The Smashing Pumpkins’ Rats in a Cage Tour Takes Mellon Collie on the Road

The Smashing Pumpkins will spend the fall touring North America with a format that nods directly to the past. Billed as the Rats in a Cage Tour, the dates are built around the 30th anniversary of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Each show will split into two sets: one focused on that double album, and another pulling from what the band calls “unruly hits and dark treasures.” It’s a structure that gives the sprawling 1995 record its own space while still leaving room for other corners of the catalog.

The tour starts September 30 in Columbus, Ohio and runs through mid-November, hitting arenas in Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and more than two dozen other cities. It lands shortly after a period of change for the group. Last year’s Aghori Mhori Mei was the first album without longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who left in 2023. Rather than tapping a familiar name, the band opened a public application process and brought in Kiki Wong, a guitarist with a background in both rock and pop-punk.

These shows won’t be the first time the Pumpkins have mined Mellon Collie on stage. But the two-set design suggests a more deliberate separation between that material and the rest, something that might appeal to audiences who want the full weight of the album in a live setting. Tickets go on sale soon.