The Smashing Pumpkins named their fall 2026 arena tour after a line from “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”: “despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage.” That’s from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the 1995 double album that moved the band from significant to unavoidable. The Rats In A Cage Tour arrives at Moody Center on Sunday, October 25, at 8 p.m., built around that album’s 30th anniversary and structured as two full sets with no opening act. Count on three to three and a half hours.
About the Show
The first set works through Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in its entirety, in what the band describes as a highly theatrical production. The second set opens the catalog to the full span of the band’s career: songs drawn from the 1991 debut Gish through 2024’s Aghori Mhori Mei, with the specific selection rotating from night to night. That structure (a complete album performance followed by a career survey) makes for something closer to a two-show evening than a standard arena set; the absence of a support act underlines the commitment.
Mellon Collie reached its 30th anniversary in 2025 carrying an RIAA Diamond certification and seven Grammy nominations. The band marked the occasion with a deluxe vinyl reissue including previously unreleased live recordings and a reimagining in collaboration with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. On what took so long to bring this to arenas: “Staging a Mellon Collie-themed show is something we’ve discussed for over a decade, and finally the stars have aligned,” Corgan said.
Formed in Chicago in 1988, the Smashing Pumpkins have sold over 30 million albums worldwide and hold two Grammy Awards and seven MTV Video Music Awards. Their three most recent studio projects are Cyr (2020), Atum: A Rock Opera In Three Parts (2023), and Aghori Mhori Mei (2024). The band headlines Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 31, their first appearance at that festival in over 30 years, before the arena run opens September 30 in Columbus.
Venue & Logistics
Moody Center opened in April 2022 on the University of Texas campus and anchors the Austin arena calendar for events at this scale. No age restrictions apply to the October 25 show.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster. VIP packages include a pre-show acoustic performance, Q&A with band members, VIZ CLUB lounge access, and exclusive merchandise. Buy tickets