Billy Corgan 2017-09-20

September 20, 2017 – Highland Park, IL, US
Live performance by Billy Corgan
Madame ZuZu's 2017 residency
Date	September 20, 2017
Venue	Madame ZuZu's
Coordinates	42°9′55″N 87°47′6″W
Location	Highland Park, IL, US
Venue type	Teahouse
Capacity	40
Personnel	Billy Corgan
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Setlist

1. "Spaceboy" (acoustic) 
2. "Aeronaut" (acoustic) 
3. "Muzzle" (acoustic) 
4. "Blissed and Gone" (abandoned) (acoustic) 
5. "Pinwheels" (acoustic) 
6. "To Sheila" (acoustic) 
7. "Now (And Then)" (acoustic) 
8. "Box of Rain" [Grateful Dead] (live debut)

Notes

• "Box of Rain" performed on piano; its place in the setlist is unknown, though likely before or after all other songs
• First performances of "Blissed and Gone", "To Sheila" and "Now (And Then)" since 2015-06-25
• First performance of "Box of Rain"
• Final performance of "Blissed and Gone"

Banter

Spaceboy
BC: [cuts in] It actually kinda - it’s a little bit different on guitar, I wrote it on piano but I’ve been playing it on guitar a bit.
Aeronaut
Muzzle
Blissed and Gone (abandoned after verse 2)
BC verse 2: (singing) I had no luck / I had no love / I had no fun / I had no luck / I had no.... / I had no...donuts / I had no.... (stops playing briefly, then continues) / But you and you in my heart. (stops playing) I’ll tell you a funny story. So um, I was playing a benefit for...Tibet House at Carnegie Hall and um - in nineteen ninety...seven? - and I was on stage soundchecking and I was playing this song and I look to my right and it was Allen Ginsberg, the famous beat poet. And he was sitting there kind of listening, he was just sitting in a chair, and it was maybe a year or two before he died, so he was pretty old but he was still - his mind was totally intact. And he waved me over and he said, uh, “I like that song but the lyrics and the chorus don’t make any sense to me.” And he had written better rhymes on a piece of paper. So somewhere in my shit, I have like this little piece of paper where he wrote better rhymes for the song. I thought, “I’ll take it from you but nobody else.” And then I tried to ex - aw, just wait, that’s the - and then I tried to explain to him that...the simplicity of the lyric was on purpose, that it was anti-poetic on purpose and it was meant to be kinda dumb and that just...just went right by his.... And because he was such a Dylan devotee, I was like, you know, Dylan would write those choruses like “Mama, I’m stayin’ here with you tonight,” I said, “It’s like one of those choruses” and it went right by his head. Just - I wasn’t winning any points there. Alright, we have five minutes, anybody else? [tape cuts] [cuts in] Are you good?
Guy in crowd: Yeah, if we could just do the portraits outside after this.
BC: Oh, you wanna do ‘em out there?
Guy: Portraits? Yeah.
BC: What time is it?
Guy: It’s 4:20.
BC: Okay. (puts his hands up in faux shock for a second and the crowd laughs)
Pinwheels
(BC hits a wrong chord on “blue” in “Floating away, I think I’ll stay in blue light”)
BC: (quickly) It’s been a while. (singing) Floating away, I think I’ll stay / Next to you / Finding a way to make the loss in...(clearly trying to remember next chord)...you. (stops playing) (speaking and testing chords) It’s that chord, sorry. Does anyone know? It’s so weird, I can’t figure it out. Bust. Gonna learn it on the piano, that’s why I can’t play this. (restarts song from first “Floating away, I think I’ll stay”)
To Sheila
Now (And Then)