Billy Corgan and company will celebrate their 20th anniversary of the Smashing Pumpkins will a fall tour that kicks off in Nov. 1 in Cleveland. The Pumpkins promise not to repeat any songs on the set lists for the multiple-night engagements (for which special ticket bundles will be available). The first night of the tour is being called “Black Sunshine” and the second “White Crosses.” The Pumpkins will deliver two nights each at the Chicago Theatre and Auditorium Theatre in their Windy City hometown. Prior to the tour, the Smashing Pumpkins will play Neil Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit outside San Francisco (their first time since 1999).



The Smashing Pumpkins have a new song, “G.L.O.W.,” which will undoubtedly make its way into the set lists and which is being featured in the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour video game. After Cleveland the Pumpkins will make their way to Toronto, New York and New Jersey before heading to Washington D.C. and Boston. Then the band will weave throughout the Midwest (stopping in Chicago and St. Louis) before heading to California, where they will play in San Diego before wrapping up their tour at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles Dec. 2-3. The documentary It All Goes Wrong, for which the Smashing Pumpkins are the subject, will be released during the tour on Nov. 11.

Alternative rock fans have been diehard Pumpkin-heads since Billy Corgan and his Chicago bandmates emerged in the 1990s and Smashing Pumpkins tickets are sure to sell out as fans help the Smashing Pumpkins celebrate 20 years. Corgan formed the band in 1988 after he met Pumpkins guitarist James Iha while working at a guitar shop. Bassist D’Arcy Wretzky was soon added to the lineup and the trio quickly gained a local following which earned them an important gig opening for Jane’s Addiction. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin joined the group just in time for the show and in 1990 the quartet released their debut single, “I Am One.” After the song was a success they issued a second single, “Tristessa” and launched a bidding war. Virgin Records won out and the band released Gish on the label’s imprint Caroline before its successful major label debut in 1991.

The Smashing Pumpkins opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam to promote Gish but nearly broke up while on the road due to Iha and D’Arcy’s breakup, Chamberlin’s escalating drug and alcohol addiction, and Corgan’s battle with depression. Despite tensions within the band, the Smashing Pumpkins released their sophomore album, Siamese Dream, in 1993. The album was critically lauded and also earned commercial success with “Cherub Rock,” “Today” and “Disarm.” After headlining 1994’s Lollapalooza, the Pumpkins released the B-Sides and rarities disc Pisces Iscariot that October, followed by the release of the double-disk set Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. With successful singles “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” “1979,” “Zero” and “Tonight, Tonight,” the album went platinum over eight times, yet the Smashing Pumpkins endured personal tragedy at the apex of their popularity. The group’s touring keyboardist, Jonathan Melvoin, died of a heroin overdose (he was with Chamberlin, who survived) just before the band was set to play at Madison Square Garden. The Pumpkins subsequently fired Chamberlin and Matt Walker replaced him (Dennis Flemion filled in on keyboards).

The late ‘90s saw Iha and Corgan starting their own label (Scratchie Records) and the band members working on side projects until the release of 1998’s Adore, which debuted with disappointing reviews. Prior to the release of MACHINA-The Machines of God two years later, D’Arcy left and Chamberlin returned but several months later Corgan announced that the Pumpkins were disbanding. Former Hole bassist Melissa auf der Maur joined the lineup for the Smashing Pumpkins farewell tour in 2000 and Machina II-The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music was released for free download online. The Pumpkins pursued side projects until Chamberlin and Corgan released another Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist, in 2007.

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