The Metro — Chicago (Smashing Pumpkins)

The Metro at 3730 North Clark Street in Chicago's Wrigleyville neighbourhood is the venue most closely associated with the Smashing Pumpkins and with Chicago's alternative rock scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'arcy Wretzky, and Jimmy Chamberlin — who formed the Smashing Pumpkins in Chicago in 1988 — played the Metro repeatedly in their early years, building a local following and developing the maximalist rock sound that would distinguish them from their Seattle contemporaries when alternative rock broke commercially in 1991. The Metro was where they were discovered by their audience and where their identity as a Chicago band was established.

The Smashing Pumpkins' Chicago origins gave them a different character from the Pacific Northwest grunge bands with whom they were commercially grouped: Corgan's songwriting drew on glam rock, heavy metal, and dream pop alongside the loud-quiet-loud dynamics associated with alternative rock, and the band's ambitions — musically and in terms of sheer scale of production — exceeded what the grunge aesthetic typically accommodated. 'Siamese Dream' (1993), produced by Butch Vig at Triclops Sound Studios in Atlanta, was a wall-of-sound record of overwhelming density; 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' (1995), recorded partly in Chicago, was a double album of genuine conceptual ambition that sold over twenty million copies.

The Metro continues to operate as one of Chicago's most active and historically significant mid-size venues, hosting approximately 300 shows per year in a 1,100-capacity room. The building has been a venue since 1982 and retains its original character as a converted theatre. It is directly across from Wrigley Field and has hosted virtually every significant alternative and indie act of the past four decades alongside its role as the home stage for Chicago artists. The Smashing Pumpkins have returned to play the Metro at career retrospective moments throughout their history.