Concert review: Corgan delivers Smashing Pumpkins music with a dose of pessimism, optimism

The last time The Smashing Pumpkins performed in Columbus — in Value City Arena August 2018 — the band played 32 songs during more than three hours, extending familiar tunes from their early days with spacey jams. That tour celebrated the return of founding guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin.

With a far shorter set in Kemba Live last night — one hour and forty-five minutes before encore — the group delivered a tour of its 30-plus year songbook that was simply a fine, solid rock 'n' roll show, one that testified to the five musician’s history together. It is fitting that the tour is titled “Rock Invasion 2.”

The Pumpkins set the rocking tone from the opening tune, “Colour Of Love” from their most recent album, 2020’s “Cyr.” It also represented the way lead singer and songwriter Billy Corgan consistently undercuts the essentially hopeful romanticism of his catalogue. For every wildly idyllic picture of love and life, there are another three declarations of doubt and pessimism.

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Corgan took the stage in a long black robe with his black combat boots, shaved head and what looked like a big fish hook painted on his forehead, his presence was downright vampiric. His singing was strong as ever: passionate, supple and snarly all at once.

If the second song, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” doubled-down on the dark side, the follow-up “Today” countered with Corgan’s obsession with the ecstatic possibilities of living in the moment. It also sealed the bond with the audience as they sang along loudly.

Corgan and guitarists Iha and Jeff Schroeder mostly kept their solos compact, with the frontman contributing a concise but smoking guitar solo in “Drown.” Schroeder added —as Corgan said — “a little Eddie Van Halen” to one tune. Iha was off the hook in the metal crusher “Zero,” and Corgan and Iha got nicely spacey together in “Solara.”

The guitar jam at the end of “Eye,” though, just sounded tacked on for dramatic effect.

Interestingly, one of the evening’s highlights came with band founders Corgan and Iha strapping on acoustic guitars for a lovely reading of the euphoric “Tonight, Tonight,” which the singer dedicated to the audience and its loyalty for more than 30 years. It was a sentiment echoed a few songs later when Corgan noted that last night marked the 31st anniversary of the release of the band’s debut album “Gish.” Promising something special to mark the milestone, the band launched into “Snail,” a song that according to Corgan the group rarely performs live.

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If the band’s aim was simply to provide a night of fun and powerful rock 'n' roll, it succeeded. “It’s Saturday night in Columbus,” Corgan declared, “There’s gonna’ be some children made.” Later, in “If There Is A God,” he sang, “If there is a God/I know he likes to rock.”

In interviews in 2020, Corgan said the group’s next album would be an epic completion to the dramatic arc begun with 1995’s ambitious double album “Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness.” That was repeated by Schroeder more recently, who said the sprawling project is now mostly recorded. If the group tours it, there’s a good chance the shows will be more like 2018 and less like 2022.

Promising Columbus band AEIR — recently signed to Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins’ new label Perkins Palace — opened last night’s concert with a short but energetic set that ended with a cover of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.”

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins offer solid night of rock 'n' roll