The Smashing Pumpkins 2023-09-17 (early show)

September 17, 2023 – Highland Park, IL, US
Live performance by The Smashing Pumpkins
Artist	The Smashing Pumpkins
Date	September 17, 2023
Venue	Madame ZuZu's
Coordinates	42°11′11″N 87°48′2″W
Location	Highland Park, IL, US
Venue type	Teahouse
Capacity	300
Personnel	Billy Corgan, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, Jeff Schroeder, Jack Bates, Katie Cole
Order of bands	The Smashing Pumpkins
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The September 17, 2023 early performance by The Smashing Pumpkins was the first of two shows commemorating 30 years of Siamese Dream. Starting a week prior, Madame ZuZu's was retrofitted into a real 1990s-era Tower Records, ending with the two shows that loosely recreate the Siamese Dream midnight release show at Tower Records from July 26, 1993. The pop-up experience featured exclusive merchandise and vinyl records, and ended with the announcement of the release of a special 45 RPM 12" maxi-single of "Mayonaise", with the studio version on one side and the acoustic version from Vieuphoria on the other side.

The early show took place at 6:00 PM CT and was not broadcasted live. During the shows, Billy Corgan announced that he and Chloe Mendel married the previous day, with the band in attendance.

Setlist

1. "Rocket" (acoustic) 
2. "Cherub Rock" (acoustic) 
3. "Today" (acoustic) 
4. "Disarm" (acoustic) 
5. "Spaceboy" (acoustic) (final performance)
6. "Spaced" (acoustic) (live debut)
7. "Mayonaise" (acoustic) 
8. "Hummer" (abandoned) (acoustic) (final performance)
9. "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" [Iron Butterfly] (tease) (acoustic) 
10. "Hummer" (acoustic) (final performance)
11. "Luna" (acoustic) (final performance)
12. "Purr Snickety" (acoustic) (final performance)

Notes

• First full band acoustic performance of "Rocket" since 1997-02-05
• First acoustic performance of "Cherub Rock" since 2000-02-19
• First performance of "Spaceboy" since 2019-11-20 and first full band performance since 2016-05-01
• First performance of "Mayonaise" since 2018-10-18 and first full band acoustic performance since 1996-05-03
• First acoustic performance of "Hummer" since 2007-06-05
• First performance of "Luna" since 2019-11-18 and first full band performance since 2012-08-10
• First performance of "Purr Snickety" since 2019-11-16 and first full band performance
• Jimmy Chamberlin on guitar for "Purr Snickety"

Banter

BC: Good evening. (tuning, followed by loud PA fuzz noise) Just like the old days. (more tuning)
Iha: It’s on the edge.
BC: Broke [unintelligible word].
Iha: It’s not working.
BC: Do you want to, uh, skip anything or...?
Iha: No, we’re good. Okay, we’re good enough, good enough.
BC: That’s what this audience deserves. (looking at Jimmy) Okay, you good?
Jimmy: (off mic) Yup.
BC: (to Jeff and Jack) Yup? (to audience) Welcome.
Rocket
BC: Thank you kindly, thank you. Hard to believe that song is about 32 years old, but it is. In fact, one of the, uh, releases we’re preparing for the archive series -- has anyone bought any of the vinyl archives that we’ve been putting out? Thank you very much. Um, uh, we have about -- I think about seven or eight board tapes from the Pumpkins ‘92 tour of Europe, where we’re already playing a bunch of the Siamese stuff. And it’s interesting, because for some ungodly reason, um, there weren’t really established lyrics yet for that song, Rocket, so every night I’d just sing whatever comes to mind. But the plan to, uh, for those that are interested -- Gio, I see you -- um, we’re gonna release a box set of the whole, all the stuff we have from the tour. Because we play -- we played so different every night. We’ll still make all the, uh, hopefully, the individual releases available, but maybe the box set’ll have stuff that’ll only be on the box set, but uh, it’s pretty cool listening back with the fans totally on fire. I always have said it’s one of the best tours we ever did was in the winter in Europe in ‘92 and we were with a horrible person driving us around and uh, it seems to add to the angst of the gigs. So, moving on, thank you again.
Cherub Rock
(Billy doodles a little bit coming out of the song’s ending)
BC: (finishing doodle) Okay.
Today
BC: (to Iha) You good?
Iha: Yeah.
Disarm
BC: Thank you very much. (Katie Cole comes on stage) Hi Katie. Please welcome to the stage Miss Katie Cole. Now...I’m putting together the show. We looked, of course, at the original setlist that we played back at Tower Records on that fateful evening in 1993, was anyone there that night?
1st guy in crowd: Yah!
BC: No one?
1st guy in crowd: This guy.
BC: Oh, there you go, thank you, (pointing to a 2nd guy in crowd) thank you. Did you actually get in?
1st guy in crowd: Yah.
BC: Okay, cool. (to 2nd guy) You didn’t get in?
2nd guy in crowd: No!
BC: Oh, sorry about that. But you’re in now. Um, and uh, we just wanted to of course play the Siamese, (to Jimmy) I think that night we did play Siva.
Jimmy: (off mic) Yeah, we did.
BC: And uh, we tried I Am One, but then the mosh pit started and the floor started shaking and I was like, we gotta stop this. I don’t wanna die because our album’s coming out. So in lieu of that, we’d like to play a Siamese song that we did not play that night. Hope you enjoy it.
Spaceboy
> Spaced
BC: (imitating in very proper voice) "WBEZ with Ken Nordine." That’s some Ken Nordine shit I had goin’ there. (imitating in very proper voice) “Word Jazz with Ken Nordine.” (normal voice) Rubano, where are you?
Guy in crowd: Up here.
BC: Mike Rubano, everybody. (imitating in very proper voice) “Word Jazz with Ken Nordine,” (normal voice) remember that shit? Ken Nordine. I think I got to call Ken Nordine on the phone at one point.
Mike Rubano: (off mic) I think so, yeah.
BC: Yeah. Does anyone remember Ken Nordine? A few people? Word Jazz, that was his show. (imitating in very proper voice) “Now, Billy, I’d like to talk to you about a project that I’m doing.” (normal voice) That’s exactly how it was. Now, at the end of this song...we have a very special announcement. James, are you excited for the special announcement?
Iha: Yeah. Yeah. What -- what is it?
BC: Well...it’s like I tell my kids: “If we do a good job....”
Iha: Ohh, okay, well, what the hell?
BC: “If we do a good job, then we [unintelligible word] the [unintelligible word].” But you have to...do a good job.
Iha: We’ll have to--
BC: It includes me too.
Iha: We’ll have to really work on this one.
BC: Alright, give me one second. (drinks) Thank you to our Madame Zuzu’s staff for an incredible week. Gettin’ it done. Thank you to, uh, Tower Records for collaborating with us, thank you so much, amazing. This is the first Tower Records in the world since 2006...which I think is really cool. And a little shoutout to my partner, Chloe, now Mrs. Chloe Mendel Corgan, we just got married yesterday. I’m in the, uh, I’m in the transitional phase between partner and wife, I haven’t quite gotten to wife yet.
Iha: Heh.
BC: You know this doesn’t work, right, (laughing) it’s a bad idea. Heh heh heh heh. How long you been married, James?
Iha: Uhhh, a while. (pause) [unintelligible].
BC: Hey...(to Iha) incredible wife, your wife...
Iha: Yes, yes...
BC: ...beautiful family...
Iha: ...yes.
BC: ...(to Jimmy) incredible wife, beautiful family, (gestures at himself) incredible wife, beautiful family, we lucked out, man. Unless you wanna disagree, it’s....
Iha: No, no.
BC: Hahahahaha! I love putting him on the spot. Um...well...this song goes back to a demo he gave me, I found the cassette the other day. He gave me this demo cassette in 1992 somewhere in Japan and uh, we wrote the song together and uh, of course our poster is in tribute to this song. I saw a comment the other day on the internet, oh my god, he’s trolling this song. ‘Cause the Siamese zombie fans at every Smashing Pumpkins show must now insist that we play this song. But for you, we will play this. Alright, enough bloviating and stalling, here we go.
Mayonaise
BC: Thank you. ... How you feelin’ so far? (crowd cheers) (Jeff taps Billy and says something off mic) Oh, I do have an announcement, thank you, Jeff. Did we play it well enough to do the announcement?
Jeff: (off mic) I think so.
BC: James, what did you think?
Iha: It was pretty good. That was pretty good, we haven’t played it in a while.
BC: Hit the big notes, it was....
Iha: Yeah.
BC: We weren’t horribly out of tune like normal. The big announcement....
Iha: Oh yeah.
BC: You still don’t know what it is, right?
Iha: I mean, I don’t know.
BC: We have produced a, um, a number of copies of a special collector’s edition of Mayonaise, um, it’s available now on Madame Zuzu’s dot com.
Chloe: (off mic) No, it’s not! Two, during the second show!
Iha: From the back.
BC: Huh?
Chloe: (off mic) During the second show.
BC: But I can announce it now.
Chloe: (off mic) You can announce it, but it’s not available.
Iha: Oh.
BC: That’s my wife, Chloe Mendel Corgan.
Iha: Some kind of an announcement.
BC: Heh! Ha.
Iha: Alright. Who’s right?
BC: Can I -- well, I should still--
Iha: You know what it is, okay, sorry.
BC: Yeah, go ahead. During the second show....
Iha: Not this one.
BC: Would you like to define for these good people, when during the second show, it will be made available?
Chloe: (off mic) You said whenever you say it.
BC: [unintelligible word]?
Chloe: (off mic) You said whenever you say it!
BC: Oh man.
Iha: Oh. That’s now then.
BC: Now, now.
Iha: Okay, well...I guess...we’ll just go into another song. You’re gonna really like this next one. It’s a good one.
BC: Let’s try that song.
Hummer (abandoned after 40 seconds)
Iha: [unintelligible].
BC: Stop. Just stop, just stop. That announcement so messed you up man!
Iha: That announcement, [unintelligible]. My...my bad. Alright.
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vita (tease - one time through the riff quietly)
Iha: One more time.
Hummer
BC: (tuning) That’s what I wanted. Jesus. This thing went way, way out of tune. (more tuning) Wow, that was weird. I’m just gonna rock [unintelligible].
Iha: Is this -- is this what you think about when you tune? (laughing) Saying out loud?
BC: This is my new thing. Now that I’m married, you know, I’m.... It’s gonna be kind of a constant monologue. I’m sure you won’t mind. You know when we’re on the tour bus and I just talk about a lot of stuff that’s going on in my head.
Iha: Yeah. Yeah, sure.
BC: Alright, close enough. Alright, how’s it been so far, you okay? (crowd cheers)
Jimmy: (off mic) [unintelligible].
BC: Runnin’ out of time, man.
Jimmy: (off mic) Like eight something.
BC: Then we’d better hurry. You don’t want the boss comin’ down on me. Now that I’m married, you know a blues album’s coming, right?
(Jimmy plays a pounding beat, followed by a brief 12-bar blues riff from Jeff)
BC: Hahahahaha! Okay. One more and then a little surprise for you at the end.
Guy in crowd: Woo!!
BC: Whenever anybody woos the surprise, I’m like, you have no idea, it might be a surprise you don’t like! Heh. “He made us sit there and listen to all this synth music, it was horrible!” Alright, I’ll shut the fuck up. Sorry for the kids, alright, here we go.
Luna (abandoned after first chord)
Jeff: (off mic) You missed it.
BC: I had a tour flashback, when the guitar was tuned in the wrong sync, that’s what that is.
Jeff: (off mic) Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Luna (abandoned after about 5 chords)
BC: I should start that over. Sorry, Howard. Say hello to Howard Willing in the truck, wherever he is. Hello, Howard! (polite applause) They liked the announcement more than they like Howard.
Iha: Sure.
Luna
(Jimmy joins Billy and Iha on stools at the front of the stage)
BC: Thank you so much, we have reached the end of this exercise. It’s been a lot of fun, we appreciate you so much. It’s uh, it’s certainly mind blowing to us that 30 years later, anybody would care about these songs. (looks at Jimmy)
Jimmy: (off mic) Hey, how’s it going?
BC: Hi Jimmy. Jimmy Chamberlin, James Iha. This is where I -- this is where I change my name to...William Mendel or...
Jimmy: (off mic) Bill Mendel.
BC: (laughing) Bill Mendel. Not of the Righteous Brothers.
Jimmy: (off mic) (laughing) So right, you are not that guy.
BC: Heh. Um, thought it’d be nice to end with a B-side from the Siamese Dream era. And uh, it means to me every night that we play -- play with these guys here. It’s been a craaazy journey for the three of us, but the love that we’re receiving at this point in our lives is pretty shocking and amazing and cool. It’s great to see so many young people falling in love with this music and wanting to see us play it, so to those of you that are young that are here, thank you. (pointing) You don’t count ‘cause you’re my family, just thought I’d.... Heh heh. Um, my brother’s here, Rick, and his beautiful wife Di. And Ava, Sophia and Julian, my nieces and nephew. But um, where am I going with this? I think yesterday of course was a special day and of course the guys were there with me. And of course Jeff and Jack too and Katie and Howard and so many people that mean so much to our lives. And um...it’s not every day you get to stop and -- and be appreciative and so we just want to show our appreciation and so this is the best way that we can do it, is just to give a little vibe on the OG band here. What’s left of us. Okay, here we go, stop talking.
Purr Snickety (Billy/Iha/Jimmy only)
BC: Thank you guys, thank you, we appreciate it, thank you.
Jimmy: (off mic) Thank you.
Iha: Thank you guys. Thank you, appreciate it.

Photos and memorabilia

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