The Smashing Pumpkins launched their North American “Rats in a Cage Tour” on Wednesday evening at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, playing a marathon 32-song concert. The first set celebrated the 30th anniversary of their seminal album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, while the second set drew from their entire career, including some rare deep cuts.
Frontman Billy Corgan and company played 16 of the 28 songs from the 1995 double album Mellon Collie, kicking the show off with two of its biggest hits right away: “1979” and “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.” Along with other singles like “Tonight, Tonight,” “Zero,” and “Thirty-Three,” the band also performed deeper Mellon Collie cuts like “Cupid de Locke” and “Galapogos,” both for the first time since 2008, “Fuck You (An Ode to No One)” for the first time since 2007, and “By Starlight’ for the first time since 2010.
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The second set, also comprised of 16 songs, saw the Pumpkins play four favorites from Siamese Dream (“Disarm,” “Cherub Rock,” “Mayonaise” and “Today”) alongside some rarities like “Le Deux Machina” (first time since 2000), “As Rome Burns” (first time since 2010), and the show-closing “Superchrist” (with elements of “United States”).
The band went even deeper into the vaults with the live debut of “Jesus Is the Sun,” a track from the ’90s bootleg Mashed Potatoes and the 2011 reissue of their 1991 debut album, Gish. Another live debut was 2023’s “Sojourner” from Act 3 of Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts.
The Pumpkins’ lineup on this tour is comprised of founding members Corgan, guitarist James Iha, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin alongside guitarist/keyboardist Kiki Wong and bassist Jack Bates.
The “Rats in a Cage Tour” continues through a November 12th show at the Kia Forum, hitting such cities as Boston, Brooklyn, Montreal, Chicago, Austin, Las Vegas, and Seattle along the way. Tickets for the remaining dates are available here.
See photos, video, and the setlist from the kickoff show in Columbus, Ohio, as well as the remaining tour dates, below.
Setlist:
Set 1:
1979
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Cupid de Locke (first time since 2008)
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Jellybelly
Bodies
Galapogos (first time since 2008)
Thirty-Three
Tonight, Tonight
Here Is No Why (with band introductions)
To Forgive
Fuck You (An Ode to No One) (first time since 2007)
Zero (With “Tales of a Scorched Earth” tease)
Muzzle
By Starlight (first time since 2010)
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (first time since 2018)
Set 2:
Le Deux Machina (first time since 2000)
Sojourner (live debut)
Edin
Pentagrams
Disarm (with “Blew Away” intro tease)
Ava Adore
War Dreams of Itself
Mayonaise
Dorian
As Rome Burns (first time since 2010)
Stand Inside Your Love
Today
Cherub Rock
Jesus Is the Sun (live debut)
The Everlasting Gaze
Superchrist (first time since 2019)
