This evening, which concludes a double-headed UK tour for the Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer while beginning six weeks of open-air concerts in Cardiff Castle, is a good pretext to think about the heritagisation of so-called alternative rock. Except not really, because even 30 years ago – when these two American bands were, respectively, young but settled-in and brand new on the scene – that topic had already been ran into the ground. It feels pretty relevant to the whole deal here, though.
The similarities between these two groups have become more apparent than was the case in the mid-90s. Both remain a hot ticket – ones for this show started at £75 and have been sold out for months – and, every so often, release albums which leave almost no footprint on the culture. Judging by the two setlists, you would imagine that Weezer are more sanguine about this state of affairs than Smashing Pumpkins are. For a band who, from their inception, made a virtue of their lack of showbiz pizazz, the LA pop-rock quartet are as committed to satisfying their audience as any given Vegas-residency veteran.
A taste for padding their sets with dubious cover versions, which became a trademark of sorts in the previous decade, has been mostly cast aside for now, save for a mid-set romp through Hole’s Celebrity Skin. Written, as Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo observes, by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, it’s a faithful rendition nonetheless notable for sounding more like a Weezer song than either a Hole or Pumpkins one.
Aside from that, you basically get all the obvious hits, a couple of less self-evident album tracks and one song you might have to be a paid-up fan to know, You Gave Your Love To Me Softly. Cuomo, who is wearing at least four layers of clothing, commiserates attendees for having to live with British weather (it’s not so much the rain itself that’s irksome, more that everyone is dressed identically as a consequence) and the band give the appearance of having fun, in a very professional sort of way.
Smashing Pumpkins last visited Cardiff in 1993, which Corgan acknowledges from the stage by saying he has no memory of the event whatsoever. Not the most sparkling repartee you’ll ever hear, but maybe speaking to a greater truth about the fundamentals of international touring, where one blows in and out of a succession of cities without having a moment to appreciate their distinguishing characteristics. Playing in the grounds of a castle might retain a little novelty even for a group of 35 years’ standing, and offer a suitably pompous setting for the Chicago heavy rockers’ most wheedling, overweening excursions.
The band – a core trio of Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, expanded in a live setting by three more musicians including Peter Hook’s son Jack Bates – play for a shade under two hours and include most of the best known Pumpkins songs in that period. They also play an assortment of post-millennial album tracks which range from legitimately underappreciated to frankly unloved. This is where the question – unanswerable, as it ever was – of the schism between artistic expression and entertainment rears its head, and the extent to which a musician is obliged to both assess and fulfil the wishes of their audience.
Corgan engaged with this by way of a post on the band’s Instagram page, shortly before the Cardiff performance, sardonically implying that accusations of setlist self-indulgence were overstated. For what it’s worth, I agree with him, and even if songs like synthy indie-folk curio Birch Grove and prog navelgazer Springtimes don’t land, there’s still some textural interest to be found in the disco-style intro to Spellbinding and the galloping metal guitars of Gossamer, where Corgan and second guitarist Kiki Wong combine in the manner of KK Downing and Glenn Tipton in Judas Priest.
The proverbial hits, meanwhile, are very much present in all this, portioned out over a 21-song total. Chequered lifespan or not, the Smashing Pumpkins really have written some terrific songs in their day, and for such a canonically ‘1990s’ band there’s nothing dated or archaic-sounding about – to name four of more – Today, Disarm, Bullet With Butterfly Wings or Zero, which concludes a set whose gems overrode its duds.
Smashing Pumpkins + Weezer, Cardiff Castle, Fri 14 June
words NOEL GARDNER photos JON HERRON
