BKonthescene

By Wayne Baggs

It was a solo tour for Billy Corgan and opening was a band out of LA, Return to Dust. Billy Corgan delivered a commanding and career-spanning performance that honored both his legacy and current creative vision.

Accompanied by The Machines of God, he opened with an atmospheric tape and careening into Smashing Pumpkins classics like “Heavy Metal Machine” and “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans,” weaving in deep cuts like “The Crying Tree of Mercury” before launching into crowd-pleasers “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and “1979”.

An acoustic interlude saw him cover Gordon Lightfoot’s “Sundown,” paying tribute to the Canadian music icon alongside dedications to Sly Stone, Brian Wilson, and Douglas McCarthy. At around 2 hours and 20 minutes, it’s one of Corgan’s longer sets, earning praise for pacing and energy .

The Machines of God sounded tight and cohesive, providing a polished yet raw backing to Corgan’s vocals, especially during climactic moments in “Tonight, Tonight,” “Bullet with Butterfly Wings,” and the home-stretch of “Zero” and “The Everlasting Gaze In sum, the Toronto show was a testament to Corgan’s commitment to fans—melding nostalgia, emotion, and sheer stamina into a potent live act that resonated long after the final encore.

Set List:
1-Le Deux Machina
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
2-Glass’ Theme
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
3-Heavy Metal Machine
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
4-Where Boys Fear to Tread
(The Smashing Pumpkins song) (Buzzing sound issues towards the end of song)
5-Pentagrams
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
6-The Crying Tree of Mercury
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
7-Real Love
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
8-Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
9-Sighommi
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
10-Glass and the Ghost Children
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)

11-You Only Live Twice
(Nancy Sinatra cover) (Kid Tigrrr on vocals)
12-999
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
13-Bullet With Butterfly Wings
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
14-Muzzle
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
15-1979
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
16-Here’s to the Atom Bomb
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
17-Edin
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
18-White Spyder
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
19-Sundown
(Gordon Lightfoot cover) (Dedicated to Sly Stone, Brian Wilson, Douglas McCarthy and Gordan Lightfoot; Billy on acoustic)
20-Tonight, Tonight
(The Smashing Pumpkins song) (Billy on acoustic guitar; Kid Tigrrr on co-lead vocals)
21-If There Is a God
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)

22-Bodies
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
23-The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
Encore:
24-Sicarus
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
25-Blue Skies Bring Tears
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
26-Stand Inside Your Love
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
27-Zero
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)
28-The Everlasting Gaze
(The Smashing Pumpkins song)