The Smashing Pumpkins 1996-10-25

October 25, 1996 – Champaign, IL, US
Live performance by The Smashing Pumpkins
Infinite Sadness tour
Date	October 25, 1996
Venue	Assembly Hall
Coordinates	40°5′47″N 88°14′9″W
Location	Champaign, IL, US
Venue type	Arena
Capacity	16,667
Personnel	Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'arcy Wretzky, Matt Walker, Dennis Flemion, Jimmy Flemion
Order of bands	Garbage, The Smashing Pumpkins
Prev. show archive.org Recordings Next show

Full performance

Setlist

1. "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" (prerecorded) 
2. "Where Boys Fear to Tread" 
3. "Zero" 
4. "Cherub Rock" 
5. "To Forgive" 
6. "Tonight, Tonight" 
7. "Today" 
8. "Thru the Eyes of Ruby" 
9. "Siva" [10:20] 
10. "Take Me Down" (tease) (acoustic) (one verse) 
11. "Disarm" (acoustic) 
12. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" 
13. "Fuck You" 
14. "Porcelina of the Vast Oceans" 
    1. "Rocket" (tease) 

Encore one

15. "X.Y.U." 

Encore two

16. "1979" 
17. "Muzzle" 

Encore three

18. "The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)" 
19. "Silverfuck" [27:58] 
    1. "Dose" [Filter] (tease) 
    2. "Hummer" (tease) 

Notes

• "1979" with Jimmy Flemion

Banter

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Intro
> Where Boys Fear to Tread
Zero
Cherub Rock
To Forgive
“Thank you for participating” tape
> Tonight, Tonight
BC: Hellll-lo there. Thank you for coming to the dome thingy to see us play. I wanna know what happened to Lou Henson, that’s what I wanna know.
Iha: Controversy.
BC: They're not booing, they're yelling “Lou.”
Iha: Oh. You're spreading controversy again.
BC: Lou was the coach with that haircut.
Iha: Oh, right, right on.
BC: So thanks very much for coming, we hope you have a good time. We uh...we hope you stupid fuckers down here don't hurt yourself.
Iha: No no no no no no. Of course, of course you didn’t--
BC: “Hey man, we -- we came to be in the mosh pit, man, we know what we're doing, it’s okay, don’t worry about us.”
Iha: “We're cool.”
Today
> Planet of the Apes clip
> Thru the Eyes of Ruby
Iha: Whoa.
BC: Kinda psychic.
Iha: Tell a psychic.
BC: Well, you know, we're just like a fuckin' jukebox, we'll just play whatever you want.
Iha: Wanna hear any uh...other songs by other notable alternative rock bands, we'll just play 'em. Bush, Everclear...Better Than Ezra, we’ll play these songs.
BC: Maybe even some Black Crowes, they're kind of alternative. Well, actually, we're gonna play an old song that was kinda like when we were another band, so it’s almost like covering someone's song, but actually we're playing our own song. Though considering the current guise we're in, it’s kinda like a cover, so please enjoy.
Iha: Let’s rock.
BC: For those of you six or seven year students, you probably heard us play this back in the old days, so uh, you'll appreciate this return to your youth.
Siva
Iha: Thank you very much. Well uh, now reached the small acoustic portion of our show. So we'll all give you time to breathe and let it all out.
Take Me Down (one verse) (acoustic)
Disarm (acoustic)
Circus tape
> Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Fuck You
BC: Thank you.
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans / Rocket
[encore break]
Iha: Thank you, thanks, thanks a lot. How are you guys doing, okay? What is the university here, is it Northern? (crowd boos) Just kidding, just kidding.
BC: Thank you very much. You know, I actually almost came to college at this place.
Iha: And uh, pray tell what happened.
BC: Do you wanna know the real story?
Iha: Yeah, why -- why didn't you go come out to this fine city?
BC: Should I tell you the real story why I didn't come out to U of I? Well, after uh...and now I know, here we go, you're not gonna like me after this story.
Iha: Was it a uh, college counselor?
BC: No, um, heh heh, no, a college counselor did not try to rape me, um...although he did try to recruit me, whatever that means. Um, no, I knew some people down here and I came for...some I don't know, fuck off weekend, whatever the fuck you people do down here.
Iha: Heh. Right, so you took your car....
BC: Right, and I -- and I drove down with this friend of mine and we knew some people down here from school--high school.... I'm telling my story, what, you wanna hear it or not?
Iha: How you almost went to the U of I.
BC: Alright, so I came down here and I was contemplating whether I should go into music....
Iha: Or....
BC: Go to college.
Iha: Well, seems like--
BC: Those were my choices, music or college.
Iha: I think you should've went to....
BC: Alright, so I came down here and the people I met were so fuckin' lame, I thought, fuck college, I'm playin’ in a rock band!
Iha: And here, we squandered what could've possibly been the greatest accountant in American history. So we salute you all. You are educated, we are but dumb rock people. And uh, we hope to bring you to our world of insane, mindless rock.
X.Y.U.
(BC over outro feedback: Happy Halloween.)
[encore break]
Iha: Merci. Checkmate. Uh, we've a -- we’ve brought a special guest. Yes, we've got a special guest. He may be quite shocking to you, but to us, he is a friend of all of our families, he is a poet laureate, valedictorian of his high school, of The Frogs, Jimmy Frog! Hey! Hey. A nice round of applause for Jimmy. Christmas Man gives Jimmy the finger and uh, we salute you. And his brother, on the keyboards, Dennis Frog! Hey! Oh my god, you people are crazy. And uh, on the drums, savin' our ass, Matt Walker! Play that demon riff...keep those demons where they belong, in the guitar. So um, now I'm gonna ask something all of you perhaps have been thinking about in your classes today, I don't know if you've had class today, I'm just guessing 'cause this is a college town. But I bet you uh, just wanna like, throw those fuckin' pens and paper away and you wanna dance! Yeah! I wanna dance too but I gotta play guitar.
BC: No, not necessarily, you could dance.
Iha: Alright.
D’arcy: What do you mean you can’t dance and play guitar?
Iha: Alright, I will try my best to dance and play guitar.
D’arcy: Come on, after ten years, I'd think you could dance and play guitar.
Iha: Well, I've been watching Sign o’ the Times--or not, not Sign o’ the Times, uh, yeah, the Sign o’ the Times Tour and uh, I was watching Prince and he dances really well, I -- I'm gonna try, alright? I'm gonna try and dance, I want you to all dance with me though.
1979 (with Jimmy Flemion)
Iha: Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for Jimmy Frog. Yes. Jimmy was also a -- he's also a teacher, he taught at Northeastern and uh, he comes around here every once in a while to do seminars on biogenetics and fishing, so if you can all come out to 'em, he loves the attention. I think we have another song. What it is, who will nod, we can only guess.
BC: Now we've come to the end of the concert. (crowd boos)
Iha: Ooooh, so sad, so sad.
BC: Well, this is usually the point where the uh, the people who've heard the songs they want to hear have heard them, so they usually leave after this song, so...it seems like it’s the end of the concert.
Iha: But is it? Will we play Freebird after this?
BC: Thanks again very much for coming. We appreciate your uhhh, patience, patronage, persistence, pessimism and....
Iha: Predilection.
D’arcy: Peculiarity.
BC: Peculiarity, thank you very much. So we hope everyone's had a good time.
Iha: We’ll move on, movin’ on, movin’ on.
BC: Thank you to all you...people up there.
Iha: Give it up to the people who left and need readmission for this. And to the people to the right, y’all put those hands in the air like you just don't motherfuckin' care.
Muzzle
[encore break]
The Aeroplane Flies High
> Silverfuck / Dose / Hummer
(BC at 2:21: We'd like to say goodbye to those of you leaving to go study, I do realize it’s really important. Have a good night.)
(BC at 27:47: Thanks.)