The Smashing Pumpkins offered some major fan service last night (Sept 30) at the kickoff of their Rats in a Cage tour celebrating the belated 30th anniversary of the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, during which they dusted off several tunes from that LP plus several other deep rarities.
Of the Mellon Collie tunes, “Fuck You (An Ode to No One)” hadn’t been played since 2007, while “Cupid de Locke” and “Galapagos” hadn’t seen the light of day in 18 years. “By Starlight” also hadn’t been aired since 2010.
The second set kept the rarities coming, with live debuts for “Machina, Machina” from Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music and “Sojourner” from the 2023 rock opera ATUM, plus the ancient Gish-era song “Jesus Is the Sun,” which was long-bootlegged but not officially released until 2021.
Also featured was “As Rome Burns,” which has never come out as a studio recording but was played live by the Pumpkins on their 2008 and 2010 tours. “Staging a Mellon Collie-themed show is something we’ve discussed for over a decade, and finally the stars have aligned and exactly on the terms I’d set,” frontman Billy Corgan said previously. “There’s a decent amount of variance as to what songs we’ll play from night to night.”
Corgan is joined onstage by core members James Iha (guitar) and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), alongside guitarist Kiki Wong and bassist Jack Bates. Rats in a Cage continues through Nov. 12 at Kia Forum in Los Angeles, while the Pumpkins will also be on hand two days later for the Darker Waves festival in Huntington Beach, Ca., alongside Morrissey, Simple Minds, the Psychedelic Furs and many others.