The Smashing Pumpkins – If All Goes Wrong (Coming Home Media 2-disc DVD set)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B+     Extras: B     Film/Music: A-

 

 

The Smashing Pumpkins are without a doubt one of the few bands that I truly love.  Not just their mainstream and popular work, but even their more obscure tracks and despite their inconsistent cycles over the years along with several different lineup changes, Billy Corgan and crew continue to be one of the bands to survive the grunge/alternative rock era.  Perhaps part of that is due to the fact that this is a band that has evolved over time and has matured. 

 

By the time that Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released it was in the later stages of the alternative rock era, although this band was putting out some of the best work at the time, it wasn’t until 1998’s release of Adore, which was a more somber band that broke through with perhaps its most innovative material.  Of course critics were really harsh on the band even though it was a powerful album that reflected Corgan’s recent reflections on the death of his mother.  This is perhaps the bands last ‘great’ album, the next few years would be met with problems and the band would go their separate ways, Corgan would put together a very brief stint under a new name, Zwan, which only lasted one half-decent album, then return in 2007 with Zeitgeist, arguably the bands best work in a long time. 

 

Corgan has teamed up with long-time friend/drummer Jimmy Chamberlain and a new team of musicians again who are still calling themselves The Smashing Pumpkins, perhaps Corgan finally realizes that he really is (and always has been) the main creative force in this band regardless of their name.  In the summer of 2007 an event would take place in which the band would perform some of its more obscure work along with several tracks never released before and chronicle this in a documentary called If All Goes Wrong.  Filmed in High Definition, as the Fillmore Residency the concert is without a doubt the band at their best.  Although there is not much available currently on the band for DVD, especially not full concerts, here we get a 2-disc set with the documentary on disc one along with a featurette and interview with Pete Townshend.  Disc two is dedicated to the concert, which features the following tracks:

 

The Rose March

Peace + Love*

99 Floors*

Blue Skies Bring Tears

Superchrist

Lucky 13

Starla

Death From Above

The Crying Tree of Mercury

Winterlong

Heavy Metal Machine

Untitled*

No Surrender*

Gossamer*

Zeitgeist

 

 

There are also a few tracks here from a rehearsal session that features:

 

99 Floors*

Peace + Love*

Mama*

No Surrender*

Promise Me*

 

*previously unreleased

 

 

This makes for 7 new songs that have never been released before, even for someone like myself who is familiar with even the more rare tracks from this band, they are new.  I am surprised at how many of these tracks are from one of the bands least known albums, Machina, which was released in 2000.  There are even a few tracks from the download-only-for-a-limited-time release of Machine II, which even fewer people are aware of.  So needless to say it was daring for this band to release an entire concert of mainly unknown songs, but it’s also true that this was an exclusive concert that the band made for die-hard fans and that also explains the idea of releasing brand new material to them as well.  What a treat!

 

The documentary is also quite good and gives us some introduction into the new lineup of musicians and helps capture the essence of a band that has been around 20 years now, it’s still about the music and creation of that which keeps this band flowing.  Presented with a 1.78 X 1 transfer the concert footage looks exceptionally good, I’m really curious to see if they release this onto Blu-ray.  Detail is incredibly good with great color and fidelity throughout.  Some detail is lost during the wide shots, but close-ups look great.  Audio is presented in Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 mixes, the DTS is far more engaging with smoother bass passages and presence. 

 

Thus far the band has released some of their earlier work on DVD and their music videos, but this is really the first time that an accurate representation of the band in concert has been released and any fan of the band should have this at the top of their wishlist for sure!

 

 

-   Nate Goss