Sometimes the best moments happen when you least expect them. Billy Corgan‘s June 13th concert at Montreal’s Théâtre Beanfield was already special—a sold-out hometown show for Melissa Auf der Maur, who happened to be in the audience. Then Corgan did something that made every Pumpkins fan in the venue lose their collective minds. The surprise? A rare solo cover from his formative years, tracing a direct line through the heavy metal roots that shaped his sonic identity.
When Nostalgia Becomes Reality
“The Everlasting Gaze” has always been a deep cut that rewards devoted listeners. But when Auf der Maur walked onstage to play bass on the very song she performed live during the 2000 tour, it transformed from album track to emotional time machine.
Her bass lines still locked perfectly with Corgan’s guitar work, proving that musical chemistry doesn’t fade—it just hibernates until the right moment arrives. The crowd’s eruption wasn’t just appreciation; it was validation that some musical partnerships transcend typical band dynamics.
Within hours, fan-shot videos dominated Reddit threads and Instagram stories. One viral TikTok comparing the 2000 performance to the 2025 reunion garnered 2.3 million views, demonstrating how nostalgia content performs in our algorithm-driven music discovery landscape, much like how My Chemical Romance‘s comeback or LCD Soundsystem‘s “final” shows keep generating engagement years later.
This wasn’t a carefully orchestrated reunion tour moment. It was organic, spontaneous, and exactly the kind of surprise that reminds you why live music matters more than streaming algorithms.
The Machina Connection
Auf der Maur’s brief but crucial tenure with the Pumpkins (1999-2000) coincided with their most experimental period. While casual fans remember her as D’arcy Wretzky’s replacement, serious listeners know she brought her own melodic sensibilities to live performances of songs like “The Everlasting Gaze.”
Her Montreal roots made this reunion particularly poignant—she first met Corgan in 1991 when her band Tinker opened for the Pumpkins. Thirty-four years later, that connection still resonates.
What This Means for Your Concert Experience
If you’re catching Corgan’s current tour with the Machines of God, expect the unexpected. His setlists blend Mellon Collie classics with Machina deep cuts and material from his recent solo work. The Montreal surprise suggests he’s feeling nostalgic about the band’s evolution rather than bitter about its complications—a moment that wouldn’t feel out of place among the most unforgettable live performances in rock history.
Whether Auf der Maur appears again remains unannounced, but the Montreal performance proved that some musical relationships survive industry politics and personal differences. Sometimes, all it takes is the right song in the right city to remind everyone why they started making music together in the first place.
