The Smashing Pumpkins at Webster Hall's Grand Ballroom

Billy Corgan

Billy Corgan was born in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and grew up with his blues guitarist father in Glendale Heights, Illinois. While in high school, he gave his savings to his father to buy him a used guitar, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. He performed in bands in high school and in 1985 at age 19 he moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, to play with his first working band, a goth band called the Marked. The band dissolved, and Corgan moved back to the Chicago area, worked in a record store and formed the alternative rocking Smashing Pumpkins in 1988, writing Cure-inspired mope-rock. Corgan added personnel and the Smashing Pumpkins became one of the biggest selling bands of the 1990s, selling over 20 million albums in the United States alone. Internal disputes, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up, but Corgan began using the brand name again in 2007 with various line-ups. The Smashing Pumpkins' 10th album, Monuments to an Elegy, was released on December 9, 2014.

The last time the Smashing Pumpkins performed in New York, the band headlined the Barclays Center and released a DVD of the show. Tonight, on the eve of the new album release, the Smashing Pumpkins performed at the much smaller Grand Ballroom of Webster Hall. Comprised of Corgan, guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Killers bassist Mark Stoermer and Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk, the band performed an almost two-hour set that featured five songs from the new album, 10 older songs, a cover of David Bowie's "Fame" and concluded with an as-yet-unreleased song from a forthcoming album. With Corgan's snarly vocals way up front and a hard and heavy power-pop behind him, the band opened without fanfare with the new "One and All (We Are)" and "Being Beige." Often singing with eyes closed, Corgan sang angst-filled lyrics to a dense wall of sound driven largely by his and Schroeder's power chords. With pop melodies competing against loud guitars, much of the music seemed delivered by a raging bulldozer, such that the few softer moments provided temporary sonic relief. Audience response was greater to familiar songs like "Hummer", "Tonight, Tonight", "Disarm", "Zero" and "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." In all, the Smashing Pumpkins hosted a 1990s revival, grounded in re-tooled and refined alt-rock.

The Smashing Pumpkins will headline at the Brooklyn Bowl on December 13. Visit the Smashing Pumpkins at www.smashingpumpkinsnexus.com.