Smashing Pumpkins - Gibson Amphitheatre, Los Angeles, CA - 12/02/08

On the first night of their two-night stand in Los Angeles, dubbed “Black Sunshine,” the show began with Jimmy Chamberlain taking to his drums and offering up a powerful solo turn known as “Roctopus.” My seat was in the section behind the pit and as I stood I could feel the sonic waves from his bass drums crashing into me.

The rest of the band came out; the touring band from If All Goes Wrong (guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes-Pooley, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton) has increased to include two horn players (trumpeter Stephen Bradley and trombonist Gabrial McNair), a violinist (Gingger Shankar), and a multi-instrument (Kris Pooley). Billy Corgan appeared in a white dress and sun-shaped headdress, looking a bit like Perry Farrell and singing The Searchers’ “Everybody Clap Your Hands,” a peppy and upbeat number. For a moment, the proceedings created an aura of a Las Vegas show, but that dissipated quickly as the band got serious about rocking the house. The pummeling force of Chamberlain’s drums anchored “Tarantula.” “G.L.O.W.” was a bass-heavy number. The first big reaction from the fans of the old stuff came when the band went back into the catalog for “Siva.” “Eye” from The Lost Highway lost its electronic sound and was given the guitar-rock treatment.

“Tonight, Tonight” showed off the entire band’s talents as they created a perfect rendition of this majestic orchestral number. Things finally slowed down on “Speed Kills,” showing a softer side, but not for long as they erupted into the powerful combo of “Superchrist”/“United States.” The bass and drum started off as a killer twosome before the entire band joined in. The light show matched the intensity of the music, almost creating too much stimulation, causing the need at moments to look away and squint. Members of the band trickled off, until it was just Chamberlain and Corgan dueling, like they have for 20 years, with them finishing off the song by revealing their inner Hendrix with a rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

As the band returned, they gathered close together in a small circle. Before getting going, Corgan started to talk about his knowledge of the local freeways, giving the audience a kick. He segued into joking around about Sammy Hagar. Schroeder intended to play under his conversation, but Corgan quickly called him out for playing Roth-era Van Halen. Audience members understanding an acoustic portion was coming began to sit down, causing Corgan to playfully chastise them about it because they were so old. He understood it wasn’t the ‘90s anymore. Just give up, he tells everyone. It’s so easy to do. He announced they were going to play something off Adore, and points out that this was when the fans gave up on them, giving Chamberlain a laugh and drawing a couple of hisses from the crowd. He then pointed out that the band gave up on the fans in 2000. Harriton’s keyboards took the lead on “Once Upon a Time.”

After a couple of more songs in that setting, they returned to the loud rock. As they began “Today,” Corgan had the audience sing the opening chorus. They then followed with another huge hit, “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.” Many people loved this one-two punch of classic Pumpkins — except Corgan. His singing of the question, “But can you fake it / For just one more show?” struck a chord because his vocals on both songs sounded forced and sloppy, as if he was pissed to play such big hits. I know there has been an artistic struggle of walking the line between doing what he wants and giving the audience what it wants , but are people expected to apologize because they love these songs (which he created) so much?

The expectations on a band are a tango between performer and audience. No one forced Corgan to reform Smashing Pumpkins. I know he said he wanted his songs back, but Roger Waters and David Gilmour each tour under their respective names and are able to pack the setlists with Pink Floyd tunes. Calling it an “Anniversary Tour” creates connotations of a celebration of the past. Besides, Corgan chose to wear his iconic Zero shirt, and while it may well have been completely subconscious on his part, when the touring band plays as a foursome, they look like the previous version of the band, with a woman on bass and an Asian-American fellow on guitar. Both are very talented musicians and are absolutely deserving of their place on stage, but surely I can’t be the only one who noticed the similarity. The bottom line is if you don’t want to play certain songs, don’t, but be prepared to deal with the effects on audience turnout.

Chamberlain’s thunderous drums returned on “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning.” Corgan incorporated rock influences into “Heavy Metal Machine” as he sang the ELP line “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends,” then offering up his own Van Halen take by playing a part of the instrumental “Eruption.” “Glass” was played at a punk-rock pace.

The set ended with a brilliant cover of Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.” After all the lyrics were done, they ventured through a glorious musical universe of their mutual creation. Corgan moved onto kettledrums; Reyes-Pooley played her bass with a bow; Schroeder manipulated a theremin; McNair’s trumpet had a mute giving him a Bitches Brew sound. Then at one point, everyone in front of a microphone grabbed some device that made bird noises, bringing to mind another Floyd song, “Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict.” They returned to playing their instruments and Corgan began scraping his guitar against the edges of the kettledrum. The band began to trail off, finally leaving Corgan alone. He set the guitar to feed back onto itself and walked off. It was a spectacular performance and the highlight of the night. I hope it was captured in some manner because I would love to experience it again.

For an encore, the band came out to the front of the stage and sang “We Only Come Out At Night” backed by keyboards and an accordion. They closed with an instrumental of “Close to You” on kazoos, and Corgan thanked everyone for attending.

Considering their body of work, Smashing Pumpkins did a great job covering their catalog while clearly demonstrating the new material stands right alongside of it. This was a marvelous concert on its own, even though the two-night stands are connected. I can’t imagine night two in L.A. matching this one because of how high they set the bar, but I wouldn’t bet against the band’s talents after seeing this performance and would have loved a chance to find out.

Setlist:
Roctopus
Everybody Clap Your Hands
Tarantula
G.L.O.W.
Siva
Eye
Mayonaise
Tonight, Tonight
Speed Kills
Stand Inside Your Love
Superchrist
United States
Once Upon a Time
The Crux
The Rose March
Today
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
The Beginning is the End is the Beginning
Heavy Metal Machine
Glass
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Encore:
We Only Come Out at Night
Close to You

Smashing Pumpkins: If All Goes Wrong

Back in June 2005 when his solo album TheFutureEmbrace debuted, Billy Corgan took out full-page ads in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce he had “made plans to renew and revive the [‘90s alternative rock band] Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams.”

Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was the only former member to join Corgan. In May 2007, Smashing Pumpkins began to perform in Europe with touring members guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and Lisa Harriton on keyboards. Two multi-night residencies for that summer were announced: nine shows at the Orange Peel in Ashville, North Carolina and eleven at The Fillmore in San Francisco, California. If All Goes Wrong captures Smashing Pumpkins on stage and off during the residencies. During this time, they also released the album Zeitgeist on July 7, 2007.

The first disc in the set is the documentary. It is very interesting because it lays bare the struggles of Corgan as an artist trying to find his place as the advantages and disadvantages of previous successes skew people’s expectations. With an off-screen interviewer, Corgan discusses the absence of former Pumpkins James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky, an issue that had to be dealt with and he gives what appear to be his honest reactions.

In Asheville, Corgan composes new music alone that is played later in the evening by the whole band. Audience members provide their reactions. Corgan interacts with fans on the street and walks that fine line between appreciating their appreciation of his previous work, yet struggling with their not allowing him to be anything else. Some artists, like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, just say screw it, I am going to follow my own path and you can come if you like. The Who’s Pete Townshend, interviewed for this project, offers a great perspective on this dilemma of fans locking certain music or an artist to a particular moment in time, like a fly in amber.

In San Francisco, Corgan continues to create new music; however, the band picks up on a different vibe from the city. It might be because San Franciscans live in a city that gets so many artists passing through that they have different expectations than the folks who made their way to Asheville, causing them to not be as forgiving or open. No doubt, the poor review a newspaper critic gave one show adds to their feeling of dread. This vibe manifests itself in the band one night when Schroeder’s equipment doesn’t work and out of frustration he slams his guitar to the stage and walked off.

Combined with performance clips, If All Goes Wrong is a very good look at an artist trying to forge a new path while trying to satisfy both himself and the audience. This could easily have been a fluff piece that just showed Corgan in a positive light, but he allowed for a complete picture to be shown. One day in a park, Corgan talks about wanting to move forward and not backward, but then that begs the question that was not asked but should have been, “why use the name Smashing Pumpkins?”

This disc contains two bonus features: “Voices Of The Ghost Children” is the “fan on the street” interviews, and there is more interview material with Pete Townshend.

Disc 2 presents about two hours of the Fillmore residency taken from different nights, including seven new songs, some of which are not available anywhere else. The set opens with Corgan alone with an acoustic guitar for “The Rose March.” For “Peace+Love” a harmonica and Harriton on keyboards is added to the arrangement. The rest of the band comes out for “99 Floors.” Corgan starts and then the rest of the band slowly makes their way into the song, laying a nice groove underneath him.

“Blues Skies Bring Tears” has more of the rock sound Pumpkins fans are familiar with. “Superchrist” is the band as a very powerful, driving force of rock. In the documentary Corgan talked about getting people to pay attention with this song, and it works. Their 30-minute epic “Gossamer” begins the encore, and while I can see how some might lose interest due to having short-attention spans, I found it to be an interesting and enjoyable piece. They have allegedly retired it from their sets.

None of the Pumpkins hits make the setlist, but those with a deeper knowledge of the band’s catalog may recognize “Starla” from the 1994 B-sides album Pisces Iscariot, “Untitled” from 2001’s greatest-hits compilation Rotten Apples, and “Winterlong” from 2001’s B-sides album Judas Ø. During “Heavy Metal Machine,” the band offers a nod to San Francisco’s past by playing part of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.” This disc is a great way to see if you like the band’s current ensemble and direction without paying high concert prices and dealing with traffic.

The bonus feature is over 30 minutes of rehearsals from 7/27/07 with the band on the Fillmore floor facing each other in a circle. Two songs of the five, “Mama” and “Promise Me,” don’t appear in the Residency concert.