The 3Arena played host to a Gen-X and millennial alternative rock fan’s dream, with a double bill to die for in Weezer and the Smashing Pumpkins. Now, while nostalgia doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone, a little bit goes a long way, as Monday evening’s showcase would certainly prove.

Billy Corgan, in contrast to his more punk leaning contemporaries, has never shied away from his stadium rock aspirations or admirations. Having posted a photo of himself posing with the famous Phil Lynott statue off Grafton Street earlier in the day, the band would pay homage to “a local band” covering U2’s ‘Zoo Station’ – an unconventional, but intriguing choice, boasting Corgan’s most impassioned vocal of the evening.

Earlier, Weezer brought their awkward geek rock charm in a classic filled 20-track set. While the band’s latter year material has been sometimes quite rightly derided and other times overlooked by fans and critics alike, there was little to criticise in their song selection on this night, with the band’s 1994 opus The Blue Album taking up much of the space. ‘Say It Ain’t So’ provided the nights first true phones aloft in lieu of lighters moment in a night full of them. Elsewhere, crowd pleasers ‘Beverly Hills’, ‘Island In The Sun’ and ‘Pork And Beans’ proved as infectious as ever, with the band making room for a fun cover of Hole’s ‘Celebrity Skin’ along the way.

But while Weezer at their best were nerdy Nirvana-lite, the Smashing Pumpkins have always been a different beast entirely. Too bombastic and arena ready to be grunge, but too grimy and heavy to be anything else. This show was no exception.

Sci-fi movie synths and majestic strobe lights heralded their arrival, dripping in gothic chic garb, with Billy Corgan cavorting in a get-up that fits somewhere in between Nosferatu and Rasputin, flanked by new backing singer Katie Cole in similarly witchy duds, and new guitarist Kiki Wong, whose addition proved more than welcome. The band would kick off with ‘The Everlasting Gaze’. Straight in, no kissing. The intensity would seldom let up for the 120 minutes that followed.

In a similarly hit filled set, the audience are treated to cuts from the band’s classic albums Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. The full extent of Corgan’s early songwriting genius and diversity is on display, from the anthemic ‘Today’, the psychedelic tapestries weaved on ‘Rhinoceros’, the dense, proggy complexity of ‘Thru The Eyes Of Ruby’ or the balls out heaviness of ‘Jellybelly’.

There is plenty of room for the rest of the band to shine, though. Birthday boy James Chamberlin’s relentless rhythmical mastery drove a highlight moment in ‘Tonight Tonight’, while co-founder James Iha was given his due props for his hand in co-writing ‘Mayonnaise’, the song perhaps being the most beautiful moment of the evening.

There are plenty of moments to remind us of the passage of time, however. Corgan’s children would join him onstage at one point to dance along. Chamberlin’s birthday is his 60^th. Iha would remind us that 1992 was ‘a really long time ago’ and the more recent material showcased tonight, while leagues ahead of anything Corgan released under the Pumpkins banner on his own before Iha and Chamberlin’s rejoining, simply doesn’t hit the same way. Lest we forget Matt Cooper’s hand in keeping ‘1979’ in the Irish psyche years after its release.

With all that being said, sometimes its good to reflect. Besides, good music is timeless, and the best of the songs we heard on Monday night prove it.