Attending a Smashing Pumpkins concert is a lot like shooting craps in Atlantic City. It’s a gamble.The Pumpkins have been known to give great performances and also poor ones. The Jan. 19 concert in Cincinnati was a little of both.As for the sound, they have finally begun to play together as a professional band with three successful albums under their belt.Even without former drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, the Pumpkins seemed to never miss a drum beat or lose track of each other as they were infamous for in the past.However, attending this concert I seemed to long for the days when Smashing Pumpkins played small venues as opposed to coliseums.I didn’t care when MTV played the Pumpkins. The true fans enjoyed the Pumpkins for their music. It seems that in his sudden surge of popularity, Billy Corgan has become all he was against.I stood in shock as I saw Billy jump around the stage with the crunch distortion you might expect from the late Kurt Cobain.As Billy screeched into the microphone, I couldn’t help but think I was watching a heavy metal band. Before playing the song ‘XYU’ from ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness,’ he actually taunted the crowd saying ‘Do you want to go to hell?’The whimpering and whining vocals in songs like ‘Cherub Rock’ and ‘Rocket’ were replaced with high-pitched screams reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails EP ‘Broken.’ Unfortunately the term arena rock, one that the Smashing Pumpkins seemed to be the antithesis of, now so aptly applies to them.The band’s only redemption came with the performance of a few songs like ’33,’ ‘Sweet Sweet,’ and ‘1979’ and when a blues session and their individual solos led into an almost 30-minute Pink Floyd like jam session at the end of the concert.Billy played with such style and feeling that you could almost see Jimi Hendrix closing his eyes and stumbling around the stage.At the most musically impressive and dynamic point in the show the crowd began filing out.After all, they hadn’t seen this video so they couldn’t sing along. This gross display only proves that our generation doesn’t deserve bands like Pink Floyd and musicians like Jimi Hendrix.