Alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins makes its long-awaited return to Manila, bringing their Rock Invasion 2025 tour to the Smart Araneta Coliseum on September 29.
The Chicago alt-rock mainstays haven’t played a show in the Philippines since 2012, and their hits such as “1979,” “Today,” “Tonight Tonight,” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” hold the weight of all their reinventions in the past few decades, refusing to fade into the mainstream rock consciousness.
The show is a full-circle moment for fans who packed Araneta Coliseum over a decade ago and have held the line ever since. From Siamese Dream to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and all the sonic shapeshifting that followed, The Smashing Pumpkins have carved out a legacy that’s less about nostalgia and more about the enduring sound of rock music, loud with heavy amounts of distortion, weird worldbuilding and a beautifully euphoric soundscape with the use of an electric guitar. Frontman Billy Corgan’s iconic voice still rings through the sneering and sermon-styled singing, James Iha’s legendary riffages forever piercing through the soundsystem, while their live shows as a whole are as much of a ritual as they are a performance.
For Filipino fans, this one-night only spectacle is a long-overdue reckoning with a band that never really left their playlists, their bedrooms, or their bloodstream.
Online ticket presale starts on May 31, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on ticketnet.com.ph.
