PUMPKINS A SMASH AFTER QUASHING MOSH
Andy Smith
Journal-Bulletin pop music writer
Let's get this out of the way up front: The nasal whine of Smashing Pumpkins lead singer Billy Corgan is not the most appealing sound in the world.
But after hearing the Smashing Pumpkins at the Providence Civic Center last night, even Corgan's singing is a little easier to take.
The Pumpkins' show ran the gamut from brutal guitar power to delicate balladry-with a remarkable command of dynamics along the way.
After heroin overdose of touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvion, the band has a new keyboard player, Dennis Flemion and a new drummer, Matt Walker. Both fit in just fine.
It's possible to quibble the show here and there-the howling "XYU" was a bore, and there was too much psychedelic noodling in the epic "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans."
But that's small cheese. The Pumpkins are an ambitious band - their last album was the sprawling two-hour double CD, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. No 35-minute punk records for them.
And they mostly have the goods to back up their ambition.
The show opened with the sweet piano overture to the album, then crashed into the screaming guitars, flashing strobes and the howled vocals of "The Bomb."
Bassist D'Arcy's taut bassline helped drive "Zero," which was followed by a melodic "Cherub Rock."
All through the first songs, people in the front rows were passing chairs back over their heads to the rear of the arena in order to clear the floor near the stage. When the band saw this, they stopped playing and turned on the lights.
The Pumpkins have become acutely conscious of crowd safety since a fan died at a concert in Ireland on May 11. Corgan told the audience to be careful passing the chairs, and spoke out strongly against moshing.
"This -- is stupid, we're tired of it," he said. As though to further discourage moshing, the Pumpkins played a very slow version of "To Forgive."
The surging "Tonight Tonight," accelerating via Walker's galloping drums, brought the energy level back up again. On "Through the Eyes of Ruby," guitarist James Iha's leads vied with Corgan's vocals before the music suddenly fell away to just vocals and drums, then built back up to a climatic guitar clamor.
A mid-show highlight was the back-to-back "Disarm," with Corgan strumming and acoustic guitar, and "Bullet With Butterfly Wings."
Despite Corgan's mopey image, the band had a little fun on stage, dissing Oasis and bringing out Walker's regular bandmate from the Minneapolis-based duo Frogs, who wore green sequined wings and goofed around during "1979."
In interviews lately, Corgan has talked about radically revamping the Pumpkins, trading in the mighty guitars for keyboards and electronic sampling.
That's tough to picture - those guitars have been mighty good to them.