The Smashing Pumpkins opened their North American Rats in a Cage Tour with a 32-song marathon at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, marking the 30th anniversary of their landmark double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The first set was devoted to the 1995 album, while the second set pulled from the band's wider catalog, including deep cuts that have rarely appeared on recent tours.
The Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, released in October 1995, became the Smashing Pumpkins' commercial and artistic breakthrough. A double album spanning 28 tracks, it produced enduring singles such as «Bullet with Butterfly Wings», «1979», «Zero», and «Tonight, Tonight», and helped define alternative rock's mainstream peak in the mid-1990s. The Rats in a Cage Tour takes its name from a song on the album, signaling that the anniversary run is built around a full-album performance rather than a standard greatest-hits show.
The opening night's 32-song set placed the Mellon Collie material in the first half of the concert, with the second set reaching into the band's broader discography. That structure gives audiences both the anniversary centerpiece and a survey of the group's evolution across more than three decades. The tour is scheduled to continue across North America, with the Columbus date serving as the launch point for the run.
For fans, the deep cuts are a central draw. The Smashing Pumpkins have long maintained a reputation for changing setlists between tours and for revisiting album tracks that were never singles. The Rats in a Cage format leans into that history, pairing the familiar Mellon Collie songs with material that has been absent from recent live shows. The band's lineup for the tour continues the configuration that has toured in recent years, with Billy Corgan leading the group through the anniversary program.
The Mellon Collie anniversary arrives at a moment when 1990s alternative rock remains a durable force in live entertainment. Anniversary tours have become a reliable way for major acts to reconnect with audiences who came of age with the albums, while also drawing younger listeners who discovered the music through streaming. The Smashing Pumpkins' decision to build a full tour around Mellon Collie follows that pattern, but the 32-song setlist gives the run a scale that goes beyond a straightforward album replay.
The Columbus show also reflects the broader concert economy in which legacy acts now operate. Arenas remain a viable circuit for bands with deep catalogs, and multi-set, long-form performances offer a distinct value proposition at a time when ticket prices and touring costs are under close scrutiny. For the Smashing Pumpkins, the anniversary tour is both a celebration of a specific record and a statement about the band's continued place in the live music landscape.
The tour is expected to move through additional North American cities in the coming weeks, with the Mellon Collie set remaining the anchor of each performance. Fans who attended the opening night in Columbus received a show that ran well past the standard headlining length, a format the band appears prepared to sustain across the run. The 30th anniversary of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness thus begins not with a single commemorative date but with a full touring cycle built around one of the most ambitious albums of the 1990s.