On his own, Corgan not a smashing success

Once and future Pumpkin, momentary Zwan, temporary solo artist, forever Billy....

Enigmatic and contrary no matter what his context, Billy Corgan came to the Henry Fonda Theatre on Tuesday to play his first L.A. concert under his own name. Add that credit to a resume that began with leading the Smashing Pumpkins to preeminence among ‘90s American rock bands, then sputtered with the short-lived mistake called Zwan. And the solo incarnation, it turns out, is a prelude to a return of the Smashing Pumpkins, which he disbanded in 2000 and recently decided to revive.

Corgan has said this all makes sense to him, though for anyone without the dedication to sort out all the threads it might suggest some uncertainty or flightiness, or maybe a problem with commitment.

As on the new solo album “TheFutureEmbrace,” which formed the core of his concert, Corgan plodded through a swamp of Goth-tinged electronic rock that oozed from his bandmates’ synthesizers and electronic drum pads, his eyes on the starry skies painted by his trusty electric guitars. Though it was often propulsive, the music was overwhelmingly cold and detached, without the inner spark that animated such influences as the Cure, New Order and Joy Division.

There was longing and melancholy, but without the striving and cathartic live rock the Smashing Pumpkins used to play, Corgan’s key attribute -- his emotional candor -- was missing in action.

The performance reflected that dynamic. Corgan -- tall, lean and slightly hunched, Nosferatu-like -- presided over the hour-plus set with a benign but distant manner, absorbing the crowd’s hero-worship cheers but not giving up much in return. The warmest moment came when he brought out his longtime drummer Jimmy Chamberlin for a song, introducing him as “formerly and presently of the Smashing Pumpkins.”

More representative of the current Corgan aesthetic was “All Things Change,” where Corgan and company repeated the refrain “We can change the world” over a solitary drum beat. But he sounded too weak to change a light bulb. Rather than making a rallying statement of hope and determination, he seemed to be trying to talk himself out of a torpor. Maybe when Corgan turns back into a Pumpkin we’ll get a clearer picture of this murky interlude.