So do you want bleak? As the new Smashing Pumpkins DVD opens, a crushing sense of inevitability and despair overtakes viewers as Billy Corgan recounts, “I’m obsessed with the concept that, just as I’m about to get out of Hell, I seem to find my way back in. There was that feeling about getting back into the band like I’m sort of re-singing on to the army for a set of experiences that I know I don’t want.”
Bold and dramatic words from a man that, when it comes right down to it, are utter nonsense and twaddle. Corgan is, after all, the singer for the Smashing Pumpkins and, since that band’s dissolution in 2000 both he and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin have embarked upon solo projects. It stands to reason then that the singer’s defeated outlook is unwarranted; if he feels that way, he wasn’t obligated to reconvene the band and so one to wonder if he wasn’t simply either fulfilling some masochistic urge or he craves the implied pity that his fans afford him when he “does it all again.”
Captured at the Pumpkins’ residency dates (nine shows at The Orange Peel in North Carolina, eleven at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Fransisco) upon reforming in 2007, the documentary portion of If All Goes Wrong actually has less to do with the performances and more to do with Corgan’s songwriting process; holed up in a hotel room scribbling new songs unendingly while simultaneously being confronted with perceived adversity and public revulsion because the band is not the same entity it was fifteen years ago; Corgan calls it growth and trying not to indulge the past, but there are moments (like during the on-video interview where a frustrated Corgan lobs his acoustic guitar across the room) when it seems like an extended exercise in avoidance with the singer transferring the regret of long-passed actions onto anything and everything but himself in order to absolve himself of any wrongdoing and thus sustain his ego and the fragile microcosm he’s fabricated for himself where he is always – without fail – the victim.
As the film progresses, the new members (keyboardist Lisa Harriton, guitarist Jeff Schroeder and bassist Ginger Reyes) are introduced before the vibes get progressively more oppressive as, after the release of Zeitgeist, the Smashing Pumpkins arrive in San Fransisco to play The Fillmore.
The saga continues in San Fransisco where again, Corgan petulantly tests concert-goers by playing very long, cumbersome sets characterized by extended, jammy songs that no one knows and with no explanation forthcoming because there isn’t one formulated. Like the documentary film itself, the sets boil down to vanity; straddling the line between “artist” (which would negate asking for a pay cheque because it’s a personal journey – by Corgan’s own comments – that other people find value in after the art’s completion) and “performer” (being the outgoing endeavor put forth to entertain for which it is perfectly reasonable to expect remuneration), without meaning to Billy Corgan illustrates that he is neither because he rejects the job descriptions for both wholesale. That dichotomy of an angry, aggressive creative process and the beauty and transcendence that springs from it – like flowers exploding into growth from the cracks in a sidewalk is what fuels Billy Corgan and drives him. It isn’t, as he thinks though, what makes him a great songwriter; he is a great songwriter because of his self-imagined difficulties, he’s a great songwriter in spite of them; that fact presents itself here repeatedly from the beginning of the documentary until the end of it, but it’s also readily apparent that he crutches on it in order to excuse himself from having limited social grace.
Happily, such raging personal shortcomings don’t detract from Corgan or his band’s performance. Disc two of this set showcases one of the nights during the Fillmore residency and, largely comprised of unreleased songs, the show is a relief for fans that remember the loose, meandering, occasionally cacophonous and generally weak tours in support of Machina and Adore. The set opens quietly with a series of acoustic ballads that will surprise long-time fans accustomed to the heavy handed and rhythmic approach of songs like “Disarm” or the finger-picked delicacy of “Stumbleine” or “To Sheila.” “The Roses March,” “Peace + Love” and “99 Floors” take a more folkish and songwriterly approach to the instrument as the band remains mute to let Corgan set the intimate mood for the show and, after he welcomes the audience, they plug in and turn up with the bracing “Blue Skies Bring Tears.” Right then, the audience (both those in attendance and those watching at home) are captivated; culling select, uniformly non-hit material that only dates back as early as Pisces Iscariot (Mellon Collie is untouched here, as are Siamese Dream and Gish) combined with a set of surprisingly well appointed new, unreleased songs that compliment the other lesser-knowns handily. With only Corgan and Chamberlin remaining as original members on stage here, the verdict would be out (and rightly so) in the minds of older fans regarding how potent they could possibly be at a perceived half-strength the fact is that this is the best they’ve been in ten years.
As often as Corgan has attempted to hit that all-important ‘career reset’ button and start over, he’s always been hesitant to let go of all the merits and accolades Smashing Pumpkins has been offered and so has willfully derailed his own intention. Here though, with a little new blood backing him, Billy Corgan remembers how to get hungry and do a performance for his fans – than for his own self-fulfilling, self-gratifying desire. Judging from the show included with If All Goes Wrong, the Smashing Pumpkins have finally, honestly and justifiably secured a second lease on life.
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