Legendary alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins played several rarities during a recent recreation of the beloved release show the band held for their 1993 album, Siamese Dream. The new version of the same acoustic set — one the band played at Chicago’s Tower Records in the ’90s — was performed at Madame Zuzu’s, a tea shop owned by Smashing Pumpkins’ lead singer Billy Corgan. Madame Zuzu’s is also located around Chicago.
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The recreated acoustic set occurred on September 17. The playlist consisted of 10 songs, and in addition to the re-staged setlist from 1993, the Smashing Pumpkins also played a few rarities including “Luna” and “Spaceboy.” Other songs featured on the setlist included “Cherub Rock,” “Today,” and “Mayonaise.”
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During the set, Corgan seemingly commented about the absence of D’Arcy Wretzky, who acted as the Smashing Pumpkins’ bassist from 1988 to 1999. “Not everyone’s here that should be here, but that’s just the way life goes,” Corgan said to his audience.
Smashing Pumpkins released their 12th studio album, Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, on January 31. During a May 2023 interview with NPR, Corgan discussed the correlation between the band’s 1995 breakthrough album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and their latest album.
“When we were doing what became our big style of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, we were at the height of sort of rising fame, MTV time, and I felt this need to do a larger work, which became conceptual,” Corgan said. “Behind the scenes, when I went to the record company, they said, please, please don’t do a double album.”
“No one cares about those things anymore. I think it’s one of the only albums that’s ever gone diamond,” he continued. “Enough of my bragging, but my point is I took this intellectual and creative leap, and it ended up sort of working out.”
“In 2000 when the band was breaking up, we did a second conceptual work called Machina, which sort of documents my descent into madness, which was, on some level, somewhat literal, and then the band’s implosion, which was real,” he said. “So I never thought there would be a third chapter to this story, but the band ended up getting back together, at least three-quarters of it.”
Check out the full setlist for the Madame Zuzu’s show, per Setlist.fm, below:
1. “Rocket”
2. “Cherub Rock”
3. “Today”
4. “Disarm”
5. “Spaceboy”
6. “Spaced”
7. “Mayonaise”
8. “Hummer”
9. “Luna”
10. “Purr Snickety”
Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images
