Nostalgia can't save Smashing show at Hill

By Jason Birchmeier

Daily Arts Writer

For many students, the recent Smashing Pumpkins show at Hill Auditorium was a nostalgic escape from finals. Much of the packed crowd were twenty-something students who had spent their late teenage years rocking to the band's two undeniable masterpieces, 1993's "Siamese Dream" and 1995's "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness."

Alternative rock icon Billy Corgan's band didn't come to Ann Arbor to revel in their past success though. They came to promote "Machina," their wonderfully creative new album that features conceptual songwriting and a dynamic array of blaring guitars. They put a heavy emphasis on the new material by playing only songs from "Machina" for the first half of the show.

Of course, not everyone in attendance was interested in hearing songs off "Machina." In fact, the album hasn't been doing well at all by Smashing Pumpkins standards. Since its debut at number three on Billboard, the album's sales have dropped exponentially, most recently falling to number 93 in its eighth week. For an idea about how poor of a position this is, consider the fact that it's sandwiched between a children's album, "Radio Disney Jams Vol. 2," and the relatively unknown metal band Kittie.

It's difficult to explain the lack of interest in the new Pumpkins album. "Machina" has some great lyrics penned by Corgan that focus on his struggles as a waning pop star. Furthermore, the music sounds amazing with the double-barrel guitar attack of Corgan and James Iha resonating with fuzzy distortion and sonic brilliance, mostly due to the production genius of Corgan, Flood and Alan Moulder.

A few songs into the band's performance at Hill, one got the sense that Smashing Pumpkins are a studio band. Their shows during the Mellon Collie tour before the infamous drug overdose had been monolithic moments of erupting guitar hedonism. But besides that interrupted tour, the band has a reputation for putting on a lackluster show. No matter how much the group invests in sound equipment and how much they concentrate on their music, they cannot possibly duplicate what they achieve behind the doors of a big-budget recording studio.

The best songs off "Machina" such as "The Everlasting Gaze" and "Stand Inside Your Love" didn't come close to matching their original luster, sounding instead like generic overdriven guitar rock. The mediocre songs off the new album sounded even worse as Corgan put more effort into being theatrical than his singing. Until the band entered the second half of their show characterized mostly by their past hits, the show was just plain sloppy.

It was at this point that Corgan strapped on his acoustic guitar and went into "Disarm." This instantly attracted the attention of everyone in attendance, many of whom had become quite disinterested with the new material if not for the wonderful light show. It must have been quite amusing for Corgan to look out at the crowd singing his song like a gigantic choir of young twenty-somethings thinking that they were teenagers once again.

The nostalgia ran deep. For "Today," Corgan pretended to sing the first verse, instead letting the crowd sing for him. Other classic songs from "Siamese Dream" such as "Cherub Rock" and "Mayonnaise" also turned into cute sing-a-longs. Here and there, the band played a few new songs such as "Try, Try, Try" and "I of the Mourning." To Corgan's delight, the crowd reacted positively to these songs thanks in part to the lingering euphoria generated by the preceding crowd favorites.

Throughout the show Corgan also managed to spew ideology to the crowd centering on the sort of topics he deals with much more lucidly on his new album. In other words, he rambled on about how popular culture and the corporate-minded music industry is trying to replace rock with new trends, speaking specifically of Britney Spears-types and commercialization.

Of course, this sort of anti-pop culture ideology is highly ironic when one remembers just how "pop culture" Corgan's band had been back in the early to mid '90s. When the band was scoring multi-platinum albums, headlining Lollapallooza, releasing unnecessary boxed sets of B-sides and having their music plastered all over MTV and commercial radio, Corgan wasn't rallying against pop culture. He was pop culture.

Now things are different. Smashing Pumpkins don't get much airplay, can't sell albums like they used to, and find that their audiences only want to hear old songs. To make things worse, the band has resorted to image-based marketing to sell their music. Corgan's head is still shaved, and his wardrobe has become so gothic to the point that it is becoming self-mocking.

The unfortunate part about the slow decay of Corgan's status as alternative rock icon is that he is writing some of the best music of his life. The new songs are nowhere near as accessible, catchy or melodic as past successes such as "Zero" and "1979," but they are much more artistic and daring. After listening closely to "Machina," one gets a sense that Corgan could now write simple pop songs such as "Disarm" in his sleep.

The current streamlining of old Smashing Pumpkins fans will be good for the band in the long run, assuming that they continue producing intelligent guitar rock rather than their past pop material. Corgan must face the fact that he is no longer the most important man in rock. No one will argue his genius as a songwriter, but only time will tell whether his ego can come to grips with modest success.

After ending the evening with a marvelously ferocious rendition of the new album's centerpiece, "Heavy Metal Machine," Corgan lingered on stage for a minute or two, thanking the crowd and shaking hands with the mass of fans flooding the front of the stage. Moments of adoration such as these may soon become a bit more rare for Corgan as his band humbles and his fans abandon pop rock. For one night though, he made many jaded U-M students remember what it felt like to be a naïve teenager again.

--Jason Birchmeier

Daily Arts Writer

Courtesy of Virgin Records

The Smashing Pumpkins, here striking some very Goth poses, tried out their new material at Hill Auditorium on April 19.