Billy Corgan and his new band the Machines of God are in the midst of their A Return to Zero Tour, where they’re performing Smashing Pumpkins songs from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Machina/The Machines of God, and Aghori Mhori Mei. On Friday, they hit Montreal, and Corgan’s former Pumpkins touring bandmate Melissa Auf der Maur made an appearance onstage in her hometown.
At Théâtre Beanfield, Auf der Maur joined the band during the encore as fan footage shows, which drew cheers from the crowd before she shared the story of her first conversation with Corgan. “Billy, do you remember the first words we ever exchanged, on July 23rd, 1991?” she asked him after introducing the story first in French. “I walk to the side of the stage, after you played ‘I Am One.’ And you were packing up your gear, and do you remember what I said?” He jokingly guessed, “I love you, never leave?” She laughed and responded, “Very close. I said, ‘On behalf of Montreal, Canada, I apologize for the broken beer bottle that was thrown at him, and I am Melissa from Montreal and I will follow you ‘til the end of time.’”
They then launched into the finale song, “The Everlasting Gaze,” from 2000’s Machina to close out the night. The former Hole bassist joined the Pumpkins as a touring member in 1999, replacing original bassist D’arcy Wretzky, and remained with the band through December 2020.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Corgan explained why he formed a new band for the A Return to Zero Tour. “We weren’t in agreement about what the purpose of such a thing might be for,” he said of his fellow Smashing Pumpkins bandmates James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin. “And we have this agreement, which has been really helpful over the pasts seven or eight years, that says if we’re not in alignment about something like that, nobody is going to pull rank and say it has to be done. That was very much the way the business worked back in the day, and solved a lot of problems.”
He added: “So, I’m going out and doing these shows the way I want to do them, in the manner I want to do them, and in July I’ll be out with the band in Europe.”
Corgan and the Machines of God’s tour runs through the end of this month, culminating at Varsity Theater in Minneapolis on June 29. Corgan then hits the road with his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates for an overseas trek that takes them through Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
