DVD Review: Smashing Pumpkins – If All Goes Wrong

If All Goes Wrong is part documentary and part concert film, both linked by Smashing Pumpkins feted — if incomplete — 2007 reunion.

The 100-minute documentary follows original Pumpkins Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin and their trio of young hired guns as they prepare for a pair of concert residencies in Asheville, N.C. and San Francisco. Corgan discusses the band’s legacy, the contributions of original members D’arcy Wretzky and James Iha (they apparently didn’t make many) and the difficulty in balancing fan expectations of a reunion with an artist’s desire to push forward.

It would be easy to believe Corgan’s desire to focus on art rather than commerce if he didn’t spend half the film agonizing over why fans won’t accept sets filled with new, unreleased material.

Enjoyment of the concert filmed at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium hinges on your opinion of the new material. The show mixes obscure tracks from latter-day Pumpkins records with post-reunion tunes, most of which weren’t on their last album. It will slowly squeeze the last bit of patience left in all but the most diehard Pumpkins fans.

If you’re one of the few, then this is the Holy Grail. As for the rest of us… I hear Alice In Chains are touring again.

This review originally appeared on Chartattack.