Ready for take-off.

Eric Arnum reports from New York: On Jan. 11, three days after the blizzard of '96, a thicket of Smashing Pumpkins fans waited patiently in the slush to be let in for the first of three sold-out shows at the Academy near Times Square. Inside, two huge sunflowers towered over the sides of the stage -- or maybe they were daisies? -- bracketing three chairs and a starter's drum kit worthy of They Might Be Giants.

At 8:20, James Iha walked out, followed by D'Arcy, Billy Corgan, and Jimmy Chamberlain. D'Arcy had on a tight-fitting long dress. Corgan and Iha had on their pajamas! A ski hat covered Corgan's still-shaved head.

They picked up acoustic guitars and sat down for a jam. D'Arcy on the left, Corgan in the middle, Iha on the right. The plan called for two sets, no opening band, with a 20-minute intermission. This was to be the mellow set, with them sitting and us standing.

They opened with "Tonight, Tonight" and continued emphasizing songs from the new album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, including "Zero," "Bullet With Butterfly Wings," "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans," "Take Me Down," "Where Boys Fear to Tread," "Bodies," "Thirty-Three," "In the Arms of Sleep," "1979," "We Only Come Out At Night," "Beautiful," "Lily (My One and Only)," and "Farewell and Goodnight."

And of course there were a few tunes thrown in from Siamese Dream, such as "Today" in the first set and "Cherub Rock" in the second. During the intermission, stagehands dismantled the toy drums and unfurled the camouflage from the big kit Chamberlain would play for the rest of the show. The sunflowers stayed, but the chairs and the little drums disappeared.

The house lights never really went on, and the crowd never really moved during intermission. Then a tape of the piano intro to Mellon Collie began to play, and the band walked out -- fully dressed this time. Corgan had on a red sweatshirt with ZERO written across it in silver. And as if that called the tune, they launched right into "Zero."

The second set rocked. While the first was a slow 40 minutes, the hour-long second set flew by. Corgan's vocals were as good as they've ever been -- certainly better than they were in '94 at their last NYC appearance for Lollapalooza. Iha and Corgan must have played a dozen guitars each through the night, the last of which -- a hot pink number -- Corgan smashed into his amp and threw in the air. They came back twice for encores, thanked us for our patience with the ticket hassles, and with all the new material they had played, told us not to die in the snow, and said goodnight.

[ Sun., January 14, 1996 12:00 AM EST ]

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