It'd be easy for a band as recognizable as the Smashing Pumpkins to spend its twilight years coasting on the material that made them torchbearers of disillusionment in the post-Nirvana '90s. But lone original member and principal songwriter Billy Corgan seems bent on proving his artistic worth nearly 20 years after his commercial breakthrough, "Siamese Dream."
With this year's surprisingly solid "Oceania," which the alt giants played in its entirety to open Saturday's show at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, Corgan has crafted a comeback record that makes senseless reinventions ("Adore") and quasi- reunion strikeouts ("Zeitgeist") forgivable. Technically an album within his "Teargarden by Kaleidyscope" project, it's the big dreamer's best work since his magnum opus "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," a Discman staple for 1995 school-bus riders.
With the first notes of battering opener "Quasar," a curtain fell to the floor revealing a massive orb that loomed over the quartet flashing digital images created by Sean Evans, who worked on Roger Waters' latest "The Wall Live" tour. The impressive spectacle felt a tad ostentatious given the half-full balcony, but never distracted from the music.
Three songs into the 2 1/2-hour set, Corgan showed he's every bit the balladeer he was in the '90s, nasally crooning "The Celestials," the lead single off "Oceania," with T-shirt sensitivity. Meanwhile, somber standouts such as "Violet Rays" and "Wildflower" slide seamlessly into the Pumpkins' catalog, harkening back to epics of old without feeling like retreads.
"I think it's going to be a good night," Corgan said after the starry "Pinwheels," copping to his reputation of being a "finicky" performer.
And for the most part it was. Even the oft-covered "Space Oddity," which kicked off the post-"Oceania" half, was well-received. But a few noodly detours and segues, as during the already lengthy screamer "X.Y.U." and a wandering "Zero" intro, could have used fat-trimming.
Gristle aside, the bulk of this rib-eye of a rock show was savory. Played back-to-back, "Disarm" and "Tonight, Tonight" carried as much urgency as ever and the angst-ridden "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" nearly recaptured the spirit of bunkering in a black-light bedroom, mad at your parents.
After a hammering rendition of "Cherub Rock" closed the pre-encore portion, Corgan and company returned with arena-weeper "Mayonaise" and "Ava Adore" before a flavorless cover of Kiss' "Black Diamond," with wunderkind drummer Mike Byrne handling vocals, capped the three-song coda. Although it was an appreciated Replacements nod (the local legends famously did the tune on "Let It Be"), it was an anticlimactic finale with hits "1979" and "Today" left on the bench.
