Thirty years ago this fall, The Smashing Pumpkins released Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and dared the music industry to keep up — a diamond-certified double album that pulled progressive rock, heavy metal, goth, psychedelia, and dream pop into the same record without blinking. The Rats In A Cage Tour, which lands at Centre Bell on Friday, October 9, is Billy Corgan finally doing what he says the band has discussed for over a decade: staging the album properly, in a theatrical setting, with nothing cut.
About the Show
Each night of The Rats In A Cage Tour runs two full sets with an intermission between them. Set one is a dedicated Mellon Collie performance, staged with the theatrical care Corgan has said the album always called for. Set two draws from nearly four decades of catalog; Corgan put the range plainly in the announcement: “from our first in Gish to our last in Aghori Mhori Mei.” The song selection rotates from city to city, so this Montreal show will not be the same show that played Columbus or Boston earlier in the run. Expect approximately two and a half to three hours of music. Touring with Corgan are James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin, the original core of the band, along with guitarist Kiki Wong.
The Pumpkins formed in Chicago in 1988 and built a catalog that has moved more than 30 million albums and earned multiple Grammy Awards. Their sound was layered and distortion-heavy, capable of swinging from delicate to punishing inside a single song — a quality that made Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie into defining records for ’90s alternative rock. After a period of lineup changes and intermittent activity, a 2018 reunion brought Iha and Chamberlin back. The band has remained prolific: Cyr (2020), the triple album Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts (2022–2023), and Aghori Mhori Mei (2024) all followed. This past July 31, they headlined Lollapalooza in Chicago for the first time in over 30 years. A 30th anniversary Mellon Collie boxset is available via Madame Zuzu’s.
Venue & Logistics
Centre Bell is Montréal’s main arena, the right room for a production this layered and this long. All ages. Doors at 7:00 p.m.; showtime is 8:00 p.m. For more concerts in the north-country region, see the full listings.
Tickets
No advance price is listed. VIP packages include a pre-show acoustic set, Q&A with the band, lounge access, exclusive merchandise, and memorabilia. Buy tickets