KEY POINTS:
Some people are hard to get to know. They're not particularly warm, nor particularly interested in being known. In fact, you wonder if you've done something to offend them or whether they've had a bad day.
If the Smashing Pumpkins concert, on Saturday night, was a person, he
would be that kind of guy. And it seems that Billy Corgan, head Pumpkin, is that kind of guy.
Corgan was welcomed on to the stage like the grunge era idol he is. But then, under the weight of a sellout crowd's expectation, he proceeded to act pretty disinterested, working his matter-of-fact way through material from a wide variety of Pumpkins' albums - everything from the brand new Zeitgeist to the heyday releases, Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness to the not-quite-as-popular Machina II and Adore - without a whole lot of emotion or banter.
It's well known that Corgan's a dark sort of chap. Especially when, after eight whole songs, he first spent more than two sentences on the crowd, saying something like, "How's everyone doing? Are you okay? Actually I don't care if you're okay or not, I'm just asking." A little later he thanked the crowd for coming. "The Devil thanks you," he added, meaning himself. And right at the end, he's almost mocking, putting on a robotic voice and telling everyone to buy merchandise "because Jimmy wants a new Ferrari".
It's only when someone tells him to shut up and play that the singer, who celebrated his birthday a few days ago, spits back sarcastically, "I'm 41 now, I get to do what I want."
Oh dear. Was it us, Billy? Do we expect too much of our rock stars? After all, on a night like this we don't need to love them, just their music. Is it the bad memories; does the fact that we still like the old Smashing Pumpkins get all up in your face? Maybe it does, and you can see why it might. Or, gosh, maybe it was the size of the venue, was Vector Arena too much for the new Smashing Pumpkins? No, the sound filled the place nicely, on every frequency.
Then again, maybe our Billy is just the sort of guy who takes a long time to warm up. Because eventually - and you had to look for them - there were moments of the sort of gigging magic you would have hoped for.
For the crowd these moments included all the greatest, air punching hits. Corgan didn't sing the first few lines of the anthem, Today, at all, letting the capacity crowd - Vector Arena holds around 12,000 - sing it for him.
Bullet With Butterfly Wings was always going to get the kids moshing and melodic early hit Drown, from way back in 1992, probably pleased a few older folks in the audience.
For Corgan himself, the best times seemed to be had when he played new material or when he was alone on stage, armed with only one guitar and forced to meet our eyes. The song 1979 was charming and had people holding up their camera phones en masse, including a couple of old school lawbreakers in the corner with their cigarette lighters. Corgan even danced a sarcastic little jig after a suitably black hearted cover of My Blue Heaven. It was at those unexpected moments of self-reverential devilishness that you actually quite liked the guy.
By around song number 24 - the band played for over two hours - Corgan was throwing himself around. The new members of the Pumpkins - Ginger Reyes on bass and Jeff Schroeder on guitar - also seemed a little subdued until then; it's definitely the Billy Corgan show and they looked to be waiting for their leader's cue.
Finally on United States, a track from the new album and just about the last number, they got it. Corgan began emoting, acknowledging the existence of the other band members and the crowd and stalking the stage dementedly in his tiered silver skirt and patent black boots, like some sort of rock'n'roll vampire, while making alien, whale and Jimi Hendrix noises with his guitar.
Unfortunately by then, most of the mosh pit was too knackered - or disappointed? - to do anything but watch and nod their heads. And a lot of them don't know this new song either. Clear evidence of the sort of love-hate relationship Corgan has with fans of the old and the new Smashing Pumpkins.
Support act, Queens of the Stone Age, are another story altogether. Josh Homme is the sort of bloke the crowd warms to at once - especially when you've just heard No One Knows playing in the car on the way there, then you hear it bigger, better and sexier immediately in the venue. Although he too apparently has a dark streak, the statuesque Homme knows what he's there to do: play some rock'n'roll and put on a show for the kids. And he manages to do this without compromising anything.
Bonus points: his band don't seem scared of him either.
Sure, Queens of the Stone Age aren't quite as angsty as the Pumpkins and that's part of their charm. But maybe our Billy could take a few lessons in people skills and performance from the so-called support act.
What: Smashing Pumpkins and Queens of the Stone Age
Where & When: Vector Arena, Saturday
