Billy Corgan 2019-06-24

From SPCodex, The Smashing Pumpkins wiki
June 24, 2019 – Paris, FR
Live performance by Billy Corgan
Europe 2019 (Billy Corgan) tour
DateJune 24, 2019
VenueLe Trianon
Coordinates48°52′58″N 2°20′35″E
LocationParis, FR
Venue typeTheater
Capacity1,091
PersonnelBilly Corgan, Katie Cole

Setlist[edit | edit source]

Set one[edit | edit source]

  1. "Waiting for a Train That Never Comes(acoustic) 
  2. "Hard Times(acoustic) 
  3. "To Scatter One's Own(acoustic) 
  4. "Faithless Darlin'(acoustic) 
  5. "Apologia(acoustic) 
  6. "Cri de Coeur(acoustic) 
  7. "Buffalo Boys(acoustic) 
  8. "Dancehall(acoustic) 
  9. "Aeronaut(piano) 
  10. "Processional(acoustic) 
  11. "Half-Life of an Autodidact(acoustic) 
  12. "The Long Goodbye(acoustic) 
  13. "Mandarynne(piano) 
  14. "Along the Santa Fe Trail" [Ray Noble(piano) 

Set two[edit | edit source]

  1. "Wound(acoustic) 
  2. "Thirty-Three(acoustic) 
  3. "Spaceboy(acoustic) 
  4. "Violet Rays(acoustic) 
  5. "Endless Summer(piano) 
  6. "To Sheila(acoustic) 
  7. "Tonight, Tonight(acoustic) 
  8. "Ugly(acoustic) 
  9. "Travels(piano) 
  10. "Disarm(piano) 

Encore[edit | edit source]

  1. "Honestly(acoustic) (final performance)
  2. "Today(acoustic) 

Notes[edit | edit source]

  • "Buffalo Boys" and "Dancehall" with Katie Cole on backing vocals
  • "Today" is sung entirely by the audience

Banter[edit | edit source]

Waiting for a Train That Never Comes
Hard Times
To Scatter One’s Own
Faithless Darlin’
Apologia
BC: Thank you very much, thank you. ... This is a song called Cri de Coeur.
Cri de Coeur
BC: I would now like to welcome back to the stage Ms. Katie Cole to join me for a few songs.
Buffalo Boys (with Katie Cole)
Dancehall (abandoned after 5 seconds)
BC: Even I make mistakes. Not very often but it happens. I will blame the heat. Okay, we’ll blame Satan’s inferno that has fallen on your beautiful city.
Dancehall (with Katie Cole)
BC: Thank you so much, thank you. Many years ago, I stopped talking...at concerts because every time I did, I got in trouble. It became a meme and a...a folly. Particularly in my home country which, as you know, is not very nice. Although, Parisians can be not nice too. Not that I’ve ever experienced it, I’ve only heard the stories. So I was thinking today of what I wanted to say because, really for the first time, I’ve started talking about some of the songs. About what they mean, about what I was thinking because many years ago, I learned not to talk about the songs because invariably what I would say would be twisted...uh, out of context. And then forever, you know, I’d have people walk up to me on the street and say “Oh, I love this song,” then it’s about this thing and of course it wasn’t have anything to do with that because some journalist who has a problem with alcohol and his beard, um...um, figure it out. So first of all, what I want to say, in reference to this song, it’s a bit of a rambling poem to Paris. Yes, we are in Paris, right? Possibly and probably the greatest city on the planet Earth. And a city that has given me much personally, so if you’ll allow me to explain. First of all, Chicago - back in the day - was a shithole. I don’t know if that translates. Does “shithole” translate? Stockyards and....
Lady in crowd: Absolument.
BC: Thank you. And in trains and...so somewhere in the 1870s...um, or actually, I’m sorry, 1880s, Chicago decided that it wanted to be - and I kid you not - the Paris of the West. True story. And I’m not sure when the Exposition was here where the Eiffel Tower was built but Chicago’s reaction was to try to have not only a similar fair but to also have an attraction which is how we, um, what begat the Ferris wheel. Um, that was our attempt to mimic the Eiffel Tower. And so, unknowingly, I grew up in a world that was mightily influenced by Paris because my ancestors and our ancestors in Chicago so wanted to be a city that was beautiful like Paris and cultured like Paris. That - that’s why we have one of the great art collections in the world and it - as a boy of eight years old or whatever, I would go to the museum and I would see Seurat and Picasso and Goya, and that was my first introduction into this magical world that was created here. Also...and it’s hard to explain but I’ll try to be simple about it. My children have a lot to do with Paris, I have two children now: Augustus Juppiter, who’s almost four, and Philomena Clementine, who’s about eight months old. Their grandfather, Jacques Reitman, was a resistance fighter against the Nazis and he hid out, was never captured and...was so highly sought after that he had to hide for a year in a haystack where he taught himself how to read. And luckily a family protected him because he was one of the great resistance fighters on behalf of France and after the war, he was decorated by Mitterrand and so I’m proud to say that my children have the blood of a true Parisian and someone who fought for this country. And then there’s so many memories of coming here and playing great shows with the Pumpkins at Bercy. Even playing the Bataclan where I had a first brush with a Parisian woman. I just played a show and I was all...stylin’ and profilin’, as we say in wrestling. And I saw a beautiful Parisian woman and I thought, “Oh, she’s just seen me play onstage,” and I kinda struck a pose and she looked at me and went...just walked on by, heh heh. Heh heh heh. And um, it’s a strange memory but I was reminded of course recently when we all watched in horror as the Eiffel Tower - ah sorry, Notre Dame was burning. And I was reminded of a memory which of course is completely contrary to the - to the horror of this beautiful building burning, which is that somewhere in the ‘90s, I wanted to have an affair with a woman and she would only sleep with me if I met him - her in the middle of the night in front of Notre Dame because that showed my commitment. And so I had to get a cab, drive to Notre Dame. And then I took her back to my hotel - which, back in the days, we stayed in very cheap hotels - and as I walked in, the guy kinda roused from his sleep, “No no no, Monsieur, no prostitutes.” And I said, “She’s not a prostitute,” “It doesn’t matter, no no no no no.” What he didn’t understand is that she had the body of a Olympic downhill skier and there was nothing gonna stop me from taking her upstairs. Heh heh heh. So that’s a poetic way of saying I love this city, appreciate this city. And lastly, we haven’t been able to come here with the Smashing Pumpkins, although we want to very much. Thank you. And uh, we had to prove that we can still be whatever that band is. And last year of course we came to London: sold out. Sold out Wembley. We went to Bologna, sold 14,000 tickets and then magically the phone started ringing and so hopefully very soon, we can come here with the Smashing Pumpkins. I know.... (crowd cheering) And if we don’t, well, I’ll never forgive you and all the things I’ve said are completely meaningless and uh, yeah. So here’s a song I wrote about my son.
Aeronaut (piano)
Processional
BC: This next song, (clears throat), excuse me, this next song...is a meditation on turning 50. Shocking as that is, given my empiric youthful appearance. Luckily, with life extension technology, I will be living to about a hundred and forty years old, which renders the idea behind this song moot. And also it means I will far outlive all my critics...who will die horrible, painful deaths knowing that I have won and uh...yeah. So is anyone here above 50?
Lady in crowd: Fuck yeah!
BC: Just one person, wha? Fantastic. Fantastic, you all look so young.
Different lady in crowd: Problem is that everybody explodes.
BC: There’s that Chicago accent, you can’t escape it. You hear it when you fly through the airport going somewhere else. Exactly.
Half-Life of an Autodidact (abandoned after 13 seconds)
BC: Something about that Chicago accent just fucks me up.
Half-Life of an Autodidact
The Long Goodbye
BC: Are you having a good time? (crowd cheers)
Lady in crowd: And you?
BC: I’m dead so it doesn’t matter. That’s the advantage of being dead is nothing matters. There’s only the song and you. That’s true. Actually, I don’t say it enough but I must thank you because without you, many of these songs wouldn’t exist. I don’t think I would have taken the time or tried or cared enough or tried again so I want to thank you for that. (crowd cheers)
Guy in crowd: [unintelligible]!
BC: Thank you, it’s Guillaume but yeah. Uh, heh heh. It’s funny because on the band’s first album, uh, Gish, which came out in 1991...before many of you were born. Uh, yeah, and uh, I sang about a woman named June and uh, I never could’ve imagined all these years later that people would still want to know who June was and they cared about these lyrics that I had written on LSD trips and the back of napkins and...and that we would be here together still celebrating those songs and it’s - it’s an incredible journey and so I can’t thank you enough because that opportunity to travel the world, to - to write, to front a band which is demonic and um, unforgiving in its death defying rock and rollness. Um, it’s all thanks to you, honestly, thank you. Now, I would love to tell you what this song is about but I don’t know. But I do know that I was thinking when I wrote this song - and this is true - I was thinking about the Deco Age in Paris, in Berlin, and that sort of Gilded Age before World War II. And quite possibly the last time that art really ran free on this planet and so, somehow that feeling invaded my - my mind so maybe you can figure out better than I can what this song’s about.
Mandarynne (piano)
BC: Normally, I play two sets so this is the end of set one.
Guy in crowd: Yeah!
BC: Yes. If I don’t like the audience, I don’t come back out but I pretend that I will.
Lady in crowd: No!
BC: Yeah. That’s what being a rock star means, you could do whatever the fuck you want when you wanna do it. (blows kiss), yeah. I remember the morning I woke up and it - it kinda hit me like “Wow, I’m a rock star.” ‘Cause I fantasized, you know what I mean? It’s like a beautiful woman in my mind, I’m (hushed) a rock star. (normal) And, um, I had lunch with a friend and I said, “Isn’t this crazy? I’m a rock star” and they said “You’re not a rock star!” Then they go, (hushed) “Wait, you are a rock star, this is weird.” (normal) So yeah. A heh heh heh heh. Has nothing to do with this next song. So this is the end of set one, take about a 20 minute break and then when I come back, I’ll play some songs that hopefully you know. Better than these songs that you don’t know. (begins Along the Santa Fe Trail) I didn’t write this song but I like it.
Along the Santa Fe Trail (piano)
BC: See you soon, thank you.
[set break]
Wound
Thirty-three
BC: That’s good, you liked that one.
Spaceboy
BC: Thank you very much. This song I’m about to play is from an album just turned seven years old the other day, Oceania. Thank you to the two people who liked the album. Yeah. Sometimes I like to remind people when they say an album is shit, that they thought Siamese Dream was shit, they thought Mellon Collie was shit, they thought Adore was shit - which, by the way, was number one in France, so thank you for that. So maybe someday they won’t think this album is shit either.
Violet Rays (abandoned almost immediately)
BC: See, that’s where you’re supposed to shout “No! We love it!”
Violet Rays (abandoned a tiny bit further in)
BC: “Don’t give up, William, keep going.” “The fight is worth it, don’t stop.” “Draw from your children, the French strength to endure...liberty. Carry forth.”
Violet Rays
BC: This song is from a band we had for a minute called Zwan. And we’ve been very encouraged lately, Jimmy and I, because suddenly people seem to want to hear these songs again. And uh, we’re talking about maybe doing a tour of the Zwan songs. So hopefully you can come to Alaska to see us play the Zwan songs...because if the Smashing Pumpkins can’t come to France, I doubt Zwan can come to France. That was a joke. Still havin’ a good time? It doesn't matter if I'm having a good time.
Endless Summer (piano)
BC: Thank you.
Guy in crowd: Everlasting Gaze!
BC: If you wanna hear Everlasting Gaze, come back after the show, give me a massage...and I will give you The Everlasting Gaze.
To Sheila
Tonight, Tonight
Ugly
BC: That’s a [unintelligible but sounds like “rest entry”]. Feelin’ okay? Strange that one alien could write so many weird songs. This song, which is on the Pumpkins last LP, Shiny and Oh So Bright...I wrote while I was coming down with a really bad flu and I was so sick that I was writing the song like laying on the couch like this. And I didn’t feel well and I’ve had this feeling many times - not the flu but whatever comes through from wherever. And the song is coming and the lyrics are coming and I know I have about 20 minutes to get it all down and I’m laying there ready to puke and whoever’s talking is just like “Write it down.” So I wrote the song right then and there. I don’t quite understand those types of things. Many songs that you would know were written that way - not that I was sick but they just come out of nowhere. And I couldn’t tell you why and I couldn’t tell you from where, I certainly have my own beliefs but these days you can’t talk about those beliefs because people get very angry. Let’s just say I believe in a...uh, an androgynous deity that has no gender and just loves us as we are and as we were made and I think that pretty much sums up my beliefs. So if that includes you, I hope you feel that. One of the strangest things - in a good way - is writing songs that have to do with your own obsessive compulsive nature and years later, you meet people and they say “I got married to your song.” “My first child was born to your song.” “My second child was born to your song.” “My children have your name.” “My children have names from your songs.” Their bodies are covered in tattoos that have to do with our artwork. And then, they’re also listening to those songs when people die. And it’s really a mind-blowing responsibility because when you’re young and dumb, all you think about is yourself. Of course, now that we’re older, we think about everybody else and...there’s just no simpler way to put it. The Smashing Pumpkins was always for the people...which is why we didn’t give a fuck what anybody said about us. Because we saw the results, we saw the - we saw the audiences, we saw people crying, we saw people doing all sorts of crazy stuff. And over and over again, we kept hearing “This should not be. This band should not be. This success should not be.” And the crazy thing is that we destroyed ourselves, nobody destroyed us. And what’s even crazier is that we’ve somehow risen from the ashes after all these years and enjoying a great time. And we really do hope to see you soon, we really hope that coming back here is what will happen.
Travels (piano)
BC: Now, this last song.... (audience protests) When I said it was the last song in the first set, no one shouted “No.” This last song.... (audience protests) This second-to-last song.... (a few people yell “No!”) Heh heh heh. I um...this has been well documented, I didn’t deal with success very well. And somewhere in the writing of what became Siamese Dream, I hit a wall of insecurity, of doubt. At that point, of course, other bands had blown up and were massive, they were on the cover of magazines, the biggest magazines in the world. And suddenly, I felt inadequate and it was on me to write this...whatever this was supposed to be, the record that would take us out of Chicago and bring us here to you. And so, it became in my sick mind, it seemed a better idea to kill myself than to have to put myself whatever I’d have to put through to write this record and so for a period of about eight months, I began obsessing about killing myself. And um, it got to the point where I gave all my stuff away, I gave my clothes away, I started plotting what my funeral would be like, what I would wear. All the things that show that somebody’s really serious and I remember a friend who was worried about me - and of course I didn’t tell anybody that I was feeling this but people started to see the signs. A friend that was worried about me gave me this thing that they’d gotten somewhere which was like, you know, very American, “10 Signs for Suicide Prevention” with bright bold letters and, you know, a.... And uh, heh heh heh, and I looked at the list and I - I qualified for nine of the 10 things. And they said something like “If your - if the person you love checks more than seven of these boxes, you have a serious problem.” And I thought, “Yeah, fuck yeah, I’m - I’m gonna kill myself. This is a good sign in a weird kind of way ‘cause it’s like ‘I’m serious!’” And it went on for so long and my inability to write songs for this record became so painful that I finally woke up one day and - let’s pretend it was a Tuesday - and I said, “Okay, Friday. Friday is the day I’m going to kill myself, I can’t take it anymore. I’m so bored of talking about this in my head.” And so I woke up on a Friday morning and the sun was shining and the birds were singing and I thought, “Ah, I don’t really wanna kill myself.” A heh heh. And then immediately, the other voice, the voice that was spurring the songs said, “Oh, you’re weak. You don’t have courage, you don’t have the guts, this is why your life is fucked up, this is why you can’t do things in life.” And it’s sad because many people are in that situation and they make the wrong choice and luckily I made the right choice. And so, sitting on my bed in a horrible apartment somewhere in Chicago, I thought, “Right, if I’m gonna have to write this record, I’m at least gonna write songs that I like. Not the songs that I think I should write or just the songs that people expect me to write, I’m just gonna write songs that I like.” And so that night - or that afternoon, sorry - I sat down and wrote Today and then the next day - so this is all in a very short period of time as the sun sort of broke over me - and the next day, I wrote this song.
Disarm (abandoned immediately - first chord is wrong)
> Disarm (piano)
[encore break]
Honestly
Today (audience sings the entire song)