No Muzzle on This Set

by Vaibhav Mangrulkar

I had mixed feelings the week of the Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie & Infinite Sadness concert in the Continental Airlines Arena, New Jersey. Perhaps the disappointment during the summer, when Jonathan Melvoin had died due to an overdose and Jimmy Chamberlain parted with the band, was the cause. It didn't seem like the "new look" Smashing Pumpkins could match the band that I had known for five years.

After Grant Lee Buffalo began the night with their set, the Pumpkins opened theirs with Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness, which stirred an incredible amount of excitement. There wasn't much moshing during this song, but then again there wasn't much moshing during the entire concert. As soon as there was a sign of someone bodysurfing, security intervened. Therefore, it was a relatively quiet night in terms of audience activity, but that definitely didn't hold back the Pumpkins.

The set list included songs from Gish, Siamese Dream, and MCIS. Billy Corgan, the Pumpkins' lead singer, even pulled out his acoustic guitar for Disarm, which the audience especially liked. Among other songs, they played Cherub Rock, Today, 1979, Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Siva, Zero, and Tonight Tonight. At the beginning, the timing of the band members seemed to be off because Walker, who is used to the hard rock/metal sound of Filter, didn't get the drum rolls in Cherub Rock right and Corgan didn't appear to be comfortable singing in harmony with the music.

The strange part was that the band seemed unattached to the fans. D'arcy, the bass player, and Walker didn't say anything during the concert. When Corgan and James Iha, the other guitarist, finally spoke to everyone after about the fourth song, they were really terse. Corgan said something about being told that New Jerseyans never get into the music, but quickly said that that was not true. Iha committed the unthinkable error by saying "it's great to be back in New York!" but corrected himself later by saying that "New Jerseyans are crazy as usual."

Aside from that, the Pumpkins' music had an enormous effect on the audience. I could hear people singing along and cheering at every moment. I was disappointed because they didn't play Muzzle at this venue. But, that was fine because the Pumpkins mixed in their new songs and old songs. They even played Disconnected, which was hard to recognize at first, and Silverfuck, the 25-mnute entree of sonic stew, which was the final encore performance in the show.

Overall, I thought that the venue was a great experience. I had heard from quite a few people that the Pumpkins weren't so great live, but though that may have been the case for their interaction, their music didn't lack anything at all.