Watch Smashing Pumpkins Reunite With James Iha For The First Time In 16 Years
The original Smashing Pumpkins lineup recently reunited to threaten to sue someone leaking old demos on the internet, which is basically just a hop, skip, and a jump from playing music together. And now they’re one large step closer to reuniting for real — original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin rejoined the lineup in time for their current North American tour with Liz Phair, and last night, at their show at LA’s Ace Hotel, original guitarist James Iha reunited with the band for the first time in 16 years. And on his 48th birthday, no less! Billy Corgan broke countless millennial hearts earlier this month by refusing to do a full Siamese Dream tour, but he evidently had no problem playing Siamese Dream tracks like “Mayonaise,” “Soma,” “Rocket,” “Spaceboy,” “Today,” “Disarm,” and the Siamese Dream outtake “Whir” with the original Pumpkins lineup minus only D’arcy Wretzky. Corgan also surprised Iha with a birthday cake and led the crowd in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Watch fan-shot footage from the show below.
Jeff + Billy + James + Jimmy 3/26/2016 @SmashingPumpkin pic.twitter.com/gC7v6I1VHr
— Smashing Pumpkins (@SmashingPumpkin) March 27, 2016
The Smashing Pumpkins have also debuted new songs on the In Plainsong tour. Watch a few fan videos from San Francisco below.
UPDATE: Iha joined the Pumpkins again Sunday for the same seven-song run of oldies. And as Rolling Stone reports, Iha also sat in on a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Angie” during the encore. Watch footage below.
