ALLENTOWN, Pa. — If one member of The Smashing Pumpkins is going to go out on his own tour to commemorate the 30th and 25th anniversary of its most successful albums, he better be good.
Group founder and front man Billy Corgan was mostly that during the two-hour, 22-song set he played Tuesday night with his new band The Machines of God before a near-sellout crowd of perhaps 1,500 at Archer Music Hall.
If anything, the concert again showed how much The Smashing Pumpkins owes to Corgan. And while the show wasn't perfect (more about that later), Corgan also occasionally exceeded the original.
The show marked the anniversaries of 1995's "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" — the group's 10-times-platinum chart-topper — and 2000's high-charting "Machina" and "Machina II."
It was a difficult task, since those three discs total 68 songs.
Luckily, some of them are The Smashing Pumpkins' best and Corgan played many of them. He also mostly chose well with deeper cuts, and added four from the group's latest disc, last year's "Aghori Mhori Mei."
The show blasted out of the gate with "Glass Theme" from "Machina II" and "Heavy Metal Medicine" from "Machina," and "Where the Boys Fear to Tread" from "Mellon Collie."
All showed both the talent of his new band and how The Smashing Pumpkins' neo-psychedelic music truthfully isn't that hard to reproduce.
It also showed Corgan was in extremely good voice. And on some later songs, Corgan also played strong guitar solos — an extended one mid-song on the new disc's "Pentagrams," an echoey one to end the "Machina" cut "The Crying Tree of Mercury."
Another one on the "Mellen Collie" song "Porcelain of the Vast Oceans" actually improved the song.
The night's best — and the rest
The Smashing Pumpkins' latest hit — the Top 15 Alt chart "Sigommi" — was very good, showing it's not just the band's classic material that's worth hearing.
The "Mellon Collie" cut "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" also was really good, and Corgan clearly was invested, screaming the lyrics. But it was among a few that perhaps fell short of the original version.
That was also true of the band's biggest hit, "1979," which still was good, but seemed to lose some of its urgency. The crowd, though, seemed to love it, and Corgan asked them to sing along.
That song came in the middle of the show, amid a strong "Here's to the Atomic Bomb" from "Machina II," with a very good Corgan guitar solo; a wonderful solo acoustic "Tonight Tonight" from "Mellon Collie"; and the "Machina II" cut "If There is a God"that started acoustic with Corgan alone on stage before the band really kicked in with its hardest rock.
Perhaps the night's best was the "Mellon Collie" deeper cut "Muzzle" — mostly attributable to Corgan's intensity.
There were less enjoyable moments: a nine-minute "Glass and the Ghost Children" from "Machina" seemed like self-aware exploration. "Macina II's" "White Spyder," though not bad, wasn't equal to most of the rest of the show; neither was an undistinguished "Real Love" from "Machina II."
And the main set's closing "Bodies," paired with "The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)" seemed very indulgent (including a long, long guitar solo), especially at nine minutes.
No talent competition in Allentown
Corgan spoke sparingly through the set, asking after female bassist Kid Tigrrr sang an almost light version of the Nancy Sinatra song "You Only Live Twice" whether the crowd was "having a good time — I sure hope so."
He later noted the anniversaries of the discs the Smashing Pumpkins were celebrating, saying, "When I say 'our,' it's because it was probably before [Tigrrr and guitarist Kiki Wong] were born."
And when two children (presumably his) joined Corgan on stage during "1979," he said, "I found these kids in Allentown," then asked whether they were getting sick of the Billy Joel song about them.
The encore started with a very enthusiastic "Zero," the Top 10 hit from "Mellon Collie," and then the night closed with the "Machina" song "The Everlasting Gaze."
Corgan again thanked the crowd for coming, although, he said, "not that there's a talent competition in Allentown on a Tuesday night."
If there was, Corgan and his band were good enough to have won it.
