Gig Review: The World is Vampire Tour, featuring The Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction, Amyl and the Sniffers and Battlesnake at the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney. April 19, 2023
By BRIAN GIFFIN
ONE of the biggest rock tours of the year had its second night in Sydney at the hallowed Hordern Pavilion this evening. It was a second sell out event for the city that obviously had no bad feelings about the venue reshuffles and reschedulings that marred the early announcement of The World is a Vampire tour. After all, the opportunity to see two huge 90s bands on the one tour again is too good to miss, even if it’s on a weeknight.
As it was, the early gate time meant that most people (including me) didn’t get to see Sydney metalheads Battlesnake open proceedings, although they did get briefly involved in the wrestling match straight after their set. Once one of them got slammed into the canvas, they gave no further thought to it. Showcasing the NWA – owned by Billy Corgan since 2017 – was a clever and fun way to keep the crowd entertained during the changeovers.
It certainly had them stirred up nice and ready for when Amyl and the Sniffers hit the stage, fast and frenetic from the first moment. Amy Taylor is a whirlwind of tongue-poking, air-punching energy, cheeky and fun, tough and wild as Dec Martens’ riffs, then fragile under a blue spot for “Knifey”, then off the hook again into “Freaks to the Front” and “Some Mutts”. While she dances and teeters at the front of the stage, Martens only steps up to sing back-ups until Amy pushes him forward as he cuts loose late in the set while Gus Romer pounds double-downtime with his back to the audience. It’s a sweeping set that’s sure to convert those not already in the band’s growing fanbase, entertaining and high-energy from the first moment to the last.
By the time the second round of wrestling was done, the Hordern was wall to wall as Jane’s Addiction swaggered onto the stage, Josh Klinghoffer in for Dave Navarro for this tour, Perry Farrell grinning ear to ear and dressed like a Batman villain in his wide-bottom cow print pants and wide brimmed hat. He sounds (and acts) like it’s still the early 90s, joking with the crowd as he leers and swigs from a bottle of red, the stage becoming a burlesque act as exotic dancers gyrate on the peripheries. Around Farrell, the band pull the set of muscular, angular rock in all directions: “Whores”, “No One’s Leaving”, “Mountain Song”, Stephen Perkins pummels the crowd with a glorious drum solo. Then they bring it down for a quiet though weirdly joyous version of “Jane Says” and close out with “Been Caught Stealing” which just about brings the house down. After 12 years Jane’s Addiction have returned to Australia, and they were sensational.
It would have been a big ask for most bands to follow that, but the band following was The Smashing Pumpkins and they weren’t about to be intimidated. James Iha, dapper in all white, steps to the front as Billy Corgan looms to his right looking like either a beefed-up Nosferatu or a really tall Uncle Fester (“I’m a vampire from Hell!” he declares much later) and “Empires” opens the set followed immediately by “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and the Hordern erupts as if it’s the 1994 Big Day Out, but without any moshing (and hey, if you were at the 1994 BDO, you’re too old to still be doing that, believe me). “Today” comes next like an endless hit parade before a switcheroo into “We Only Come Out at Night”, Corgan swapping to a big acoustic guitar. From there it was a stunningly heavy metal stomp version of “Once in a Lifetime” that segues into an enormous experimental fiesta of pounding rhythms and criss-crossing guitar violence that is “Solara”. “Eye” was a weird choice, with The Veronicas joining the band, tottering around on stilettos and genuflecting in front of Corgan. It was a strange departure with “Ava Adore” righting the keel.
Two-thirds into what is becoming a true spectacle, Corgan and Iha switched to acoustic mode as the rest of the band took a rest, regaling the crowd with silly raps about chicken salt and an interpretation of “Under the Milky Way” and then “Tonight, Tonight” before the full band returned for another torrent of hits that closed with an extended adventure through “Silverfuck.” There was no encore, nor did there need to be. The World is a Vampire had proved itself to be a true extravaganza, a showcase of truly great music from fantastic bands still very much at the height of their powers. Fans old and recent alike will be talking about this one for many years to come.
