Smashing Pumpkins deliver a blistering set

DETROIT – On this, the “Sacred and Profane” tour, The Smashing Pumpkins have no opening band. They don’t need one.
The Pumpkins are at a point in their career when the people who show up to their shows are all out die-hard fans, and an opening band would be nothing more than a distraction from the main attraction. That, or the more likely case that Billy is too much of an egomaniac to share the bill with anyone.
Either way, Saturday night the kids who packed the State Fair Coliseum were treated to a ball-breaking two hour-plus dose of the rock, which specifically catered to those in the audience who pretty much gave up other music when they started listening to the Pumpkins.
Though no material from the band’s debut album, “Gish,” saw the light of day, an obscure B-side or two and a few unexpected gems from 1998′s underappreciated “Adore” did, making for an intimate and special show on what is rumored to be the Pumpkins’ last go-round.
With inhabitant of his own strange planet James Iha, superdrummer Jimmy Chamberlin and recent addition Melissa Auf Der Maur (who was busting the rock poses D’Arcy never dared) all on 10, the Pumpkins bench played with the fury of an unsigned band looking for their big break. But to the surprise of absolutely no one (especially himself), it was to be the Billy Corgan Show, which he acknowledged early on by arrogantly tapping his index finger to the side of his bald head, as if to say, “Yeah, I know I’m a friggin’ genius.” (His genius was not on display with regards to his apparel, however, as he was draped in a flowing black leather gown, which looked like it was stolen from the wardrobe trailer of Alex Proyas’ “Dark City.”)
Live, The Smashing Pumpkins are a jam band, as they expand on most every song in the setlist by adding improvised rants (“what if you found out your parents and everyone you know is gay?”) and screeching, distortion-laced guitar sessions to their close. This proves most satisfying for fans who love them to death, but just can’t take hearing the same old “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” one more time.
Completely out of the blue, The Smashing Pumpkins opened with a cover of “Rock On,” the song made famous to kids our age by the late-’80s cover by soap star-cum pop star Michael Damien. As Billy sang “Hey, kids, rock and roll/ rock on” and gave the crowd the universal “rock” sign with his hands, everyone responded with cheers of adoration. They then rolled into “The Everlasting Gaze,” one of the many songs off their new “MACHINA/ the machines of God” they’d play throughout the night.
“Tear,” off of “Adore,” was a special surprise, as was “MACHINA’s” warming “Try, Try, Try,” which especially hit home with its multiple Detroit props. But the night’s most touching moment came when Billy introduced his “friend and partner,” James Iha, as he passed the mic to him for a rousing rendition of Iha’s finest hour in “Blew Away.”
“Disarm” and “Blank Page” were performed during a short acoustic set, as the first set closed with a 15-odd minute conglomeration of “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and The Talking Heads’ “Once In A Lifetime.”
The crowd cheered them back to the tune of two encores, the first of which was highlighted by a touching “Mayonaise,” wherein Billy reached his arms to the sky as he sang “mother weep the years I’m missing/ all our time can’t be given back.”
Also thrown into the mix was a blinding “Heavy Metal Machine,” which was accompanied by an assault of strobe lights and manic screams courtesy of Mr. Corgan. “An Ode To No One’ also provided Billy with ample opportunity to scream his bic’d head off, as did the early “Glass and the Ghost Children.”
But the fragile lyrics of some “MACHINA” numbers seemed to hit a little too close to home on a number of occasions, especially when he pleas “radio, please don’t go away” on “I Of The Mourning.” Because the fact of the matter is that radio has gone away, as have a number of fans who failed to show up to fill the tiny State Fair Coliseum (which usually hosts circuses), whose entire back portion remained mysteriously empty.
But all that seems to bother Billy a lot more than it does the fans, who were climbing over each other at show’s end as Billy came stage left to slap hands with a lucky few.
These are the same people who attended all five Michigan shows on the “Mellon Collie” tour, the same people who waited for hours in the Ann Arbor rain for the mere opportunity to shake hands with their musical hero last February.
If Billy and the Pumpkins do indeed decide to hang it up, the “Sacred and Profane” tour is an excellent last hurrah. But from the looks of things, the fans just aren’t ready to give them up, and let’s hope that Billy has taken note.
But if worse comes to worse, he can always hire Moby to open for them.