04-04-2025
Billy Corgan to play classic Smashing Pumpkins album on new tour
Billy Corgan is celebrating the anniversary of a couple of pivotal Smashing Pumpkins recordings by taking a non-Smashing Pumpkins project on the road to play Smashing Pumpkins songs.
Billy Corgan and the Machines of God will take off on a tour that starts June 7 in Baltimore and wraps up with a date at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on June 29.
While the ensemble isn't actually Smashing Pumpkins, it does have Corgan as the frontman, and they will be performing music from the band's albums, with a focus on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995), Machina/The Machines of God (2000), and Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000).
All three of those albums are celebrating round-number anniversaries, which is all the occasion required. (2024's Aghori Mhori Mei isn't at a familiar anniversary number but will still have tracks that are part of the setlist.)
Corgan's band for the tour includes new Pumpkins' guitarist Kiki Wong, drummer Jake Hayden, and bassist Kid Tigrrr (aka Jenna Fournier).
As part of the anniversary, the Smashing Pumpkins will release newly remixed and remastered versions of their 2000 companion albums. For those who truly can't get enough of Corgan and co., his Chicago cafe, Madame Zuzu's, will have an exclusive release of Machina and Machina II in an 80-song box set.
Elsewhere in the Upper Midwest, Corgan and the Machines of God will stop in Detroit (June 19), Joliet (June 20), Grand Rapids (June 21), and Milwaukee (June 27).
Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 4.
