Billy Corgan 2019-11-19

November 19, 2019 – New York, NY, US
Live performance by Billy Corgan
United States 2019 tour
Date	November 19, 2019
Venue	Gramercy Theatre
Coordinates	40°44′23″N 73°59′6″W
Location	New York, NY, US
Venue type	Theater
Capacity	650
Personnel	Billy Corgan, Meena Ysanne, Chloe Corgan
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Setlist

Set one

1. "To Scatter One's Own" (acoustic) 
2. "Cri de Coeur" (acoustic) 
3. "Martinets" (acoustic) (live debut)
4. "Hard Times" (acoustic) 
5. "Fragile, The Spark" (acoustic) (final performance)
6. "Rider" (acoustic) (final performance)
7. "Dancehall" (acoustic) 
8. "Anon" (piano) (final performance)
9. "Aeronaut" (piano) 
10. "Processional" (acoustic) 
11. "Archer" (acoustic) (final performance)
12. "Oh, My Darling Clementine" [traditional] (acoustic) (final performance)
13. "Mandarynne" (piano) (final performance)

Set two

14. "Thirty-Three" (acoustic) 
15. "La Dolly Vita" (acoustic) 
16. "Today" (acoustic) 
17. "To Sheila" (acoustic) 
18. "The Empty Sea" (acoustic) 
19. "In the Arms of Sleep" (acoustic) (final performance)
20. "Endless Summer" (piano) (final performance)
21. "Zero" (tease) (piano) 
22. "Hangin' On" [The Gosdin Brothers] (piano) (final performance)
23. "Another Bridge to Burn" [Little Jimmy Dickens] (acoustic) (final performance)
24. "1979" (acoustic) 
25. "Cast a Stone" (acoustic) (final performance)
26. "Disarm" 

Encore

27. "Waiting for a Train That Never Comes" (acoustic) 
28. "Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)" (acoustic) 

Notes

• "Dancehall", "Anon", "Aeronaut", "Archer", "Oh, My Darling Clementine", "To Sheila" and "Hangin' On" with Meena Ysanne on violin
• "Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)" with Chloe Mendel on backing vocals

Banter

(Due to no known complete source existing for this show, some banter is likely missing)

To Scatter One’s Own
Cri de Coeur
BC: Thank you very much, thank you. Welcome to the show...that has no show. So I’d like to play you a new song from the forthcoming Cotillions album...which most of these songs from the first set are from the new album, but the distinction in this song is this is the first time I’m gonna play it live, so.... And I will try to perform it error free.
Martinets
BC: Thank you so much, thank you.
Hard Times
Fragile, The Spark
BC: Thank you very much. Many of these songs were written on a trip I took across America...and uh, trying to figure out whatever’s going on out there. I live in Chicago mostly and uh...(a few whoops from the crowd)...thank you. You know, a thing you find sometimes if you live in the big city is the world comes to you, but when you get out there, you find that the world doesn’t much come to them anymore, so it was important for me to get out there and see, you know, the world that my ancestors grew up in. However distant it may be, there’s still traces and bones and skeletons and...big donut stands, shit like big donuts and stuff. So this is a song I wrote - I can’t remember where we were, but we were sitting next to a body of water, the sun was going down and this one just popped out, so I hope you like it.
Rider
Dancehall (with Meena Ysanne)
BC: Thank you very much, thank you. Hope you’re having a good time.
Guy in crowd: You’re a genius, Billy.
BC: Heeey, alright. Ain’t no geniusin’ goin’ on up here, just...just some workman-like attempt. So this is the last song from the new album that I’m playing tonight. Appreciate you listening to these new songs, the album’s out in a few days. And uh, quick story. It’s funny how life works, I’d actually kicked this song off the album and had no plans to put it on the record. And then on the last day of recording, I think we had one hour left and so we were kinda just sitting there, so we might as well do something. Started flipping through and I find this song and I’m like, “Oh yeah,” and I sat down and two takes later, this is - it’s on the record and it’s the last song on the record. It’s called Anon. (people cheer) See, that’s the beauty of the internet, I didn’t really think much of this song, I still put it on the record and then the first time I played it, it’s like (gesturing to illustrate scrolling through comments) ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch, “I love that song,” “I love that song,” “I love that song.” So it shows you what I know, right? (starts playing Anon chords) If I let you decide everything, you wouldn’t be here. (laughs to himself and stops playing a few seconds later) You know, I have this concept, you know, it’s called “If I ruled the world.” So when I’m pontificating, I’m like, (making faux haughty expression) “Well, if I ruled the world.”
Guy in crowd: You rule the world, Billy!
BC: Yeah, okay.
Anon (piano) (with Meena Ysanne)
Aeronaut (piano) (with Meena Ysanne)
BC: Thank you very much, thank you.
Processional
BC: Thank you so kindly, thank you.
Archer (with Meena Ysanne)
BC: Now I get asked a lot of questions in the world and one question I get asked pretty regularly is - because of the quiet nature of these shows and I do appreciate you keeping quiet, not everyone is. Heh. Do I mind people singing along and the answer is no, I don’t mind at all, I’m very actually touched by it. So, if you’d like to sing along with this one, I encourage it heartily. Now this is a song I did not write. Heh heh heh, somebody just said “Shit.” But I guarantee, I guarantee that you do know this song. And if you don’t know it, well....
Oh, My Darling Clementine (abandoned after 6 strums - capo is a little loose)
Oh, My Darling Clementine (abandoned after 11 seconds - capo is still loose)
BC: See, he wasn’t wrong about the shit part, right?
Oh, My Darling Clementine (with Meena Ysanne)
BC: Heh heh. So we have reached the fateful end of the first set. Yes, all good things must come to an end and this set is about to come to an end. We take a 20 minute break and I’ll come back and play some songs that hopefully you know or lost your virginity to, took drugs to...or in your mind scaled the Empire State Building to. Whatever you did to those songs, hopefully you’ll do them again while I play them for you. It’s hard to follow a classic like Darling Clementine but I will now try.
Mandarynne (piano)
BC: See you in 20 minutes, thank you so much.
[set break]
Thirty-three
> La Dolly Vita
BC: Thank you!
Today
BC: Thank you very much, thank you.
Guy in crowd: (heavy New York accent) A classic!
BC: A classic. This next song, which I hope is familiar to you, comes from the Adore album. And as I like to jest, now you like it. (Billy shoots finger guns as people protest) Heh heh heh. I dunno. And uh, this is the first song that I recorded for that album and uh...all I remember about writing this song was that I was somewhere in Poland and we were with a very stinky driver. And uh, heh heh, heh heh heh, and so as I gazed out the window somewhere in Poland with a stinky driver, this song came to me, so hopefully you won’t have the same olfactory offense as I play you this song.
To Sheila (with Meena Ysanne)
BC: Thank you kindly, thank you. This uh, this song here is from a band I had for a hot second called Zwan. And I wanted to name the band Swan...but of course there’s that great band called The Swan. So in my weird backwards brain, I thought Zwan with a Z. Zero, Zwan, zed, the null swan, yeah, some, some, (laughing) whatever I was thinking then. So we, you know, we called the band Zwan and got our T-shirts and then we went to Europe and we found out that Zwan is a form of Spam. Heh heh, and there’s even bootlegs with the Spam on the bootleg. So be careful what letter you use...in this complicated world. This is a song that was never released officially, we played it live a few times and uh, hope you like it.
The Empty Sea
BC: I’d like to play a song for you tonight that I haven’t played in a long time (tuning guitar), which requires some awkward tuning. (keeps tuning) Yeah. This is what we call in the Pumpkins “not pro.” You have your shit together, it’s called “pro.” That was not pro. So I wanna do something special, so I hope you enjoy this song. And uh, if I mess it up, well, I wrote it, so I guess I can re-write it, heh heh, on the fly.
In the Arms of Sleep
BC: [tape cuts in] We all know that you have internets to log onto with gummy bears to take. And vapes to vape. Heh heh heh.
Endless Summer (piano)
BC: Okay. This is usually the part of the show when people start yelling out requests as they’re starting to get desperate, “He’s not gonna play that song.”
Multiple people in crowd: [variations on “Play whatever you want”]
BC: Thank you, I appreciate that. Heh heh heh heh. Well, you just play a medley, you know what I mean, I could get the heck outta here and go back to my kids, but uh, heh heh heh. It’s like, I love when you yell out Zero, like, okay, yeah, I’m really gonna rock that on the piano. Exactly.
Zero (tease - a few times through the riff) (piano)
BC: “Yeah, man, he rocked that so.... I thought the Pumpkin version was good but man, solo? There was an intimacy, there was a vibe.... When he sang about the charcoal teeth, he looked right at me.” Okay, back to the show. This is one of my favorite parts of the show, where I get to play you some songs that are in my jukebox at home. In our kitchen back in Chicago, we have a 1953 AMI jukebox, which is loaded with country and western and bluegrass songs.
Guy in crowd: [unintelligible], fellas.
BC: God bless, man. And ironically my jukebox is full of my songs played by country and western stars in the ‘60s and the ‘50s, it’s unbelievable, it was like some kind of time machine shit. So this is the Gosdin Brothers version of course of uh, I don’t know, Bodies, I don’t know. Heh, heh heh heh. This is a song by the Gosdin Brothers called Hangin’ On, which I think came out about 1967 or so. And if you don’t know the Gosdin Brothers, you might wanna look them up if you like bands like the Eagles and the Byrds ‘cause they were very influential in the California scene of bringing pop alternative kind of psychedelic country to the mainstream and so I love this song. Hope you love it too.
Hangin’ On (piano) (with Meena Ysanne)
BC: So yeah. This song that I like as well, it was recorded by Waylon Jennings on his first album, guess about 1964. Many years before I was born. Of course, many years before you were born.
Another Bridge to Burn
1979
Cast a Stone
BC: Well, thank you so much, it’s been a really enjoyable show, I’ve enjoyed playing for you. We’ve reached the proverbial end. It’s true. That gentlemen that came up, he wasn’t celebrating my song, he told me “Get off the stage.” And I coulda misheard him, I’m, I’m, you know I’m a little deaf but uh, he said something about “I gotta get to my gummy bears at home. I gotta binge watch some Netflix and get high on THC.” Have you enjoyed the show? [unintelligible 2-3 words]. Yes. As I’ve talked about a few times, this song here I wrote at the sort of depths of a suicidal binge. The band had put out our first album and there was this tremendous pressure to suddenly become a pop band because those rascals from Seattle had stormed the charts and uh, heh heh heh. And suddenly people at the record company started looking at us like “I don’t think you can quite do that.” So for about eight months I was in this kind of weird funk, it got worse and worse and worse and worse and I got more and more sort of obsessed with the idea of death. If you know anything about people who are suicidal, it becomes like an almost like a OCD obsession, where you start thinking about your funeral and what people will say and you start writing your obituary and of course you give away all your clothes and your Black Sabbath records. And I had reached all those stages. And I got so tired of the inner dialogue that I made this decision, like on Tuesday, like, “Right, Friday I’m gonna kill myself.” And um, it got to be Friday and I was like “Oh, I just don’t have it in me to kill myself,” which is a good thing. Or we get dead and we’re all in heaven together and uh, chew my face, I’m cool with that. Um, thank you, heh heh. Including the guy who came up and whispered about his gummy bears. ‘Cause it’s a simulation and we’re all just figuring out our part in the avatar world that we’re in now. So hopefully, you enjoy your time here. So, back to my story, I woke up on that Friday morning and I thought, “Right, well, if you’re not gonna kill yourself, you better do something productive.” And I made this weird decision that changed my life, which is I was gonna finally write some songs that came from me, not what I was trying to be or what I wanted to be or what I thought I should do, which is always a complicated issue for anybody who’s young. And I sat down and I wrote this song and also Today, which I played earlier in the set, and these two songs came out in about 24 to 48 hours. And so, I bid you adieu with this song and I dedicate this song to you.
Disarm (piano)
[encore break]
Waiting for a Train That Never Comes
BC: Alright, we’ve reached the end end end.
Guy #1 in crowd: Fake end!
Guy #2 in crowd: Play all night!
BC: Heh heh heh. I appreciate you very much, thank you. If you’d told me many moons ago during those Gish times that I’d be able to do this, much less play these songs for you and even sing them like this, like a crazy banshee person, I wouldn’t believed ya, but here I am and here you are, so I’m grateful. So a quick exit. This last song, I’d like you to sing along if you could. I encourage you to dig deep and uh, since we’re all in the band together, on this one I need you to understand that like the Pumpkins - okay, we’re all in the Pumpkins now, let’s pretend we’re all in the Pumpkins. We had a very uh - obviously we were very prog at different points, so we had a common expectation that there was no fucking up or you, as has been well documented, you would get the look from me.
Guy in crowd: We all fuck up.
BC: Exactly. And uh, as I once asked a former band member, “What was it like to get the look?” and they said, “Well, it’s something like how could you ever play that wrong note in a million fuckin’ years, you fuckin’ idiot?” So, I don’t know if I can simulate the look, but you might get the look if you mess this up. So all you have to do is remember now that we’re in the band together are these three numbers: two, two and four. First chorus twice, second chorus twice, last chorus four times. And to join me, heh heh heh, in this ramble, is my partner in crime, Ms. Chloe.
Silvery Sometimes (with Chloe Mendel)
BC: Thank you very much! Thank you!