Smashing Pumpkins Cover ‘Stairway To Heaven’ At Tour Opener

Thursday night marked the start of Smashing Pumpkins‘ highly-anticipated Shiny & Oh So Bright Tour at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. Original Smashing Pumpkins members Billy Corgan, James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin are taking part in the tour along with guitarist Jeff Schroeder and bassist Jack Bates. The quintet focused on material from the first five Smashing Pumpkins albums and worked in a handful of covers including their debut version of “Stairway To Heaven” by Led Zeppelin.

The evening began with a video showing highlights from the band’s career before Corgan took the stage for a solo rendition of “Disarm.” Smashing Pumpkins proceeded to play a total of 31 songs over the course of the evening. Both Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness and Siamese Dream were most represented in the setlist by seven tracks a piece. The band did perform their new single “Solara” as part of an encore that also included a debut cover of “Baby Mine” from the Disney film Dumbo.

Smashing Pumpkins fit two songs from their 1991 debut Gish into the set early in the night as “Disarm” and “Rocket” were followed by “Siva” and “Rhinoceros” from the LP. Next came a cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” The quintet treated fans to plenty of hits including “Soma,” “Tonight, Tonight,” “Cherub Rock,” “1979,” “Today” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.”

The group’s debut version of “Stairway To Heaven” came towards the middle of the 29-song main set and was faithful to the original. Smashing Pumpkins also covered Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” during the set. While Corgan had played most of the material found in Thursday’s concerts with various lineups of the band in recent years, there were a handful of songs that returned after long layoffs. “Blew Away” was performed for the first time since 2000, “Try, Try, Try” for the first time since 2008 and “The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning” for the first time since 2012.

Smashing Pumpkins continue the tour on Saturday in Oklahoma City.

Check out a series of fan-shot videos from the tour opener below:

Setlist