My Chemical Romance has been closing out every night of their Long Live The Black Parade tour with a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins’ song, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” and they brought out a very special guest to play it with them during their recent show in Chicago.
On Saturday (Aug. 30), My Chemical Romance performed to over 60,000 fans at Soldier Field. When they got to the end of their nearly 2 and a half-hour/25-song set, they brought out Smashing Pumpkins founding frontman Billy Corgan for their “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” finale. Check out footage of the performance below:
Notably, MCR’s Pumpkins cover previously caught Corgan’s attention when they played it earlier this summer during their stop at San Francisco’s Oracle Park. In response to a viral video of the performance, the Pumpkins shared an Instagram post featuring several TikTok memes that joke about the resemblance between Corgan and MCR frontman Gerard Way, as fans often speculate that they resemble father and son.
The ties between My Chemical Romance and the Smashing Pumpkins run pretty far back, believe it or not, to before MCR ever even formed. In fact, MCR bassist Mikey Way once told Rock Sound that seeing the Pumpkins on their 1996 Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness tour was a significant part of what inspired him to form a band.
“I started to think about almost everything a little differently after that night. I was like, ‘Man, I don’t think there’s maybe anything else I’d rather do in life than maybe do what they’re doing,’” Mikey said.
The Smashing Pumpkins Inspired Mikey and Gerard Way to start My Chemical Romance
“I remember that and the energy in the room. I was so awestruck that they were playing Madison Square Garden a day after or two days after, and I was like, ‘I gotta go again,’” he continued, revealing that he wanted to bring his brother, Gerard, to the MSG show.
“I think my brother had that same kind of revelation I did that night when we saw the Madison Square Garden show,” Mikey added. “I remember nudging him and being like, ‘This is what I want to do. This is what we’re gonna do — and we’re gonna play in this room.’ And I remember him completely agreeing with me at the moment and being like, ‘You’re absolutely right.’”
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