fence and you scream about justice,” Buchanan belted. The band stormed back in for an intense finish.
While half of the Rival Sons set showcased its hard rock credentials, the other half showed the increased emphasis on melody and dynamics on its most recent album, June’s Darkfighter. “Mirrors” used loud-soft dynamics to full effect, halting the lively verses with folksy choruses built around Buchanan’s soulful croon. “Darkside” was the most dynamic song of the night. In the verses, Buchanan’s whispered over gentle acoustic strumming, but the folksy vibe exploded into dark choruses saturated with distorted power chords and Buchanan’s grotty howl.
At the end of the set, Buchanan told the story behind the blues ballad “Where I’ve Been,” which he called a song about “learning to forgive yourself.” An impassioned performance of the song followed, with Buchanan’s husky voice building from soft and vulnerable in the verses to a moving scream in the choruses.
Between acts, wrestlers from the Corgan-owned National Wrestling Alliance fought in a ring on the concourse. When the rain softened, crowds gathered around the ring to enjoy the cheesy fun while getting food and drinks.
Manhattan’s Interpol took the stage as the sun went down and played a set of upbeat indie rock spanning the band’s 21 years. The debonair rockers played in suits despite the heat, though singer Paul Banks eschewed a tie. With crowd-pleasers like “Obstacle 1” and “Narc,” the band played dense, angular rhythms through thick fog and strobe lighting.
Midway through the 14-song set, Interpol slowed things down with the ballad “Fables.” Banks’s baritone voice, usually covered by layers of guitars, had a chance to stand out in that softer moment. For the rest of the set, the band kicked things into high gear. The slow-burning, propulsive “Evil” and the bouncing groove of “The Rover” were highlights. The wet crowd got more into the set with each song, culminating with two of the band’s best numbers, “No I in Threesome” and “Slow Hands.”
Smashing Pumpkins closed the night with a 21-song set spanning the band’s 36-year career, though the bulk of the songs came from the band’s two most popular albums, Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Things started fast and hard with fierce renditions of “Everlasting Gaze” and “Doomsday Clock.” Corgan’s growling guitar made for an unexpectedly heavy cover of the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime.”
Over the years, the influential Smashing Pumpkins have melded various musical influences into the band’s unique tapestry, with no two albums sounding alike. While it’s impossible to incorporate each style into a single concert, the band represented each of its best proclivities. Metal headbangers like “Jellybelly” and “Beguiled” showed the band’s powerful chops. Radio hits “Disarm”—which utilized a backing track in lieu of an orchestra—and “1979” provided sing-along croon. The grimy thump of “Ava Adore,” which featured an extended Jimmy Chamberlin drum solo, showed the band’s best electronic leanings.
Throughout the show, guitarist James Iha marveled at how Floridians can live in the state. “Between this heat and the alligators, I don’t know how you do it,” he said.
Midway through the set, Corgan and Iha played a stripped-down version of “Tonight, Tonight,” just their two acoustic guitars, with no bass, drums, or strings. Cut down to its essence, the song carried more emotional heft. Corgan dedicated the song to his late father, who he said is “now on the other side of the veil.”
After a psychedelic cover of Manfred Mann’s “Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble), the Pumpkins tore into a fiery version of “Jellybelly.” Then Iha announced that it was time to bring their A-game. “This is the point in the show where we really need to rock,” Iha said. “That last one wasn’t bad, but now, we really need to rock.” He and Corgan debated whether the crowd was too tired, soaked, and hot to keep rocking but decided that wasn’t the case.
To end the set, Smashing Pumpkins skipped an encore and played straight through. The psychedelic groove of “Hummer” was followed by the crunching metal of “Beguiled.” Three NWA wrestlers joined the band onstage during the latter song to dance and throw each other around the stage.
Though the whole set was fantastic, Smashing Pumpkins saved the best for last. After tearing through the fuzzbox anthem “Cherub Rock,” arguably Corgan’s best riff, they capped it with the wildest song of the night, a raucous rendition of “Zero.”
