Smashing Pumpkins bring The World is a Vampire Tour to Kansas City. What to know
Wednesday may be the greatest day Smashing Pumpkins fans in Kansas City have ever known.
The ‘90s alternative rock band will perform at Starlight Theatre Wednesday with special guest PVRIS as a part of their The World is a Vampire Tour.
Kansas City marks the 11th stop on the tour, which gets its name from the opening lyrics of “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” the lead single from their 1995 double album “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.”
Best known for ‘90s hits such as “Today” and “1979”, the Billy Corgan-led group has undergone many lineup changes over their 30-plus years on the scene. Kansas City can expect to see co-founding guitarist James Iha and long-time drummer Jimmy Chamberlin on stage, along with touring members Jack Bates on bass, Katie Cole on keys and guitar, and Kiki Wong, who joined as a touring guitarist following an open casting call earlier this year.
This will be the band’s first time performing in Kansas City since their Shiny and Oh So Bright tour came to T-Mobile Center (then Sprint Center) six years ago.
The band’s 13th studio album, “Aghori Mhori Mei,” dropped earlier this month. The new album draws inspiration from Smashing Pumpkins’ first few albums.
“In the writing of this new album I became intrigued with the well-worn axiom, ‘you can’t go home again’,” Corgan said in a statement about the album. “Which I have found personally to be true in form but thought well, what if we tried anyway? Not so much in looking backwards with sentimentality but rather as a means to move forward; to see if in the balance of success and failure that our ways of making music circa 1990-1996 would still inspire something revelatory.”
“You’ve got to find the thing that made you want to rock in the first place,” Corgan told Loudwire’s Chuck Armstrong on the podcast Loudwire Nights.
How much are tickets for The Smashing Pumpkins?
Limited tickets are still available for The Smashing Pumpkins’ show on Starlight’s website. The prices vary on the seat you choose:
Terrace: $39.50 to $59.50
Plaza: $59.50 to $119.50
Orchestra and Box: $149.50
Seats are also available on resale sites like SeatGeek, StubHub and Vivid Seats.
Tickets for Starlight shows are distributed as mobile tickets which you can share with others and add to your Apple wallet.
You can access your tickets on wallet.kcstarlight.com from any device and enter your email address. You will need to make an account and register your email if you haven’t used the website before.
Your tickets will be visible when you log in. If you’re holding all the tickets for your group, you can share them individually by entering the first and last name of the person you are sharing with and selecting the ticket you are sharing. Then, click or tap on the “Share with Guest” button and select the recipient from your contacts.
The QR codes regenerate every 30 seconds, so do not print a screenshot or save the image to your phone. Those codes will not scan at entry.
What can I bring inside Starlight Theatre?
New to Starlight Theatre as of this year is a clear bag policy. It’s similar to the policy enforced by the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Visitors can only bring in:
Bags that are clear plastic, vinyl or PVC and do not exceed 12 inches by 6 inches by 12 inches
One-gallon clear zip-seal bag (Ziploc bag or similar)
Small clutch bags that do not exceed 4.5 inches by 6.5 inches
Exceptions will be made for medically necessary items after proper inspection, Starlight said.
Where can I park for the show?
There is a bit more color around the Starlight Theatre parking lots for 2024. The venue worked with the Kansas City Zoo to create shared parking signage.
Instead of animal names, the lots are now named by color:
Zebra Lot is now Yellow Lot
Cheetah Lot is now Red Lot
Lot A is now Blue Lot
There are also the orange and green parking lots in the area.
General parking is still free at Starlight, or you can pay $30 for premium parking.
