Smashing Pumpkins For the better part of the last decade, Smashing Pumpkins has been the muse of guitarist/songwriter/vocalist Billy Corgan, the only remaining original membe. Corgan now pretty much operates on his mood of the hour, intentionally writing songs that linger. The signature guitar-riffing still permeates, but mysticism, strings, acoustic balladry and piano also weave in and out of the swirl. With Kill Hannah and Bad City. $40, The Fillmore Charlotte, www.livenation.com (Samir Shukla)
\
Mike Strauss Band Strauss has firmly established his songcraft while recording and performing regionally over the past several years. His Southern roots rock taps Warren Zevon on the shoulder and then strolls right on down country and blues byways. He's got a scrap band of regional music veterans backing him up, including Randolph Lewis, and his latest recording, Ideal Road, is solid throughout. Also on the bill: Truckstop Preachers. $10, Double Door Inn, doubledoorinn.com (Shukla)
\
Illicitizen Bands that meld together lots of styles of music are usually either A) lauded, more often than not if they're a younger band, and thus "reveling in their influences" or B) vilified, for not mastering a particular style. Illicitizen's Eric Cavanaugh, a Charlotte music scene veteran (The Blots, the vastly-underrated-at-the-time Frocky Jack) suggests a third paradigm: an open-minded bandleader who enjoys throwing his phonetical fishbasket into the sea and making dinner with whatever happens to come up. Not to further a food analogy, but think of it as cooking with seasonal, if not regional, ingredients, and putting together something that works: in this case, the songs themselves. Free, Keg & Cue, www.myspace.com/kegandcue (Timothy C. Davis)
\
John Mayer Since coming out of Atlanta some 10 years back, John Mayer has certainly cemented his place in the pop firmament he's dated starlets a-plenty, compared his dong to David Duke, won Grammys and, along the way, actually made some decent music. He certainly has energy (and self-confidence) to burn, which leads to the seeming dichotomy of his recorded output a yer-body-is-a-wonderland here, a blues trio record there. He's a ripper on guitar when he decides to be, but it's his pop work that will likely be his legacy. Think that sounds odd? Consider Eric Clapton as a career best-case-scenario, but then no one's ever referred to Mayer as God, much less sexual napalm. $36-$69.50, Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, www.livenation.com (Davis)