The Smashing Pumpkins perform ‘Quiet’ for the first time in 27 years at Riot Fest
The Smashing Pumpkins played their first show for 2021 over the weekend, headlining Chicago’s iconic Riot Fest alongside Run The Jewels, Morrissey and Slipknot (the latter two joining at the last minute after Nine Inch Nails pulled out).
The Pumpkins’ set ran for almost two hours and featured a total of 20 songs, spanning eight of their 11 studio albums. Amidst obvious hits like ‘Today’, ‘Zero’ and ‘Tonight, Tonight’, the band peppered in a few deep cuts – the most notable of which being the ‘Siamese Dream’ track ‘Quiet’.
The song hadn’t been performed since 1994, the year after ‘Siamese Dream’ was released.
Take a look at some fan-shot footage of The Smashing Pumpkins playing ‘Quiet’ below, then check out the full setlist from the band’s Riot Fest performance:
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In addition to ‘Quiet’, the Pumpkins played ‘Crush’ (from 1991’s ‘Gish’) for the first time since 2008, ‘Shame’ (from 1998’s ‘Adore’) for the first time since 2010, and ‘United States’ (from 2007’s ‘Zeitgeist’) for the first time since 2015. Nitro guitarist Michael Angelo Batio joined the band for the latter number, while singer-songwriter Meg Myers joined for the band’s performance of ‘Eye’.
The Pumpkins also delivered a four-track showcase of their most recent album, ‘Cyr’ – which dropped in November of 2020 – performing the title track, ‘The Colour Of Love’, ‘Wyttch’ and ‘Ramona’, the latter three for the first time ever.
NME gave ‘Cyr’ a three-star review upon release, with writer Damian Jones saying that “unlike most double albums, which are either loaded with fillers or come in two bloated parts, ‘Cyr’ feels like a single complete record crammed full of pop anthems”.
Back in July, the Pumpkins said they were “halfway through” working on a follow-up to ‘Cyr’, a 33-track concept album that is also said to serve as a sequel to 1995’s ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ and 2000’s ‘Machina’ series. The as-yet-untitled new album was announced last October, and began recording earlier this year.
Elsewhere at this year’s Riot Fest, Californian emo band Joyce Manor opened their set with a rendition of My Chemical Romance‘s ‘Helena’.