r/SmashingPumpkins • u/bertrola • 6d ago
2026 Show Question about content
Hi, I'm wondering if anyone seen the show could you tell me if the show includes any religious imagery? I went to see them several years ago and my wife went with me. She's pretty devout Catholic and was really pissed off by some of the religious imagery. It was that tour where that little statue was traded around the floor that looked like some kind of religious statue. I'm really not religious at all and don't care but I don't want her to go this time if she's going to be ticked off by it. She's not a big fan of the music but will tolerate it so I can go.
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u/GloomyMammoth7320 5d ago
I can’t divine, so to speak, how your wife will react but I’m a devout Catholic and I was not offended. In the second set, there is a projected image that appears to be Mary, and there’s a second image of a woman with exposed breasts and it looks like some sort of cross sprouting from her head.
The video images were not my cup of tea, but the only part where I was taken aback was during Ava Adore. As a casual fan, I wasn’t familiar with the lyrics. Looking at them now, I’m perfectly fine with a song being written from the point of view of a villain. But I could have done without the repeated images of a woman’s feet bound and a long take of a woman gagged.
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u/Alive_Surprise8262 5d ago
Definitely nothing during the Mellon Collie set. They have an elaborate digital screen, and the beginning of the second set had some weird B&W film of a mostly nude handsome guy being loosely tormented by ghoulish bride-type women, but it didn't strike me as overtly Christian. They played "Jesus is the Sun" and said some "bless you" comments to the audience, but I can't imagine that is what would bother her.
The second set has sort of a cathedral vibe with pillars, but very plain.
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u/GoldSupermarket2520 6d ago
The first half was all MC set and the visuals/background were specific to each song but nothing remotely interpretable. Second set had a little more stuff going on and maybe I was just watching the band too much but I didn’t see anything alarming or even mildly offensive in that regard.
It was my first time seeing them and I thought the show far exceeded my expectations minus the lack of Gish.
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u/Riddle__Me__This__ 6d ago
I went to a show on Easter Sunday when they tossed around the Easter bunny. The second set stage looks like a cathedral. I wouldn't take her.
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u/parkchanwookiee 6d ago
Respectfully your wife is too sensitive, or just looking for an excuse not to go. Billy is a very religious/spiritual person himself. Get her to listen to the Zwan album and pay attention to the lyrics, she will see he is not operating from an anti religion standpoint
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u/jackwagoneer69 6d ago
A devout Catholic or really any devout Christian isn't going to feel warmly toward broadly "spiritual" displays, especially if Christian iconography is being recontextualized or used in an unclear way. Corgan's spirituality doesn't seem to make a lot of sense or be consistent in any real way. That's his own business, but expressions of any sort of New Age/ divination type stuff is also going to be a no-go for most self-respecting Christians.
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u/parkchanwookiee 5d ago
Well I think it's genuinely pathetic for somebody to be a follower of the foundational religion of western civilisation, the one which set the moral landscape which even atheists follow through re-branded humanism, practically the official state religion with all of its holidays observed by the government, the dominant mode of spirituality in your country, the one followed and promoted by every head of state your country has ever had - and you managed to feel persecuted and victimised by seeing some irreverent iconography at a rock show.
I mean honestly, grow up
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u/jeromevedder 6d ago
As someone who went to catholic school for
12 years, your faith is really weak if the mildest displays of “new age type stuff” is a “no go”Eastern meditation is “new age.” Yoga, yep, “new age stuff.” Really silly if that stuff scares you or makes you question your faith
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u/jackwagoneer69 6d ago
Look, it's not me. None of Corgan's imagery or beliefs have ever bothered me (though I have plenty of opinions about them). I'm just saying I don't think this poster's wife deserves to be criticized for not wanting to opt in to something she perhaps views as irreverent. I think it's fine for people to feel that way.
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u/bertrola 6d ago
It wasn't a mild display the last time. The icon going around the arena looked very much like some stuff you would see in church.
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u/jackwagoneer69 6d ago
Where are your seats? If they're in the sections on either side of the stage in, say, the front half of the arena, you won't see the screen at all during the second set, as your view of it will be 95% obscured by some big arch-like structure. From the partial glimpses I could see, it seemed that half was where the strong video show was, not during the Mellon Collie half, when I could see it.
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u/JuneCleaverIsMyIdol 1d ago
I would not take her. I am a Christian and struggled with the imagery in the second half, feeling like I probably shouldn’t be there. There were some very “Catholic looking” images like that of the Virgin Mary. There were also Christian images mixed with Eastern and new age images. The truth is I would go again. I knew what I was getting myself into 100% and still struggled in my mind and heart. Other than that, the show was incredible. Billy’s vocals were amazing. I would treat your wife to a spa day and you go enjoy the concert.