In the Arms of Sleep

If there's one word that can describe the Smashing Pumpkins it would be inconsistent. Billy Corgan could possibly be the most infuriating man in rock and roll, producing islands of genius amidst a sea of mediocre dross. So it's not with great surprise that tonight's performance at the O2 is rather hit and miss.

“This was released in 1991 when most of your were just embryos" says Corgan half-way through the set. I'm not sure who he thought he was playing to, but the vast majority of the audience here tonight are in their mid-twenties and are clamouring to hear the tracks that they remember from their teen years.

Unfortunately Corgan and Co seem to be more interested in self-indulgent wallowing and musical flabbiness. Opener Porcelina of the Vast Oceans does sound suitably epic in the confines of the O2 but doesn't ellicit the sort of reaction you'd expect from the 20,000 strong crowd. It's not till the classic staple Tonight, Tonight four songs in that the crowd actually perks up, confirming what we're all here for. Follow up, Mayonnaise demonstrates that the grunge stylings that made the band a seminal one in the early 90s have never gone out of fashion and are still as vital as they always were and for a moment it seems like we'll be in for a memorable set.

But the show never gets off the ground. Just as it appears that we're going to be treated to a full on rock-extravaganza, we're brought back down to earth again with another non-entity. Given that the Pumpkins have got enough great material to fill the entirety of the two and a half hour time slot, this is a huge disappointment. New album Zeitgeist was something of a disappointment and live the songs just don't stack up against the older material. It's frustrating then to have such great songs as 1979 juxtaposed against the dull That's The Way My Love Is. Each new song off Zeitgest seems to ellicit an almost visual sigh from the crowd and as the evening draws to a close, it becomes increasingly clear that the rock anthems that we're expecting to hear won't be played.