Smashing Pumpkins' deafening homecoming
Billy Corgan is lucky that local Smashing Pumpkins fans remain as loyal as they are.
After all, not many alternative rock acts can return with a new album seven years after breaking up, not play in their hometown for more than a year after that, then air a set crammed with noisy, noncanonical material and still be received like gods.
Tuesday witnessed Smashing Pumpkins' first Chicago concert since December 2000. 41-year-old Glendale Heights native Corgan led his current lineup (longtime drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, plus guitarist Jeff Schroeder and bassist Ginger Reyes) through the first of two consecutive shows at the Chicago Theatre. This set was dubbed "Black Sunshine," while Wednesday night's will be called "White Crosses."
Perhaps fitting the set's title, Tuesday evening often drew from the louder corners of the Pumpkins catalog. "Tarantula," the lead single from last year's "Zeitgeist," ushered in the band's famed crunch, Corgan's metal soloing enhancing the track's tuneful stomp. Later, the volume from a battery of winds, keys and violin pushed the lovely "Tonight, Tonight" into suitably gigantic territory, and Chamberlin's tribal attack rattled teeth on new song "Superchrist." Corgan's shoegaze influences got a few nods, most impressively in early favorite "Siva" and its earsplitting psychedelic tangent.
Unfortunately, repeated returns to the acid freakout didn't work out so well, with a drawn-out "United States" flailing petulantly and a stiff cover of Pink Floyd's experimental classic "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" that refused to end as Corgan's mannered squeal drained all the song's subtle menace.
Fan favorites "Mayonaise," "Today" and "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" all sounded rushed, yet the band made time for this noodling!
Thriving on gothic excess and oversized emotions, Smashing Pumpkins was never very good at "stripped down." Thus, the show really hit the skids during a three-song acoustic stretch. However, they're great at "subdued," so soundtrack songs like the atmospheric downer pop of "Eye" and the electro-tinged drama of "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" provided rich, stately breathers among the anonymous deep cut caterwauling ("G.L.O.W.," "Transformer," "Glass"). These provided some hope for Wednesday's set, which should see the band focusing on more tuneful material.