Two years after their tragic concert at the Point Theatre, Smashing Pumpkins returned to Dublin and, with a Gothic flick of the wrist, banished the demons of the past. Last night's gig at the Olympia was billed as a low-key set, but it turned out to be an electrifying experience.
The concert was an all-seater affair, probably to prevent a replay of the band's 1996 gig, when a young fan was killed by crushing. When Billy Corgan, D'Arcy Wretzky and James Iha took the stage, the crowd cheered hysterically, drowning out the first, soft strains of To Sheila, the opening song of the band's new album, Adore.
As the song built up in intensity, however, Corgan's commanding voice grabbed the crowd in its thrall, bringing this overture to a spine-tingling climax. Once Upon A Time told a folk-tinged tale, but Ava Adore hammered like a horror movie love theme. The show was mostly devoted to material from the new album, but songs like Tear, Crestfallen, Daphne Descends and Perfect were superbly-executed rock fragments which built gradually into a masterful portrait of a band on a creative high.
This gig was being filmed for a television special to be shown on Network 2 tonight (8.25) and Wretzky wore a black see-through top and devil's horns for the occasion, but it was Corgan's tall, shaven-headed figure which lumbered into the centre of vision. The demonic intensity of Tonight and Bullet With Butterfly Wings was balanced by the almost beatific emotion of Shame and For Martha.
This superb symphonic performance climaxed with an encore of the band's biggest hit, 1979, but it was the literate lament of Blank Page which left a firm, final impression.
