Pumpkins Take Charitable Risks
By Letta Taylor
8/1/98 review
New York Newsday
Thanks to Eve for the review.
The crowning moment at the Smashing Pumpkins charity concert at Radio City Music Hall Saturday night was it's final encore. A blistering, distortion filled cover of joy Divisions transmission, it ended in a riveting electronic meltdown with frontman Billy Corgan ranting about interplanetary invasions, soullessness and Monica lewinsky.
Then Corgan, guitarist James Iha and bassist D'arcy brought three fans on stage and handed them their instruments (an ecstatic girl who looked to be about 8 strummed on Corgan's guitar) before they exited. The encore had all the right elements: surprise, excitement, raw energy,generosity and above all terrific musical interplay. But it wasn't enough to carry the Pumpkins maddeningly uneven two hour performance, in which they often sounded like they were searching for a new sonic identity.
On their latest album Adore, the Pumpkins moved away from the bombarding arena rock that had made them one of the biggest alternative bands of the decade. In place of angst driven guitar sprawl, Adore offered brooding lullabies and industrial quasi rockers that explored various facets of love.
But at radio city, the Pumpkins seemed unsure of Adore as they were of their previous sound. Although the set focused almost exclusively on material from Adore, the band rearranged many of the new songs to make them fuller, louder and more dissonant. In the process, many of them lost their intimacy yet failed to achieve the sweeping grandeur of the bands earlier work. Admittedly, intimacy wasn't necessarily what you'd want from corgan. he looked like a vampire with his pallid face, shaved head, pointed ears and black garb, and he sounded even creepier as he snarled lines like Its you that I adore and you'll always be my whore from Ava Adore.
Three of the four older songs that the band played-all off its 1995 double disc opus Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness-were also dramatically reshaped with more success. Tonight, Tonight became a lovely acoustic strummer, Bullet With Butterfly Wings was effectively revved up to blistering space age punk. But a rawer, faster remake of 1979 laced emotional pull.
The band's sound might have jelled more frequently if it had not been for some oddball contributions from guest musicians. keyboardist Mike Garson's jazz, classical, and broadway solos were incongruous. relentless pummeling from two percussionists and veteran drummer kenny Arnoff often dulled the sound instead of adding texture.
But you got the sense that the Pumpkins were bent on overturning any preconceived notions of who they are. If that was their goal they succeeded and they deserve credit for taking risks. The Pumpkins also deserve credit for altruism. the band is donating all proceeds-not just net profits from its current 14 stop tour to youth oriented charities. the recipient of its radio City shows is Hale house, a Harlem bases non-profit that cares for children. Before the encore a fawning New york City council speaker Pete Vallone came on stage to praise the Pumpkins philanthropy and handed the ghoulish Corgan a proclamation declaring Aug. 1-2 "Smashing Pumpkins Weekend" in gotham. It was a surreal twist in a show filled with surprises.