Review of SP/Garbage in Hartford, CT 11/1/96
Taken from the Hartford Courant 11/3/96
'Pumpkins' Smashing In Sellout Performance - by Roger Catlin
(Transcribed by Brian Hracyk)
Nothing was going to stop Billy Corgan and his band, Smashing Pumpkins, from reaching its rock heights - not even a horrible night last July when the touring keyboardist died of a drug overdose and their drummer was arrested for possession.
The tour was delayed for some weeks, but the Pumpkins were back on the road with replacements. And when the band slammed into the Civic Center Friday for a sellout show, the glee on Corgan's face could hardly be avoided.
Corgan grew up with the influences of past generations of arena rock, so the Pumpkins show is particularly well-suited to the jumbo size. Besides, with a pair of multiplatinum albums in a row, the last of which was a double-album, there are lots of hits to fill up the room.
"Zero" was the third song played on the set dominated by a huge tower of lights; "Tonight Tonight" was fifth, with the original 1902 Georges Melies "A Trip to the Moon" footage that was the basis for their award-winning video flickering behind them.
Corgan said that he and bassist D'Arcy Wretsky were fighting illness and he couldn't hear particularly well; it barely affected the show, although his yowl sometimes sounded ragged.
As piercing as many of the rockers were - all of them played, like "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," at a breakneck pace - the heart of the show featured a long psychedelic number, "Porcelina of the Vast Ocean." Its extended jams were accented by a vivid light show, dropping in fleeting images of the musicians from fixed cameras on stage.
The show ended at 11p.m., after a second encore that seemed to be entirely jamming ("Everyone just go home now," Corgan said at one point. "This is getting worse.")
The noodling seemed to suit the band. With the bright colors behind them and the expansive music they were making, they almost sounded as if they were in a band from San Francisco on the '60s, rather than Chicago in the '90s.
It was a nicely varied show, though; right after "Porcelina," Corgan picked up an acoustic guitar for a version of the stirring - and concise - "Disarm."
While some of the songs kept their seething anger, Corgan kidded himself and the crowd in a few discourses, one of which concerned the unluckiness of the band's name come Halloween, and another some banter with guitarist James Iha about the elections.
But things turned absolutely goofy when Jimmy Flemion, the brother of fill-in keyboardist of the Frogs, came out in a sparkly green winged suit to select volunteer audience dancers and swoop around during a nutty version of "1979" that still rocked in the first encore.
"We appreciate that you understand why we are the kooky way we are," Corgan told the Hartford crowd.
Still, he chided those who left early after "hearing the MTV hits" and praised the "true Pumpkin fans" who stayed. But he would have served them a little better with, instead of the jam, another song, such as the upcoming single "Thirty-Three."
The show started strongly as well with a bracing set from Garbage, the Milwaukee group with arresting lead singer Shirley Manson. The band's strong debut album provided the material for the 40-minute set, with the highlights their own hits, "Queer," "Stupid Girl" and "I'm Only Happy When it Rains.