Smashing sequel - Pumpkins Rock Local Nightclub

"Now I know what it feels like to play a Shriners Convention"

With these words, Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan perfectly summed up his feelings about the group's "surprise" gig last night at the Back Alley nightclub.

The Chicago-based alterna-rock supergroup played to a quiet (read: largely uninterested) audience of 600 contest winners, media types and VIPs. The invitation-only show was just the latest in Molson's Blind Date promotion, in which contest winners are whisked to a small venue somewhere in Canada to see a popular "mystery" band. Def Leppard, The Sex Pistols, Lenny Kravitz, Soundgarden and Metallica are among the act who've played Blind Date concerts this summer.
So, before the mystery band hit the stage, I asked people who they hoped would take the Back Alley stage.
The overwhelming majority said The Tragically Hip.
Better luck next time, folks. They got the Smashing Pumpkins, who played to a enraptured capacity crowd at the Saddledome on Saturday night but could only draw mild interest from the Back Alley audience.
In fact, many patrons mulled around the free pizza table during the group's generous 90-minute set. (Most Blind Date performances have been about 45 minutes long.)
But don't feel too bad for Billy and his bandmates D'Arcy Wretzgy, James Iha and Matt Walker: A band associate said the Pumpkins made $100,000 for the gig and were chartered home immediately after.
"We're a bunch of whores, thank you," Corgan cracked at one point.
Well, at least they didn't pander to their onlookers.
The quartet, playing on a small stage with minimal lighting, played the part of scrappy bar band, turning their amps full-blast and letting 'er rip. At times, the music sounded like an ear-splitting marriage of acid rock and death metal.
The Pumpkins kicked off with a recent single, Tonight Tonight, and threw in one other radio hit, Disarm, but otherwise stayed away from their recognizable tunes.
No 1979. No Today. No Bullet With Butterfly Wings.
Instead, Corgan and fellow guitarist Iha spent most of the evening sculpting layers of droning guitar noise around the insistent rhythms of Wretzgy and Walker.
The result was at times hypnotic and, at other times tedious and self-indulgent.
Still, at least one Smashing Pumpkins fan -- who attended the Saddledome performance -- was blown away by the fact he got so close to his idols.
"At the Saddledome show, the Smashing Pumpkins were playing to the first 20 rows and didn't give a s--- about the rest."