Concert Review: Smashing Pumpkins & Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (PNC Music Pavilion)

Smashing Pumpkins and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are currently on a summer co-headlining tour that brought them to Charlotte's PNC Music Pavilion on August 20th, 2019.

After an energetic set from tour openers AFI, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds hit the stage. I'll be honest-- we haven't been following his post-Oasis career too closely, so I was really hoping they'd perform some Oasis songs. While his the High Flying Birds stuff is interesting, it wasn't until the eighth song of the night, Oasis's "Wonderwall," started playing that the crowd really got into the show.

Gallagher closed out the set with Oasis songs "Little By Little," "Stop Crying Your Heart Out," and "Don't Look Back In Anger," before finishing with a rousing cover of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love."

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Setlist PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, NC, USA, Summer Tour 2019

Three-fourths of the original Smashing Pumpkins (frontman Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain) hit the stage at 9:30 PM. It was great to see Iha and Corgan on the same stage again. They launched immediately into "Today" and never looked back.

They put on a killer show. The light show was amazing, the band was tight, and Corgan sounded awesome. Despite the band they were in a different city (they called us "Charlottesville" numerous time), the Charlotte crowd didn't seem to mind and begged for more.

The band played many of their fan favorites, a few newer tracks, and even a cover of James Taylor's "Fire And Rain." This show was for all the '90s kids and that fell in love with the band back then. It's time to fall back in love, because the Pumpkins still kick ass.