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Smashing Pumpkins open the Rats in a Cage tour with a 16-song Mellon Collie set

Smashing Pumpkins opened their 28-date Rats in a Cage tour in Columbus, Ohio, on September 30, 2026, with a first set of 16 songs from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The tour is named after the Bullet with Butterfly Wings line that Pitchfork's first review of the album called "angst at its arena-rocking worst."

By Riffiter

Photo: John Feinberg, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Smashing Pumpkins opened the Rats in a Cage tour on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The first set was 16 songs from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and the show ran over three hours, according to the fan-edited setlist on setlist.fm. The tour has 28 North American arena dates and ends at the Kia Forum in Inglewood on November 12.

A line Pitchfork did not like

The tour takes its name from the chorus of Bullet with Butterfly Wings: "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage." Pitchfork's first review of Mellon Collie, by Ryan Schreiber, gave the album a 6.8 and picked out that line. "It's angst at its arena-rocking worst," he wrote. The same review called the album "still as musically remarkable as anything off Siamese Dream."

The date of that first review is not known; the earliest saved copy is from August 2000. In December 2012, Pitchfork reviewed the reissue box set and gave it a 9.3 and Best New Reissue. Ian Cohen wrote that the band "took it upon themselves to make a record that only teenagers could love."

Billy Corgan in 1992, with red hair and a dark coat
Billy Corgan in February 1992, three years before Mellon Collie. Photo: Graham Racher, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What they played

Some reports said the band played the whole album, but the first set had 16 of the 28 songs, and not in album order. It started with 1979 and Bullet with Butterfly Wings and ended with the title track, which opens the record. Love, Beautiful, Lily and X.Y.U. were among the 12 songs left out. Galapogos and Cupid de Locke were played for the first time since 2008, and By Starlight for the first time since 2010.

The second set went across the rest of the catalog: Disarm, Ava Adore, Cherub Rock, Today and a live debut of Sojourner. The setlist is from one night only, and later nights may change.

The core trio of Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin is on the tour.

James Iha in 1995, seated, in black and white
James Iha in 1995, the year Mellon Collie came out. Photo: Tiffany Bauer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The album

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness came out on October 23, 1995. It has 28 songs and runs about two hours. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 246,500 copies in its first week, the band's only No. 1 album. It got 7 Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year, and Time named it the best album of 1995.

On Riffiter, 13 of its 33 ratings are a perfect 10.

Billy Corgan on stage in 2025 in a patterned coat
Billy Corgan on stage in August 2025. Photo: Summerbrize, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

After the North American dates, the band plays the Darker Waves festival in Huntington Beach on November 14.

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