Smashing Pumpkins?! Huh? Not "Smashing Eardrums" or "Smashing Body Parts?"
Currently the most popular cultural export in Chicago this side of Michael Jordan, the four-piece band managed to prove one of Newton's laws right Monday night - when an immovable object (usually fickle Salt Lake crowds) met an irresistable force (the Pumpkins's brand of crunching, yet droning pop-rock), something gave, and it was the jammed State Fairpark Coliseum crowd, which turned into a claustrophobic's nightmare.Unlike others in the drone ilk (like Scotland's Jesus and Mary Chain), though, the Pumpkins add punkish and metallic spices - concocting a feedback-heavy brew that is nothing like anything else heard in Chicago's burgeoning underground scene (which seems to believe that if it's noisy it's good).
Live, the band did nothing to tarnish its fine reputation, especially with crisp musicianship (in particular, underrated bassist D'Arcy Wertzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin) and with a magnetic presence up front (vocalist/guitarist Billy Corgan).
Touring on the strength of their major-label debut, "Siamese Dream" (the record Nirvana should have made), Smashing Pumpkins played music that just dares you to resist its charms.
Twin-guitared (from Corgan and James Iha) crowd-pleasers like "Geek U.S.A.," "Drown," "Today" and "Cherub Rock" turned the general-admission floor into a sea of "modern-rock moshers" (the same fans who bump around into each other at shows even if the music doesn't call for it).
However, the evening's best moments may have come from more subtle, quiet numbers like "Soma," "Luna" and "Disarm." In particular, the latter featured Corgan's best performance - taking the point of a view of a soldier, who pleads for peace ("What's a boy supposed to do?/The killer in me is the killer in you") and decries his lost innocence ("I used to be a little boy/So old in my shoes"). It was a somewhat moving moment from an increasing proficient band.
Overall, even the most hard-hearted music fan (including this narrow-minded, stubborn critic) had to be moved somewhat. I guess you'd have to qualify the evening a smashing success (ouch!).
Alas, the night's opening act wasn't nearly as delightful. Shudder to Think, a four-piece band out of Washington, D.C., managed to distance its sound from any other band in the nation's capital (its straight-edge punk-rock has a decided pop flavor to it). Unfortunately, the band doesn't have any of the tools to pull that move off (like good, hook-filled songwriting or decent singing).
For example, the band's singer managed to use two different vocal approaches through their much-too-long set - one a monotone mumble and the other a ridiculously dramatic, near-bass roar.
It sounds mean, but if anything these guys deserved the fate that befell the fine Seattle neo-metal act the Melvins (who were booed offstage last week by classless and clueless Primus fans). Many in the crowd were left wondering if the band was well-named (as in, "I shudder to think why these guys have a recording contract).