Billy Corgan 2014-08-30

August 30, 2014 – Highland Park, IL, US
Live performance by Billy Corgan
Artist	Billy Corgan
Date	August 30, 2014
Venue	Ravinia Pavilion
Coordinates	42°9′29″N 87°46′37″W
Location	Highland Park, IL, US
Venue type	Amphitheater
Capacity	3,400
Personnel	Billy Corgan, Jeff Schroeder, Matt Walker, Sierra Swan, Amalie Bruun, Brian Harding, Jesse Andersen, Resistance Pro wrestlers
Order of bands	Katie Cole, Billy Corgan
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What was promoted as Billy Corgan's first true solo show ended up being sort of a preview for the forthcoming In Plainsong tours. The show featured notable guest appearances by Matt Walker, Sierra Swan and Ex Cops (Amalie Bruun & Brian Harding). Another highlight was the only performance of what Billy would later refer to as the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Suite, a stretch of eight songs in a row drawn from the recording sessions for that album.

Full performance, except "Chicago", "My Poor Troubled Heart" and "Stand Inside Your Love"

Setlist

Pre-set

"The Killing Moon" [Echo & the Bunnymen] (VIP) (acoustic) (only performance)
"Purr Snickety" (VIP) (acoustic) (live debut)
"Owata" (VIP) (acoustic) (final performance)

Resistance Pro rehearsal

"Of a Broken Heart" (acoustic)

Set

"Chicago" (piano)
"Today" (acoustic)
"Disarm" (acoustic)
"Lonely Is the Name" (acoustic) (final performance)
"My Poor Troubled Heart" (acoustic) (live debut)
"For Your Love" (acoustic)
"The Rose March" (acoustic) (final performance)
"Perfect" (acoustic)
"Let Me Give the World to You" (acoustic)
"Prairie Song"
"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" (piano)
"To Forgive" (piano)
"Muzzle" (acoustic)
"Tonight, Tonight" (acoustic)
"Galapogos" (acoustic)
"Methusela" (acoustic) (only performance)
"Thirty-Three" (acoustic)
"1979" (acoustic)
"Now (And Then)"
"The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning"
"The Crying Tree of Mercury"
"Ava Adore"
"Pinwheels" (acoustic)
"Stand Inside Your Love" (acoustic)
"Which Way You Goin' Billy?" [The Poppy Family] (only performance)
"Burnt Orange Black" (live debut)

Encore

"The World's Fair"
"Of a Broken Heart" (acoustic)

Notes

Banter

Chicago (Billy solo piano)
BC: Alright.
Today (Billy solo acoustic)
Disarm (Billy solo acoustic)
BC: Thank you. Thank you, that’s very kind, thank you. So, I go right back to my rock move, I wanna do that.
Lonely is the Name (Billy solo acoustic)
> My Poor Troubled Heart (Billy solo acoustic)
BC: Like to take you back now to the Djali Zwan days.
For Your Love
BC: Love is an overused word.
The Rose March
BC: My special night. As if this season wasn’t bad enough, you know? I don’t think, I know you’re not a baseball fan - Jeff’s a hockey guy. His team, the L.A. Kings. (crowd boos) I know you don’t follow baseball but I’m pretty sure the Cubs haven’t won one game, it’s like they’re zero and a hundred or something, it’s unbelievable. Never happened before. Well, in the era of bad showbiz transitions, I wrote an album around 1997-98 about my mother, uh, Martha. And a few other, uh, losses. Heh heh. That was the big one but, um, so we’ll, we’ll just dedicate this song to mourning. To the Blackhawks who lost to your Kings.
Perfect
Let Me Give the World to You
Prairie Song
BC: Okay. There goes the White Sox fan again.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
To Forgive
Muzzle
Tonight, Tonight
BC: Thank you.
Galapogos
BC: Whoo! ... Thank you, that’s so nice, thank you. Thank you, wow, thank you. Heh heh. No, we really, we thank you, thank you so much, thank you. See, the whole time you’re clapping, I’m thinking “They haven’t heard the second half of the show yet,” heh heh. Will they still be clapping at the...? (somebody in crowd yells something) What would you like? Well, there you go. Heh heh heh. Just having our own fun up here. Got a few more Mellon Collie songs for you. And we’d like to debut a song now that’s never been played live. And the story on this song is that I wrote it, um, I wrote a lot of songs in that period, I think I wrote something like fifty...seven or something, just crazy. I lived in the purple Victorian house and, uh, yeah, heh heh. I’ll stop - once I start talking, it’s hard to stop me. Um, anyway. So, as you do, you get up in the morning, you write a song, whatever, go back to bed like a good rock star and, uh, I played every song that I did, uh, for the producers of that album, Flood and Alan Moulder, except for this song, which is very strange because, uh, they’re my friends and I’m very close to them. And it recently came out on the, uh, plug, Mellon Collie box set and, heh heh.... Thank you. Now if you do a standing ovation for the box set, now that’ll be something. Ha ha ha. (crowd cheers) Oh no, stop, we just don’t have time. Anyway, heh, sorry, is it sticky up here? I don’t know. Uh, heh, so the song is called Methusela and it was written about my father, Bill Senior, as we like to call him around here. And, uh, I wasn’t talking to Bill Senior at the time and it was, it’s, it’s that one step over the line of being personal and so I never played it for anybody. And then, um, so that was why it never was recorded, it was never even further demoed out by the band, the band never heard it and so, uh, here it is all these years later. So we’d like to play it for you tonight for the first time.
Methusela
BC: That’s it. I expected more singing along, to be honest.
Thirty-Three
1979
Now and Then
> The Beginning is the End is the Beginning
The Crying Tree of Mercury
Ava Adore (with Matt Walker)
BC: Thank you!
Pinwheels (with Sierra Swan & Ex-Cops)
Stand Inside Your Love (with Sierra Swan & Ex-Cops)
BC: You okay for a few more? Chi-town in the house. A quick introduction to my compatriots: on the drums, Mr. Matt Walker. On the guitar, Mr. Jeff Schroeder. Tearin’ it up. From the Ex-Cops, Ms. Amalie Bruun, Mr. Brian Harding, thank you for being here. They got a new album coming out that I worked with them on, so please check that out...plug. And on the bass and the vocals, the chanteuse, Ms. Sierra Swan.
Which Way You Goin’ Billy? (with Matt Walker, Sierra Swan & Ex-Cops)
Amalie: Thank you.
BC: Well, we’ve reached the end. Yes. I’m partying all night long, I don’t know about you. To everyone here, down here, everyone in the back, up on the lawn, thank you so much. God bless you everyone. We hope you’ve had a good time. Alright! That’s an encouraging shout. So we’d like to leave you with this last song, it’s a newer song, uh, but it’s not on the new album, yes. A treat. A tasty pre-Halloween treat. This is called Burnt Orange-Black.
Burnt Orange-Black (with Matt Walker, Sierra Swan & Ex-Cops)
BC: Thank you!
[encore break]
The World’s Fair (with Matt Walker)
BC: Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the real end. Like to bring out my brothers and sisters from the Resistance Pro Wrestling promotion. And Ms. Sierra Swan, Amalie Bruun, Brian Harding. Yes, you are the way. Colonel Jesse? Say hi to my brother. Wanna say hi to everybody?
Jesse Andersen: What’s up, Ravinia? Doesn’t that [unintelligible] rock or what?
BC: He’s had a few.
Jesse: I stuttered, dude.
BC: Ha ha ha. Alright, we’d like to end with the song Of a Broken Heart. (small cheer) That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? (bigger cheer)
Of a Broken Heart (with Matt Walker, Jesse Andersen, Ex-Cops & Resistance Pro wrestlers)
BC: Alright.
[bow]
BC: And hey! We’re a local promotion, come check us out, September 12th in Chicago. Support your local promotions, we’re all homegrown here from Chicago. Except you. Where you from? Parts unknown. Goodnight everybody, thank you.

Photos and memorabilia